Former NSA Exec Charged With Leaking Classified Information to the Media

UPDATE:

The New York Times reports that a reporter who fits the description of the person in the indictment is Siobhan Gorman, who now works for The Wall Street Journal. Her articles as a reporter for The Baltimore Sun examined the failings of several major NSA modernization programs as well as problems with supplying the agency’s electric power demands. Some of her articles were honored with a top prize from the Society for Professional Journalists, reports the Times.
http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/04/15/doj-charges-nsa-employee-for-newspaper-leak/

As a former Soldier/Intelligence Analyst, I advocate the prosecution of Siobhan Gorman, and any other reporter who knowingly accepts and publishes classified material. She is just as complicit in this security violation, as Drake.

Hat Tip to Breitbart.

A former senior executive at the National Security Agency was charged Thursday with lying and obstruction of justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper.

Federal prosecutors said Thomas Drake, 52, served as a source for many articles about the NSA in an unidentified newspaper, including articles that contained classified information.

A federal indictment filed in Maryland charges that Drake used a non-government e-mail account to transmit classified and unclassified information. Authorities also charge that Drake lied to federal agents about what he’d done.

The indictment does not identify the reporter, the newspaper, or the subject matter of the stories. It says the stories were published between February 2006 and November 2007.

“Our national security demands that the sort of conduct alleged here—violating the government’s trust by illegally retaining and disclosing classified information—be prosecuted and prosecuted vigorously,” said the Justice Department’s assistant attorney general Lanny Breuer.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9F3JAR80&show_article=1

More:

Drake had a close friendship with a congressional staffer who retired in May 2002, according to the indictment. That retired staffer put Drake in touch with a reporter for a national newspaper, and both set up secured e-mail accounts through the service Hushmail, a service that allowed Drake to store secured e-mails on servers in Canada.

According to the indictment, Drake shredded classified and unclassified documents that he had removed from NSA to conceal his relationship with the reporter and hide evidence from the FBI.

Drake started as a contractor assigned to the NSA in 1991 and was hired in 2001 as chief of an office at NSA’s facility at Fort Meade. He left that job in 2005. He later went on to teach at the National Defense University, where he continued to perform day-to-day work for the NSA.

The reporter allowed Drake to review drafts of the articles before they were published, according to the Justice Department.

NSA suspended Drake’s security clearance on Nov. 28, 2007, and Drake resigned on April 23, 2008, in lieu of being terminated, according to the indictment.
http://www.mainjustice.com/2010/04/15/doj-charges-nsa-employee-for-newspaper-leak/

Intelligence agencies unfortunately, have a reputation for leaking information when it suits their agenda. A former DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) official illustrated just how the CIA leaked information to try to discredit George W. Bush and influence the election:

The fact that the agency was leaking isn’t denied by some. “Of course they were leaking,” says [former DIA official] Pat Lang. “They told me about it at the time. They thought it was funny. They’d say things like, ‘This last thing that came out, surely people will pay attention to that. They won’t re-elect this man.’”
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmUxN2Q5N2VhZGJjZTJkNzE5NGMzM2MyZWQ1ZjA2ZWU=

The New York Times is notorious for publishing leaked secrets it its headlines, national security be damned: https://sfcmac.com/the-new-york-times-damage-to-national-security/
They need to throw the book at any intelligence official who gives out unauthorized information. I hope Drake gets a nice 8×10 in Leavenworth.

Related articles:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/leaks-and-the-law-the-story-of-thomas-drake-14796786/

https://www.wired.com/2010/07/thomas-drake/

https://whistleblower.org/general/whistleblowers/thomas-drake-nsa-whistleblower-victory/