Opinion ID: 2448
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Ms. Wilson's Submission of Her Memoir to the CIA's Publication Review Board

Text: In accordance with the terms of her Secrecy Agreement, in July 2006, Ms. Wilson submitted the first five chapters of her memoir to the CIA's Publication Review Board (PRB), the entity charged with reviewing materials submitted by current and former employees that are intended for nonofficial publication or public dissemination, to determine whether they contain classified information. Declaration of PRB Chairman Richard J. Puhl, at 1 (July 12, 2007). In September 2006, Ms. Wilson submitted her full manuscript to the PRB. An October 2006 meeting between Ms. Wilson and the PRB to discuss the memoir was delayed due to what Ms. Wilson's attorney later described as an internal Agency debate about the propriety of rolling back [Ms. Wilson's] cover prior to 2002. Letter from David Smallman to Ginger A. Wright, CIA Assistant General Counsel, at 3 (Jan. 9, 2007) (describing conversation between Wilson and PRB official). Ms. Wilson asserts that, when she finally met with PRB staff in November 2006, she was told that the staff thought that prohibiting Ms. Wilson from disclosing her CIA affiliation prior to 2002 would lead to an `absurd' and `ludicrous' result; nevertheless, a decision had been made by `the Seventh Floor,' i.e., senior Agency management, not to permit her to make such disclosures. Id. ; see also FAIR GAME at 267-70. Shortly after the November meeting, Ms. Wilson received a letter from the PRB disapproving publication of her manuscript as currently written. Letter from PRB Chairman R. Puhl to V. Wilson at 1 (Nov. 21, 2006). The PRB explained that the first 124 pages of the memoir were particularly problematic because the context in which certain matters were discussed and the timeframes associated with the material would reveal classified information. Id. The PRB offered to meet again with Ms. Wilson to discuss the problems identified and the deletions or changes that would be required to permit publication. Concluding that significantly fewer and less complex changes were necessary for pages 125-243 of the manuscript, the PRB offered nine pages of line-by-line edits. Ms. Wilson responded by requesting line-by-line edits to the first 124 pages of her manuscript. The PRB declined in a letter dated December 22, 2006, explaining that [t]he first 124 pages of your manuscript are replete with statements that may be unclassified standing alone, but they become classified when they are linked with a specific time, such as an event in your personal life, or are included in another context that would reveal classified information. Letter from PRB Chairman R. Puhl to V. Wilson, at 1 (Dec. 22, 2006). The letter suggested that Ms. Wilson might address this problem by separat[ing] certain statements or vignettes from the timeframes in which they currently appear, remov[ing] the references to the times and events in your personal life, or, where no other option was feasible, recast[ing] or fictionaliz[ing] certain information. Id. at 1-2. In a responsive letter dated January 9, 2007, Ms. Wilson's counsel asserted that [t]he dates of Ms. Wilson's federal service and her government employment affiliation during specific time periods were disclosed officially by the Agency in an unclassified letter to her in February 2006. Jan. 9, 2007 Letter from D. Smallman to G. Wright at 2. Counsel also attached to his letter an 18-page chart of citations to public domain sources purporting to describe Ms. Wilson's pre-2002 affiliation with the CIA, including articles discussing when she joined the Agency, where she had served, and her cover methods. [9] Counsel submitted that, in these circumstances, preventing Ms. Wilson from telling her full story was nonsensical because the net effect of the Agency limitation was that virtually anyone in the world can write about nonsecret, publicly known aspects of Ms. Wilson's life  except for her. Id. at 4 (emphasis in original).