Is the White House using the Espionage Act of 1917...

[hjmick]

To silence potential "whistleblowers?"

That's what Jake Tapper wants to know...

Blurred Line Between Espionage and Truth
By DAVID CARR
Published: February 26, 2012


Last Wednesday in the White House briefing room, the administration’s press secretary, Jay Carney, opened on a somber note, citing the deaths of Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid, two reporters who had died “in order to bring truth” while reporting in Syria.

Jake Tapper, the White House correspondent for ABC News, pointed out that the administration had lauded brave reporting in distant lands more than once and then asked, “How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court?”

...The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers.

...It has been used six times since the current president took office.

Setting aside the case of Pfc. Bradley Manning...the majority of the recent prosecutions seem to have everything to do with administrative secrecy and very little to do with national security.

...John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer who became a Democratic staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was charged under the Espionage Act with leaking information to journalists about other C.I.A. officers, some of whom were involved in the agency’s interrogation program, which included waterboarding.

...none of the individuals who engaged in or authorized the waterboarding of terror suspects have been prosecuted, but Mr. Kiriakou is in federal cross hairs, accused of talking to journalists and news organizations, including The New York Times...

“I have been following all of these case, and it’s not like they are instances of government employees leaking the location of secret nuclear sites,” Mr. Tapper said. “These are classic whistle-blower cases that dealt with questionable behavior by government officials or its agents acting in the name of protecting America.”

...Thomas A. Drake, a former employee of the National Security Agency, was prosecuted under the Espionage Act last year and faced a possible 35 years in prison.

...When his agency was about to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a software program bought from the private sector intended to monitor digital data, he spoke with a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. He suggested an internally developed program that cost significantly less would be more effective and not violate privacy in the way the product from the vendor would.

...

Mark Corallo, who served under Attorney General John D. Ashcroft during the Bush administration, told Adam Liptak of The New York Times this month that he was “sort of shocked” by the number of leak prosecutions under President Obama. “We would have gotten hammered for it,” he said.

Complete story: White House Uses Espionage Act to Pursue Leak Cases

I think we all should want to know...

I've got to say, Jake Tapper continues to impress me by asking tough questions, of both the Left and the Right.

As for the story, kind of disturbing if you ask me...

 

[MikeK]

This is one more negative element of the Obama presidency. It ranks with his refusal to even discuss the counterproductive War on Drugs, his appointment of a weak and absolutely inert Attorney General who has ignored the crimes of the Bush Administration, his retention and promotion of Summers and Geithner, his retention and enhancement of the Patriot Act. Those things alone exempt Obama from the category of good presidents. But compared with such enemies of the middle class as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush Obama is a notable improvement.

That fact combined with his likeable personality make him a far better choice than any of his Republican opponents. But the bottom line is the sad state of American politics in which the criterion for selecting a President is that of the lesser evil.

 

[editec]

Lets just say that many Americans believe that Obama's promise to conduct government openly was a tad overstated.

I continue to be vastly underimpressed by the man's policies on a number of various areas of governance.

 

[waltky]

Whistle-blower or spy?...

Former spy sentenced for leaking another spy's identity
January 25th, 2013 - A former CIA officer who pleaded guilty to identifying a covert intelligence officer was sentenced on Friday to 30 months in prison.

John Kiriakou and prosecutors agreed on the term as part of the plea agreement he struck in October. Kiriakou, 48, declined to make a statement at the Alexandria, Virginia, federal court prior to sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. "Alright, perhaps you've already said too much," Brinkema said. She rejected defense attempts to characterize Kiriakou as a whistle-blower. The judge was bound by the plea agreement, but said she would have handed down a tougher sentence had Kiriakou been convicted at trial. "This case is not a case about a whistle-blower. It's about a person who betrayed a very solemn trust," Brinkema said.

Defense attorney Robert Trout said during the sentencing hearing that Kiriakou did not intend to harm anyone or his country. Trout described Kiriakou as "really thoughtless and really naïve" in not realizing that he would lose control of the information once he divulged it. "He was concerned about certain practices that were employed in the fight against terrorism," said Trout, referring to enhanced interrogation techniques such as water-boarding. Kiriakou had initially defended those practices, but Trout said his views "had evolved." The lawyer said his client spoke to reporters in an effort to keep the spotlight on the topic.

Federal prosecutor Mark Schneider had a different view. "The defendant acted out of a sense of ego and narrow-minded self-interest to raise his media profile," Schneider told the court. Kiriakou pleaded guilty in October only to intentionally identifying an undercover CIA officer. He also admitted to other allegations, including illegally telling reporters the name of a different CIA employee involved in a 2002 operation to capture alleged al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, and lying to a review board about a book he was writing. But those charges were dropped as part of his plea deal. The charges arose out of communications Kiriakou had with two journalists between 2007 and 2009. Schneider said Kiriakou also discussed the identities of other CIA employees, despite signing multiple non-disclosure agreements which he was bound to honor even after he left the CIA. Kiriakou served as a CIA intelligence officer from 1990 to 2004.

Neil MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said Kiriakou had endangered the life of a covert officer and "exposed our nation's vital secrets." Kiriakou emerged from court on Friday, saying he was "positive, confident and optimistic." He did not take questions from reporters but thanked supporters, including those who have signed a letter to the White House asking that his sentence be commuted. The judge is allowing Kiriakou to surrender to authorities at a later date to serve his sentence. Charges against Kiriakou followed an investigation that began when lawyers for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, issued a court filing with classified information not provided by the government. A probe found that defense lawyers got the information from a journalist, who got it from Kiriakou, the Justice Department said.

Source