White House Accused of Limiting Debate on Iran

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Former CIA analyst and National Security Council official Flynt Leverett has accused the White House of trying "to silence his criticism of Middle East policies by ordering the CIA to censor an op-ed column he wrote." Leverett said the CIA's attempt to remove already-public information about prior U.S. contacts with Iran from his op-ed is intended "to silence an established critic of the administration's foreign policy incompetence at a moment when the White House is working hard to fend off political pressure to take a different approach." A CIA spokesman said the agency's review of the op-ed is ongoing, and "more often than not the issues are worked out." An anonymous White House official dismissed Leverett's claims, saying, "There was nothing political here." Leverett's op-ed faults the administration for not taking Tehran up on a 2003 offer to "settle several disputes between the two countries," and predicts that "any deal that Washington made now would be on less favorable terms, because Iran had gained strength in the region and the United States was tied down in Iraq."