No, punting out that the author is not someone trying to spread secret info, but someone who wrote things that are embarrassing. If he'd had really classified Info in the book, he'd be facing charges.
This is all about embarrassment.
This is all about embarrassment.
In the defense industry, an author can write a book (or a scientific paper, or really anything else) and s/he gets it the content reviewed for release. The release reviewers are responsible for ensuring there is no classified content in the written work. It is not within the capabilities of any single person to vett a manuscript completely. Inadvertently including information that is classified is understandable. Hell, in some cases individual pieces of information are not classified but the aggregate is. Hence the need for the release review process. This is standard practice in the defense industry.
In this case, the release review was done incorrectly. The people on the hook here are the ones who reviewed his manuscript, not the author himself. Your claim that the author would be facing charges if there was classified information in the book is incorrect.
Again, my point is not at all that this situation was handled well, just that the point that withholding the truth from the public isn't necessarily the terrible injustice that it sounds like.
If they had said nothing, it would have just been a "3rd printing" with no fanfare.
And the book is still in the LoC.