CIA Rejects Navy Veteran's Memoir Manuscript Citing Sensitive Information Under Nondisclosure Agreement

The CIA Author Review Office rejected Zachary Young's manuscript for the memoir "American Spy" and directed him to delete all copies, according to a letter Young said he received earlier this month. The letter stated that the manuscript is predicated upon sensitive information subject to Young's nondisclosure agreement and instructed him to remove electronic files from hard drives, mobile devices, cloud storage, and backup locations, as well as to shred or burn hard copies.

Navy veteran and former CIA employee, had submitted the manuscript for prepublication review. He said the book would not contain classified information and noted that his CIA affiliation had already been confirmed publicly during the CNN trial. Young, who lives in Austria, said he had 30 days to appeal but received the letter after half the window had closed.

Young accused the agency of censorship. "I kept America's secrets for most of my adult life without recognition. The CIA's own director of public affairs confirmed my employment, in an official capacity, to a journalist she knew was writing a story about me.

Now that same Agency wants me to burn my own life story to cover its embarrassment. That's not national security. That's censorship," Young told Fox News Digital. Young won a defamation lawsuit against CNN in 2025.

A six-person jury awarded him $4 million in lost earnings and $1 million in personal damages. A settlement on punitive damages was reached before the jury set an amount. Jury foreman Katy Svitenko said the panel was willing to award between $50 million and $100 million in punitive damages.

Young helped people leave Afghanistan during the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal. He is co-authoring the memoir with Scott McEwen. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, was expected to publish the book later in 2026.