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Journalism of Courage
The Obama crackdown
As a state senator,Barack Obama made a name as a defender of whistleblowers. During the 2008 campaign he pledged to protect those who speak out against the government. But as president,Obama has prosecuted officials who have disclosed classified information,and has used the 1917 Espionage Act more frequently than all previous presidents combined. Snowden is the seventh person indicted under the Act during the Obama administration. The other six the Obama White House considers enemies of the state:
Thomas Drake
A former senior official at the NSA and a decorated ex-Navy and Air Force veteran,Drake was indicted in 2010 for allegedly retaining classified documents for the purpose of providing them to Siobhan Gorman,a reporter now working for The Wall Street Journal. Drake reportedly thought the NSA had erred in choosing a group of contractors for a data-mining programme that had been developed more cheaply at the agency. Drake also believed that the agency had stripped away the privacy protections in the programmes. On June 9,2011,all 10 original charges against him were dropped. This was after Drake pleaded to one misdemeanour count for exceeding authorised use of a computer.
Shamai Leibowitz
An FBI linguist,Leibowitz provided transcripts of wiretapped conversations between Israeli officials at their embassy in Washington to a blogger,Richard Silverstein. During his trial,prosecutors considered this information so sensitive that even the judge did not know what material Leibowitz had disclosed. Leibowitz was concerned about the influence Israel exercised on Capitol Hill,and became worried about communications he heard indicating a potential attack on Irans nuclear facilities by Israel. Leibowitz was sentenced to 20 months in jail in 2010.
Stephen Jin-Woo Kim
A State Department analyst,Kim was indicted in 2010 for providing a classified intelligence report about North Koreas response to an upcoming round of sanctions to a reporter for Fox News. Earlier this year it was disclosed that the reporter had been named a co-conspirator in order to gain access to his email account. Kim argues that his communication with Rosen was normal interaction between officials and journalists in Washington. His trial is ongoing.
Bradley Manning
Accused of providing thousands of diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks,Manning,an Army private,has endured harsh treatment at the hands of the administration,including being made to remain naked in his cell. His trial has become a focal point in the Obama administrations aggressive pursuit of whistleblowers. In 2011,military prosecutors added an additional set of charges against Manning,and he is being prosecuted under both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Espionage Act.
Jeffrey Sterling
In his 2006 book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,New York Times reporter James Risen talked about the CIA sending a former Russian scientist to Iran with faulty plans in an effort to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme,the mission getting botched,and ending up helping Iran advance its research. Prosecutors allege that Sterling,a former CIA agent,was the source for that account. Sterling has pleaded not guilty.
John Kiriakou
A 14-year veteran of the CIA and a counterterror specialist,Kiriakou revealed the CIAs use of waterboarding and,according to prosecutors,disclosed the identities of several CIA agents. An outspoken opponent of the agencys interrogation tactics,he went on television in 2007 and described the methods used to waterboard Abu Zubaydah,currently detained at Guantánamo Bay. Kiriakou entered a plea deal with his prosecutors,and is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence.
