Case Against NSA Whistle-Blower, Thomas Drake, Crumbling

[sabrina 1]

UPDATE: A plea agreement has been reached in this case, according to the latest news reports.



(Jacquelyn Martin/ASSOCIATED PRESS) - Thomas Drake is charged with mishandling classified files.

This is a very interesting development. Drake claims he is being politically prosecuted and if this case falls apart, that will certainly give credit to his claim.

They prosecuted him under the infamous and rarely used 1917 Espionage Act along with four other Whistle-blowers.

Good news for all of them if the case crumbles.


Case narrows against Thomas Drake, ex-NSA manager accused of mishandling classified files

Federal prosecutors will withdraw key documents from their case against a former National Security Agency manager charged with mishandling classified material, a move that experts say could signal the unraveling of one of the Obama administration’s most prominent efforts to punish accused leakers.

Prosecutors informed U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett this week that they would withhold documents they had planned to introduce as evidence to keep from disclosing sensitive technology. Former NSA executive Thomas A. Drake is charged with unlawfully retaining classified information at a time when he was in touch with a Baltimore Sun reporter who later chronicled mismanagement at the agency.

Apparently he has turned down two plea-bargain offers which would have involved no jail time, just an admission of guilt which he is not willing to do. He is truly a courageous man considering that he is facing 35 years in jail.

“By withdrawing several of the exhibits, at least a couple of the counts against Drake will almost certainly need to be dismissed,” said Steven Aftergood, a national security expert with the Federation of American Scientists who has followed the case closely since Drake was indicted last year. “It changes the whole dynamic of the prosecution and may even set the stage for settlement or dismissal.”

They were hoping to use his prosecution as a lesson to other potential whistle-blowers. If it is dismissed, this would be a victory for whistle-blowers in the future.

Drake was a senior executive at the NSA — a “senior change leader” — who professed an ambition to change the agency’s insular culture. He became disillusioned with the agency’s handling of major technology programs and concerned that the NSA was needlessly violating Americans’ privacy through a massive surveillance program adopted after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He raised concerns with officials and the inspector general, and later with the reporter, before leaving the agency in 2008.

According to former DOJ whistle-blower and director of national security at the GAO, Jesselyn Radack:

“Obama is prosecuting whistleblowers who made the kinds of disclosures that he said he wants — contractors bilking the government of billions of dollars. That’s what Drake did.”

There ARE heroes, willing to go to jail even, standing up for our rights even though we don't hear much about them. Thomas Drake is one of them.

Thomas Drake: “I will never plea-bargain with the truth"

[Luminous Animal]

1. This news was one of the few hopeful things that I have heard recently.

Thomas Drake is indeed a hero.

[sabrina 1]

4. Yes, he is. I've just read a breaking news report that a plea

has been accepted in the case. I haven't read it yet so don't know the details. But he was very brave to hold out as long as he did.

I updated the OP but will read the details now. Had to get in before the edit time ran out :-)

[Luminous Animal]

6. All charges dropped and no prison time.

In exchange, Drake, who could have faced 35 years in prison if he had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor of misusing a government computer to share information with a person unauthorized to receive it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/ex-nsa-manager-has-reportedly-twice-rejected-plea-bargains-in-espionage-act-case/2011/06/09/AG89ZHNH_story.html

[sabrina 1]

8. Wow, from treason to misdemeanor!

I hope he speaks publicly about all of this, as Elsberg has done. This was a vengeful prosecution and I'm glad it fell apart. I hope they have the sense to drop all the others now.

But Bradley Manning will not be so lucky, also charged under the same law. It could diminish the charges against him though, IF he gets a fair trial.

[Luminous Animal]

13. I find it heartening that ALL charges were dropped from the ORIGINAL INDICTMENT!!!

So, the prosecutors had to come up with a minimal face-saving charge. Drake, no doubt, agreed in order to stop bleeding money for his defense.

I hope he speaks out as well. Ellsberg has been nothing but a treasure this past year with his defense of Manning and Wikileaks.

[sabrina 1]

14. I agree, totally.

I wonder will they drop the other charges now against the other three? Manning I know they will not.

It sort of strikes a blow against their plans to charge Julian Assange under the same law.

This is really good news. I can only imagine they way he feels tonight.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Manning will face military tribunal under which the CiC has already deemed him guilty.

No fair trial opportunity their. Wikileaks (and Assange) will be judged on a much higher burden of proof.

[sabrina 1]

20. Yes, sadly, Manning has already been declared guilty.

Assange is a prize-winning Editor and Publisher of a news organization. If this country tries to prosecute him for that, then they will have to prosecute the NY Times, The Guardian, La Monde, The Scotsman and every other news org. that published the Wikileaks documents.

And we thought things would get better after Bush ~ now, sometimes I think about the FISA vote by Obama and I realize that that was a forewarning of what was to come.

[annabanana]

2. One small weight off the neck with this. . . .

(too many more to go)

[sabrina 1]

7. Funny that it is ending up sort of like Elsberg's case.

What a waste of tax dollars. I also wonder how this will affect Bradley Manning who is also being charged under the same Espionage law?

[coalition_unwilling]

18. Well, the final denouement of Ellsburg's case led to the resignation of

a president in total and utter disgrace. Because never forget that the plumbers had burglarized Ellsburg's psychiatrist's office out here in Los Angeles trying to get dirt on Ellsburg to discredit him. In fact, were it not for Ellsburg and Vietnam, Nixon might never have had to resign. Now which of the brilliant grand inquisitors in Obama's Justice (Not!) Department will have to resign over this prosecutorial abuse of power???? I'm guessing no one as 'accountability' is so 20th century.

[sabrina 1]

21. Yes, it seems that there was still some respect for the law back then

Ellsbburg's case, if it were today, would lead nowhere.

