Kevin Shipp isn’t supposed to talk about how, in his mind, the CIA ruined his life. He’s not supposed to tell the New York Times that he sued the agency for stationing him in a home that was built over buried ammunition and contaminated by toxic mold, sickening his family and forcing them to destroy almost all their possessions. And he’s definitely not supposed to complain that the CIA improperly, in his view, invoked the State Secrets Privilege to dismiss his lawsuit without any hearings.
But Shipp, naturally, is doing all of that. He tried to write a memoir, but the agency censored such sensitive national security information as the nosebleeds, rashes, and memory loss his children suffered. So now he’s defying court orders and talking to the press. “I decided to just sacrifice myself for the public to know what they did, how illegal it was, how flawed the State Secrets Privilege is, and how they used it to cover up the destruction of my family,” he says. Click to read more of his story.
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