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Ex-NSA Official Indicted For Leaks To Newspaper
Hugh Pickens writes "The Baltimore Sun reports that in a rare legal action against a government employee accused of leaking secrets, a grand jury has indicted Thomas A. Drake, a former senior National Security Agency official, on charges of providing classified information to a newspaper reporter in hundreds of e-mail messages in 2006 and 2007. Federal law prohibits government employees from disclosing classified information which could be 'expected to cause damage to national security.' The indictment (PDF) does not name either the reporter or the newspaper that received the information, but the description applies to articles written by Siobhan Gorman, then a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, that examined in detail the failings of several major NSA programs, costing billions of dollars, that were plagued with technical flaws and cost overruns. Gorman's stories did not focus on the substance of the electronic intelligence information the agency gathers and analyzes but exposed management and programmatic troubles within the agency."
Adds reader metrometro: "Of note: the government says the alleged NSA mole uses Hushmail, which is all the endorsement I need for a security system." Perhaps Mr. Drake was unaware of Hushmail's past cooperation with the US government?
The Italians are infiltrating our American way of life and stealing our mind waves with the bad things that they do with their secret insinuatinssnsn of islamo-communist conspiracy that they do! they must be stopped and all newspaperses should be burned if htey are not American and Patriotic newspapers like my best friend Jpoey who I think is a bvad Itsalian infiltratore from Japan because he is not really the person who he says he is and I am not gay.
UNITE with the Campaign for a Free Internet because today, our future begins with tomorrow!
There is a lot of mention of technical failures and cost overruns. That's something associated with Windows usage and Microsoft resellers. Those aren't the sole cause of the cost overruns, but they pretty much guarantee that the project won't run well and will come in late with a higher price tag than planned for.
NSA is not alone. Arlington National Cemetery also looks like it was hit by Microsoft resellers under the Bush junta.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
The information given is also consistent with leaks to the New York Times that destroyed (hopefully temporarily) our ability to move captured enemies safely, and destroyed (probably permanently) our best tools for intercepting enemy financing, and destroyed one of our best tools for monitoring enemy communications. IIRC, there were some other similar leaks. Yeah, the government sometimes uses classification to hide embarrassments, and that should be rooted out. But it also uses classification to undertake its constitutionally mandated duties. For the former, leaks are not the answer: whistleblower statutes and notification of congressmen on the intelligence oversight committees are the answer. For the latter, leaks are treason in time of war, though we seem to have discarded the notion of treason lately at least in terms of prosecuting people for it.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Was he cultivating a member of the press with real info only to leak in something NSA/CIA creative years later? :)
Or he thought the NSA does not like to listen for any mention of its projects in US emails
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Your point was apparently too subtle for the knuckle-draggers with mod points around here. You seem to be suggesting that the crimes of the Bush administration (presumably such clear violations of the letter and spirit of the law as torture and warrantless wiretapping) be prosecuted, too, rather than merely stopped (as though torture were merely a policy decision left entirely up to the executive branch) and covered up by the Obama administration, and that Obama is guilty of continuing at least some of the illegal programs (such as warrantless wiretapping). Seems like a reasonable Slashdot-like libertarian proposition, and you probably expected up-mods. You probably should have been slightly more specific.
I don't want any upmods on this for pointing this out, just go fix what you did to the hapless parent post.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
Check out Glenn Greenwald's post on this exact issue. He raises an extremely important point:
- Illegally wiretapping US citizens, and/or ordering illegal wiretapping of US citizens: No problem, we have to look forwards, not backwards.
- Exposing illegal and inefficient workings of the NSA: throw the book at 'em.
Something is very very rotten.
Presumes facts not in evidence.
Or, in the words of a well-known blowhard, "No controlling legal authority" has ruled on that.
The selective outrage here is pretty good, too. Or have we all forgotten how the non-illegal Valerie Plame leak was used to pillory teh EEVIILLL BOOSH!, even though the leak was done by a State Department staffer CRITICAL of Bush? (Richard Armitage - amazing how the calls for blood stopped when THAT name came out....)
From what I know, the exposure of Plame's identity did not "decimate" anything. It ended her effectiveness as an agent.
Basically, you are arguing that two wrongs make a right, specifically that because the bozo who got away with exposing Plame's identity this bozo should not be prosecuted for violating his oath of service and federal law. That is a fallacy. Using that reasoning, no murderer should ever be prosecuted because other murderers have gotten away with their crimes.
The Plame incident is not related to this incident. Two separate incidents, two separate crimes, two separate perpetrators, two separate trials.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
Then, what exactly did you mean by "Can anyone say Valerie Plame?"
So, your idea of a direct relationship is "They both involve leaked information"? That is all it takes? Well, hell, we can just give everyone ever convicted of passing on classified information a pardon. /sarcasm
Again, you are arguing using a fallacy, specifically, two wrongs make a right.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
That is not what you said, nor is it what your original post implies.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
It is not hypocrisy. If the two cases were similar, which they are not, then you might have an argument. As it is, it appears Libby was authorized by the President to release the information. Libby did not break the law in that regard. He was tried for obstruction of justice and perjury.
As Drake was not authorized release the information and Libby apparently was authorized, the cases are not similar, let alone the same.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I am afraid you need a refresher in reading comprehension and a course in logic. The program you mention "had the promise of collecting communications while protecting Americans' privacy" but it does not say that any information he provided showed a violation of anyone's privacy nor does it say that the information he provided showed any injustice. Evidence for (or against) one thing is not evidence against (or for) something else.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. That is also a false dichotomy and a red herring. If the NYT stated that person A did thing X and Wikipedia said person B, not person A, did thing X, then I would believe the NYT over Wikipedia. If the NYT stated what you claim, then I would require independent validation of such an extraordinary claim and event.
So, Boosh back at you, dumbass.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.