Washington, D.C. ? The White House demanded the excision of material for an article on Iranian-American relations for political – not security – reasons, two former government officials allege.

The debate centers on an opinion piece that former National Security Council official Flynt Leverett and former Foreign Service officer Hillary Mann sought to publish in The New York Times. Following long-standing rules for former CIA employees like Leverett, they submitted the article to the CIA’s Publication Review Board to ensure it did not contain classified information.

Five of the article’s 16 paragraphs came back with deletions. In a piece that ran above the redacted article in Friday’s New York Times, Leverett and Mann said the information that was withheld has already appeared in a dozen news articles and official government news briefings.