rcfp.org | June 25, 2009

A Washington Examiner columnist and former CIA employee believes the agency's delays in approving his articles for publication amount to "low-level harassment," Congressional Quarterly reported.

Stephen Lee is required by an agreement with the CIA to submit his Examiner columns as well as cartoons for his own Web site to the agency's Publications Review Board. Lee told Congressional Quarterly his pieces have been lost and unnecessarily delayed, which is making it difficult to file his four columns per week for the Examiner.

The Publications Review Board has processed many books and columns by former CIA employees over the years, but CQ says Lee might be the first full-time newspaper columnist subject to vetting. The CIA denied that it was singling out Lee.