Thomas Drake Plea Deal In NSA Leak Case A Blow To Obama Administration
The deal was struck after nearly a week of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Drake's defense team, and averted what was expected to be a three-week trial.
The government's case against Drake, who blew the whistle on what he considered a billion-dollar boondoggle at his former agency, appeared to unravel after prosecutors said early this week that they planned to withdraw some evidence rather than risk exposing an unidentified telecommunications technology targeted by the NSA's vast electronic eavesdropping network.
"The case clearly collapsed," said Jessalyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project. "It was a case built on sand, and when the government was put to the test, I think it shows that whistle-blowers are not spies and that the Espionage Act is a particularly heinous tool that should never be used to cover up government wrongdoing and punish whistle-blowers who oppose it."
The last straw may have been U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett's recent decision, detailed in a June 5 letter from prosecutors, rejecting efforts to mask references to "NSA's targeting of a specific telecommunications technology" in six documents entered into evidence.
the documents are thought to relate to the NSA's internal debate over TrailBlazer, an ill-fated project launched in 2002 to use contractors to overhaul the agency's vast computer systems to capture and screen information flooding into the agency's computers from the Internet and cell phones.
"The whole experience has been shattering," Aftergood said. "But I think the primary message is to the government that not every security infraction is or ought to be a federal case. You can break the rules without committing a felony. And the government should not overreact to every little deviation from the rules."
GOOD!!! Going after whistleblowers with espionage prosecutions is like trying to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer. One of the things I'm really irritated about with Obama is the fact that he seems to be intent on continuing Bush's policies of shredding the Constitution by spying on its own citizens. If we knock down another one of Bush's fiascos, I'm all for it.
The story actually goes back the the later 1990's with the development of ThinThread at the NSA. Then, under General Michael Hayden's direction (he was appointed in 1999) it evolved into the billion dollar boondoggle called TrailBlazer. It was TrailBlazer which got into the questionable wiretaps in the early 2000's and the whole project was later scrapped.
Drake was indicted in 2010 by an administration which had promised a more open government and had encouraged government workers that reported any wrongdoing.
