Archives for July 2005

More on CIA BookBreaker In court documents filed earlier this week by former CIA officer Gary Berntsen against the agency, he asserts that: “This case presents a threat to the vitality of First Amendment rights among former and current employees of the government arising from Defendant’s effective imposition of a prior restraint on publication.… Having absolutely no lawful authority to take these actions, the CIA endeavors to cloak its behavior as legitimate by hiding behind an unconstitutional interpretation of the secrecy agreement executed by Plaintiff, who is a former employee with the Agency. However, the ability of the government to […]

Anonymous former CIA Author Reveals Himself, As He Sues Agency Former CIA officer Gary Berntsen filed suit papers yesterday in Federal court (just after the court closed for the day) against the agency, claiming they are over-classifying material covered in his book manuscript about battles that Bernsten led in Afghanistan prior to Osama Bin Laden’s escape from Tora Bora. The 48-year-old Berntsen retired from the CIA in June and his book JAWBREAKER was due to be published in October. Up until now, Bernsten had only been identified as the pseudonymous Eric L. Bernsten’s attorney says they are suing under the […]

It’s All About the Expectations Sales were up 26 percent at Amazon for their second quarter, to $1.75 billion, but net income dropped to $52 million from $76 million a year ago. But the fall in profits was better than Wall Street expected and was due mostly to income tax changes, so shares were bid up again. Gross profit, one of Amazon’s many favored measures of performance, was up 32% to $450 million, which company CFO Tom Szkutak said was driven by third-party sales through the site — which now comprise 28 percent of all unit sales. They still don’t […]

The Rise of FSU’s Writing Program The Palm Beach Post looks at how Florida State University’s creative writing program “has become during the past five years what some believe to be the best in the country.” They add: “It did it with the help of patent money from the cancer drug Taxol, developed by an FSU scientist; the energy from pontifical mobster writer Mark Winegardner; and support of an established and respected English department.” Winegardner, who stepped down recently as director, says: “I defy you to find a faculty that is better in terms of quality and quantity of awards […]

Improvement at Penguin and Pearson Pearson’s earnings report for the first six months of their fiscal year is filled with palpable signs of relief. The big Pearson Education division has started to deliver the strong results that were expected (and promised) for this year, with sales up 14 percent overall, driven by an even larger increase at their big K-12 School unit. Meanwhile, Penguin “has made a solid start to… a transitional year, in line with expectations.” Which means the publisher is past its UK warehouse problems and layoffs from earlier this year and a weak holiday stretch in the […]

Norton Announces 9/11 Gifts One year after publishing the authorized, royalty-free editions of the 9/11 Commission Report — following long-promised intentions to donate “any extraordinary profits” to charity (and a declaration in late-January that an announcement would be made “before long”) — Norton has announced in a press release they will make three gifts of $200,000 each. The recipients are the Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response (CCPR) at NYU and their International Center for Enterprise Preparedness project, plus the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, endowing Norton-9/11 Fellowships in International Relations. Norton president […]