Bradley Manning, the US Army private who divulged thousands of classified documents which became known as the Wikileaks, has been convicted of espionage and now faces a possible 136 years in prison.
In 2008 ex-attorney Barack Obama hailed whistleblowing as "acts of courage and patriotism...We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose ... abuse of authority in government."
He even signed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act into law in 2012.
Thomas Drake. Drake worked for the National Security Agency revealing to the Baltimore Sun that the NSA’s Trailblazer Project, a project intended to analyze data carried on in the United States and elsewhere through the Internet, cell phones, and emails, not only violated the Fourth Amendment’s proscription against unwarranted searches and seizures, but it was a “billion-dollar computer boondoggle.” In April 2010, Drake was indicted by a federal grand jury of several crimes, including violation of the Espionage Act. If convicted of the charges against him, Drake faced up to 35 years in federal prison. A spokesperson for the Government Accountability Project reported that the government’s prosecution of Drake left him devastated. “His intelligence career is over, his finances are drained and he is personally spent,” According to one report, Drake was forced out of his NSA job and was working at an Apple Store in the Washington, D.C. area. Early in the summer of 2011, after several exposés ran in newspapers and on television, the Obama administration dropped all the charges against Drake in return for Drake's guilty plea to a misdemeanor of misusing NSA computers. Drake was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.
Shamai Leibowitz, an FBI linguist who was eventually sentenced to 20 months in a federal prison for leaking documents to a blogger. Leibowitz testified that he believed that the papers he transmitted while working for the FBI contained evidence of “violations of the law” including the illegal attempt by the embassy of Israel to influence American foreign policy. In exchange for his guilty plea to one count of disclosure of classified information, Leibowitz agreed to never file petitions to look at documents related to his case and to "never disclose” any classified or sensitive information to which he had access while on contract with the FBI.
John Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst who spoke out against the use of torture against suspected terrorists, was prosecuted and given a 30-month sentence. Kirakou was initially charged under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law and used only four times since it was enacted in 1917 to prosecute spies that critics have claimed the Obama administration is using as a cudgel against the press.
"I give the Obama administration an F,” said Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights director at the Government Accountability Project, in June 29. who criticized the administration for "moving backwards” on prosecutions of whistleblowers in the national security and intelligence fields. "Those workers don't have any whistleblower protections and, when they have leaked information, the Justice Department under Obama has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act -- six so far -- than any previous president and all previous presidents combined"
Is it no wonder that Julian Assange and Edward Snowdon decline to put their trust in the "justice" of a man such as Obama?
In 2008 ex-attorney Barack Obama hailed whistleblowing as "acts of courage and patriotism...We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose ... abuse of authority in government."
He even signed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act into law in 2012.
Thomas Drake. Drake worked for the National Security Agency revealing to the Baltimore Sun that the NSA’s Trailblazer Project, a project intended to analyze data carried on in the United States and elsewhere through the Internet, cell phones, and emails, not only violated the Fourth Amendment’s proscription against unwarranted searches and seizures, but it was a “billion-dollar computer boondoggle.” In April 2010, Drake was indicted by a federal grand jury of several crimes, including violation of the Espionage Act. If convicted of the charges against him, Drake faced up to 35 years in federal prison. A spokesperson for the Government Accountability Project reported that the government’s prosecution of Drake left him devastated. “His intelligence career is over, his finances are drained and he is personally spent,” According to one report, Drake was forced out of his NSA job and was working at an Apple Store in the Washington, D.C. area. Early in the summer of 2011, after several exposés ran in newspapers and on television, the Obama administration dropped all the charges against Drake in return for Drake's guilty plea to a misdemeanor of misusing NSA computers. Drake was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.
Shamai Leibowitz, an FBI linguist who was eventually sentenced to 20 months in a federal prison for leaking documents to a blogger. Leibowitz testified that he believed that the papers he transmitted while working for the FBI contained evidence of “violations of the law” including the illegal attempt by the embassy of Israel to influence American foreign policy. In exchange for his guilty plea to one count of disclosure of classified information, Leibowitz agreed to never file petitions to look at documents related to his case and to "never disclose” any classified or sensitive information to which he had access while on contract with the FBI.
John Kiriakou, a former CIA analyst who spoke out against the use of torture against suspected terrorists, was prosecuted and given a 30-month sentence. Kirakou was initially charged under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law and used only four times since it was enacted in 1917 to prosecute spies that critics have claimed the Obama administration is using as a cudgel against the press.
"I give the Obama administration an F,” said Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights director at the Government Accountability Project, in June 29. who criticized the administration for "moving backwards” on prosecutions of whistleblowers in the national security and intelligence fields. "Those workers don't have any whistleblower protections and, when they have leaked information, the Justice Department under Obama has prosecuted more people under the Espionage Act -- six so far -- than any previous president and all previous presidents combined"
Is it no wonder that Julian Assange and Edward Snowdon decline to put their trust in the "justice" of a man such as Obama?
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