In a reversal of long-standing policy, the Central Intelligence Agency has issued new restrictions on political speech made by former employees of the agency who are still serving as CIA contractors.

While current and former employees of the CIA are required to submit copies of books and other articles they write to the CIA’s Publicatioins Review Board to ensure that they don’t contain classified information such as intelligence sources and methods, this is the first time that any such publications will be reviewed for political content.

Several former CIA officials told National Journal that the new restrictions amount to a political “appropriateness” test that would be used to silence opposing viewpoints and alternative intelligence analysis at odds with the prevailing “groupthink” promulgated by the White House and CIA director Porter Goss.

“I think the [publications] that are causing the most kickback now are things that look like they’re critical of the administration,” said one former official who has written about intelligence policies and techniques. “The [career] agency people feel like they are regarded by the White House as the enemy.” They “feel like Goss’s real job is to decimate the place,” said the former official, who, like others contacted for this story, asked for anonymity to avoid reprisal from the CIA. . . .

The CIA acknowledged for the first time last week that the Publications Review Board subjects former officials under contract to a two-part test. “First, material submitted for publication cannot contain classified information,” CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano wrote in an e-mail. “Second, it cannot impair the individual’s ability to do his or her job or the CIA’s ability to conduct its mission as a nonpartisan, nonpolicy agency of the executive branch.” — National Journal

In other words, nonpartisan is whatever George W. Bush and Porter Goss say it is, and partisan is anyone who disagrees, right or wrong.