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Former FBI Agent Pleads Guilty To Leaking Secrets to the Associated Press
McGruber writes "Today, Former FBI agent Donald John Sachtleben has agreed to plead guilty to leaking secret government information about a bomb plot to the Associated Press. In May, Sachtleben agreed to plead guilty to unrelated charges of possessing and distributing child pornography, and to pay restitution to an identified victim portrayed in the images and videos he allegedly possessed."
The deal includes a prison sentence of three years and seven months, and "If accepted by a judge, the prison sentence would be the longest ever handed down in a civilian court for a leak of classified information to a reporter."
Way to go on that transparency and leaker protection thing you so loved.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9GSBT_-JoQ
What ever happened to the whistleblower act? He should have immunity over this. Clearly the government has lost their mind and have gone completely tyrannical. Did you know that just last week the feds now told the police that anyone that there may be more to 9/11 than what meets the eye, like believing in WTC7 means that they're probably a terrorist? Using VPN, proxies, encryption, storing food for more than 5-days are other reasons as well. Every month new possibilities come up and anything we say online, on the phone, or over the radio can and will be used against us if we're deemed a threat to the government. In other words, the government doesn't give a shit about us, it's all about THEIR better interest. Whether you believe in any whistleblower or not of the past decade isn't what matters, what matters is the result of calling out your government for doing something illegal and then getting arrested that matters. This is a BIG problem and why people should be concerned. Next, your visitation to the therapist or doctor could be a reason for you to not bare arms or even be arrested as a suspected terrorist because quite frankly EVERYONE is a suspect at this point. But you know what they say, if everyone else is a suspect, there's a possibility that you're the one who's the real suspect, and quite frankly I think we can all agree that the government is the real terrorist, trying to scare the living crap out of people and telling them what to do "or else". /rant
From the FBI press release abut the guilty plea on possession of child porn:
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Sachtleben could face five to 20 years in prison for the distribution charge and up to 10 years for the possession charge. Both charges also carry up to a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release if he is found to be guilty.
Did he leak info that uncovered government wrong doing? No. Did he leak info that showed corruption? No. Did he leak info to protect innocent victims from harm? No. Those would all be excellent and justifiable reasons to break his oath and provide information to outside sources. He was just being a moron.
Not everyone who leaks information deserves protection or is a whistle blower.
Respect can be lost, but fear sticks around.
And that is exactly what the sons of bitches who are behind the
curtain ( the ones who pull the strings that make Obama move )
are interested in : making sure Americans are terrified to speak
out.
They're pissed about the press leaks and out for blood, so he gets the longest ever sentence for leaking classified information.
But the kiddie porn charges? Nah, just pay a fine.
Wow.
Please. The kiddie porn charges were to merely get him to enter a plea and move this along.
Doesn't take a card-carrying FBI agent to Scooby Doo that bullshit. It's called a pressure point, and a rather effective one too, as you can see.
Or they're legit charges. I've spent a lot of years in the "state security apparatus" as an outlier. I have been deployed far, far forward, worked 'back office', cross assigned, etc. I will say that my experience with the FBI (never having worked for them, only with them) is that they are consummate professionals. I know they have politics like the rest of the community, but somehow they seemed to rise above it, even to their own detriment. This guy was likely really into his flavor of porn. The community at large, like it or not, is a microcosm of society. There is every flavor of criminal that slips past the interview process (and the pathetic 'box' (polygraph)). While it may seem en vogue to support any whistle blower that comes along, they are often doing what they do to cover for something else. I know that's not popular, but it is reality. Anyway, the FBI is by an large a good group of folks. Their leadership may suck at times and they may have some cosmic proportion failures to their credit, but I don't believe they're wrong on the prosecution of this fellow.
I'll bet that if you could get a look at the actual evidence, you'd find that the kiddie porn thing is BS.
If the government wants to pressure you to do something, that kind of blackmail is at the top of the hit list of their favorite moves.
I guarantee you will never hear of a whistleblower and not hear shortly thereafter the words "kiddie porn" or "rape" or a whole basket of smears.
See, the NSA couldn't do the kiddie porn or rape thing with Ed Snowden, because that might hurt their nice cozy contract the private intelligence firm Snowden worked for. But they still did their best to smear every detail of his life. Reading Bart Gellman's profile in the Washington Post is a revelation for anyone who has gotten their notions about Snowden from the usual royal court stenographers in the media.
The entire security/intelligence apparatus of the United States stinks to high heaven. They're doing the kind of things that anyone who grew up in, or spent time in, Soviet satellite countries would recognize right away.
You are welcome on my lawn.
From the FBI press release abut the guilty plea on possession of child porn: According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven D. DeBrota, who is prosecuting the case for the government, Sachtleben could face five to 20 years in prison for the distribution charge and up to 10 years for the possession charge. Both charges also carry up to a $250,000 fine and lifetime supervised release if he is found to be guilty.
Does anyone besides me think it's ridiculous that a person can get 10 years in prison for possession of a JPEG image on his computer?
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
This will get you started.
Why is it that stupid people like you always assume the US must be compared to the USSR
when there are questions about the US ?
Maybe it's because your stupid ass has never traveled outside the US and because your
daddy who bought the old double-wide trailer you live in was a member of the John Birch Society ?
There are many other countries in the world which are far less repressive than
the US or Russia.
Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and France are good examples.
The US is far from the best country in the world. One of the best strategies for choosing
a country is to avoid any countries which are attempting or even pretending to be a serious
power in the geopolitical sense. That means Russia, China, and the US are out. For an
intelligent person there are metrics which show the US is not even close to the top of the
list of best countries to live in. One example is the number of prisoners per capita. The US
is either at the top of that list or near the top, which is not what anyone with decent intelligence
would expect from a country which was supposed to be so wonderful.
So fuck you and your ignorant redneck brain-dead bullshit.
I'm growing more and more horrified to be a citizen of the USA.
Why? It seems like a fair sentence to me. There was no "whistleblowing" here that I can see. His disclosure compromised field agents, and could have done real harm. He was apparently just leaking classified info for his own benefit. This guy was not a Snowden, or even a Manning.
Is this supposed to make me think with my feelings instead of my brain?
What if there were no pictures but the gang-rape happened anyway. Would everything be fine and dandy then?
No, the problem is that people can't differ between committing an action and the documenting thereof.
10 years in prison for a rapist, fine. 10 years in prison for possessing a picture of the action while not otherwise taking part thereof, that is excessive.
This will never change as long as people show up to defend such a skewed system.
Please change your opinions, you are one of the reasons out legal system doesn't work.