Former NSA executive charged with leaking information to newspaper

Source: WP

A former senior executive with the National Security Agency has been indicted on 10 felony charges related to the leaking of classified information to a national newspaper in 2006 and 2007, the Justice Department announced Thursday morning.

Thomas A. Drake, 52, headed an office in the NSA's Signals Intelligence Directorate at Fort Meade between 2001 and 2005, and continued to work with the agency as a high-ranking contractor through 2008, U.S. officials said. The indictment alleges that Drake exchanged hundreds of e-mails with an unidentified reporter for a national newspaper and served as a source for its articles about Bush administration intelligence policies between February 2006 and November 2007, U.S. officials said.

Drake was indicted by a federal grand jury in Maryland, the Justice Department said.

The indictment does not name the newspaper. It also does not detail the subject matter of the classified information or the articles that contained the information.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/15/AR2010041503118.html

...I can't decide if he's a hero or an asshole. :shrug:

The two are not mutually exclusive. Looks like most of the leaks were about problems in systems upgrades, which could be heroic in terms of accountability, but it's also assholery to disclose weaknesses, such as the need for more accountability in systems upgrades.

not much information here.

it's time to look forward, not backwards, remember?

of the past administration.

Source: NY Times

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — In a highly unusual legal action against an alleged leaker of government secrets, a federal grand jury on Thursday indicted 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.

The official, Thomas A. Drake, 52, was also accused of obstructing justice by shredding documents, deleting computer records and lying to investigators who were looking into the reporter’s sources.

<snip>

But Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, a press advocacy group, called the indictment “unfortunate.”

The indictment does not name either the reporter who received the information or the newspaper, but the description fits articles written by Siobhan Gorman, then a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, that examined in detail the failings of several major N.S.A. modernization programs and problems with supplying its huge electric power demands. Some of her articles were honored with a top prize from the Society for Professional Journalists.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16indict.html?src=twt&twt=nytimesnational

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See prior threads:

Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones
$26 Software Is Used to Breach Key Weapons in Iraq; Iranian Backing Suspected
By SIOBHAN GORMAN, YOCHI J. DREAZEN and AUGUST COLE
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4187924

Anyone from Baltimore know who Siobhan Gorman Baltimore Sun
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2787386

WSJ: CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding
By Siobhan Gorman
February 8, 2008
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2843010

More:
http://tinyurl.com/y7o2mxn

they loaded up Justice NSA and DHS with political appointees to do just this

I was just about to post this-read it at lunch

Interesting.

Source: New York Times

N.S.A. Official Facing Charges In Leaks Case
By SCOTT SHANE
Published: April 15, 2010

WASHINGTON — In a rare legal action against a government employee accused of leaking secrets, a grand jury has indicted 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.

The official, Thomas A. Drake, 52, was also accused of obstructing justice by shredding documents, deleting computer records and lying to investigators who were looking into the reporter’s sources.

- snip -

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 N.S.A. programs, costing billions of dollars, using computers to collect and sort electronic intelligence. The efforts were plagued with technical flaws and cost overruns.

- snip -

The indictment suggests the Obama administration may be no less aggressive than the Bush administration in pursuing whistleblowers and reporters’ sources who disclose government secrets. In a little-noticed case last December, a former contract linguist for the F.B.I., Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, pleaded guilty to leaking five classified documents to a blogger.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/us/16indict.html

This is just another example of it. Tom Drake should be getting a medal!

We'll have to wait and see what happens.

... an NSA official who brought to the public's attention towering failures and waste at the NSA -- revelations that led to exposés that, as Shane put it, were "honored with a top prize from the Society for Professional Journalists" -- is now being prosecuted for crimes that could lead to a lengthy prison term. Why doesn't Obama's dictate that we "Look Forward, Not Backward," protect this NSA whistle-blower from prosecution at least as much as the high-level Bush officials who criminally spied on American citizens? Isn't the DOJ's prosecution of Drake the classic case of "Looking Backward," by digging into Bush-era crimes, controversies and disclosures?

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/15/prosecutions/index.html

Jailed UBS Whistleblower Bradley Birkenfeld Makes Tax Day Clemency Request to President Obama

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/15/ubs

Quick, round up the whistleblowers!

The "Camp No" sources better duck and cover, though not that anyone noticed.

What if they threw out some Pentagon Papers and nobody came? Oh wait...