Sadly, you are correct that there will be no brilliant grand inquisitors today. The leaked cables have exposed the State Dept. engaging in espionage at the UN eg. A clear violation of the rules, and maybe enve the law. Anyone who thought that something would e done about, an investigation even, was wrong. I't been ignored.

War crimes have been revealed in the Iraq/Afghanistan war logs, but no one is even looking, only the whistle-blower is in jail.

And we have told outright that we will not be looking at the crimes of the wealthy, the war criminals and it seems to include the Wall St. criminals. They are blatant about violating the law, not even pretending to adhere to them.

We are a lawless society, but I'm grateful for the news of the failure of this case. At least there is some good news for a change :-)

[decora]

24. "Ellsbburg's case, if it were today, would lead nowhere. "

There is an interview from Ellsberg on CNN recently I think where he says flat out that everything Nixon did to him today would be legalized, including the breaking to the psychiatrists office. If Ellsberg's case were brought today, he might actually have gone to trial.

And another interesting point IMHO - in the 1970s there was no Classified Information Procedures Act and Silent Witness Rule - both of those things are the only reason the Government was able to go forward with the Drake case, because back in the old days they simply dropped cases in order to avoid revealing any information about government secrets. Nowdays, they try to redact information from documents at trial and use 'substitutions' and 'code words' in the court room - Drake's lawyers argued this was a vioaltion of his rights, including the Sixth Amendment right to a Public Trial. Ellsberg, today, would have to go through all of that pre-trial kafka mumbo jumbo.

Here is a link to the Ellsberg interview:

http://bit.ly/mQFKOR

Here is a link to Federation of American Scientists listing of the pre-trial arguments that went back and forth between Drake's laywers, James Wyda and Deborah Boardman, and the prosecution.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/drake/index.html

Here is Jesselyn Radack of the GAP explaining the Kafka nature of the pre-trial motions.

http://bit.ly/khB0YB

[Angry Dragon]

3. I just do not understand why I am having so much trouble

seeing through this transparency that Obama promised me..........
I perhaps need new glasses...... just a thought

[former9thward]

5. He is going to plea guilty to a misdemeanor

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/ex-nsa-manager-has-reportedly-twice-rejected-plea-bargains-in-espionage-act-case/2011/06/09/AG89ZHNH_story.html

[sabrina 1]

9. Thank you. I am really glad that this over for him.

[Octafish]

10. Who's the boss?

“Obama is prosecuting whistleblowers who made the kinds of disclosures that he said he wants — contractors bilking the government of billions of dollars. That’s what Drake did.”

[sabrina 1]

11. Good question. I am coming to the conclusion that it is not

the president of the US. He just keeps breaking promises, and either he never meant them to begin with, which would make him the best liar ever, or he did not know how things work, until he got to the WH.

[Kaleko]

16. It's impossible for me to believe

that Obama was naive as to how things work in Washington and about who actually pulls the strings. After all, Brzezinski was among those who hand-picked Obama and mentored him throughout his grueling campaign.

No, Obama is very astute, intelligent, and a fast learner. So, that leaves us with a consummate liar when you look at what he does rather than how smoothly and convincingly this most sophisticated of snake charmers in all of politics can talk.

He fooled me for a while - and I have worked as a psychotherapist with a nice track record in assessing people's deeper motivations in rapid time.

[sabrina 1]

23. I am leaning more in that direction myself, to be honest.

If it was Bush, you might see he didn't really know he wasn't in charge. But Obaama is way too smart for that to be believed.

[sabrina 1]

12. Looks like he held his ground.

A huge victory for whistleblowers, and a real strike against that Espionage act. He was right to turn down the other two plea bargains. He had them over a barrel, and I guess this was just to try to save face.

In exchange, Drake, who could have faced 35 years in prison if he had been convicted of violating the Espionage Act, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor of misusing a government computer to share information with a person unauthorized to receive it.

He will pay no fine, and the maximum probation time he can serve will be capped at one year.

Waste of the tax-payers' money just to try to silence people.

[suffragette]

15. “It’s an unambiguous victory for Drake,”

said Jesselyn Radack, director of national security at the Government Accountability Project, who supported Drake on whistleblower issues. “The prosecution’s case imploded.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/national-security/ex-nsa-manager-has-reportedly-twice-rejected-plea-bargains-in-espionage-act-case/2011/06/09/AG89ZHNH_story.html


Also, found this interesting from AFP:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iLMaDmAIURMbLLeLlDRVvLQxTuHQ?docId=CNG.557023d06544577e36567f0c1c7ba5cd.d61

A high-ranking employee at the NSA between 2001 and 2008, Drake is alleged to have provided information to a reporter for a series of articles published between February 2006 and November 2007 about the NSA and its activities.
The information concerned the Signals Intelligence programs (SIGINT), which are used in the capturing and processing of foreign communications.
~~~
Drake said he had maintained several files with unclassified information to back a complaint he had pursued with others that the NSA was wasting public funds on inefficient surveillance technology that had little effect, even though cheaper options were available.


Great to hear this.
K&R

[sabrina 1]

19. I love Jessalyn Raddick. I used to follow her on DK when she was going

through her own trials and tribulations I believe.

It really is a travesty that that Drake, who was doing his job as he should, reporting on a waste of the tax-payers money, should be prosecuted. And by this administration. Truly outrageous.

Thanks for the links, I had just put up this OP when I saw the news about the deal.

He was also upset over the surveillance of American citizens. I believe this prosecution was meant to silence anyone else who might be thinking of exposing corruption. Shameful really.

It truly is GREAT NEWS!! :applause:

Off to read your links, and thank you for posting suffragette.

[suffragette]

22. I haven't been familiar with her

Will keep an eye out for her name.

Agree this was outrageous.

And that this is good news!