Former CIA officer John Kiriakou has been formally indicted for leaking classified information to reporters, in the latest development of the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers.
Kiriakou, who served as an intelligence officer from 1990 until 2004 and was first charged in January and remains free on $250,000 bond, has been indicted on one count of revealing the identity of a covert officer, three counts of leaking classified national security information, and one count of making false statements to a CIA review board when seeking clearance to publish his book.
He was one of the first government officials to publicly acknowledge the use of waterboarding during interrogations. Specifically, he is alleged – and has pledged not guilty – to have revealed information about Guantanamo Bay detainee Abu Zubaydah, who was brutally tortured and infamously waterboarded 83 times.
Kiriakou’s alleged leaks pertain to an illegal program of systematic torture and, in the words of Marcy Wheeler, “lying to the CIA Publication Review Board about the classification of a surveillance technique details of which have been readily available for decades (and which seems to be related to the Secret PATRIOT GPS application targeting American citizens in probable violation of the Fourth Amendment).”
Yet this is the type of truth-telling the Obama administration has cracked down on. “All told,” writes Karen J. Greenberg, Executive Director of the Center for Law and Security at the NYU School of Law, “the administration has gone after six suspected leakers — more than all previous administrations combined — using the draconian Espionage Act.” This, from the administration who pledged unprecedented transparency.
Antiwar.com’s Kelley B. Vlahos interviewed Peter Van Buren, a Foreign Service officer himself in trouble for saying things the government didn’t want him to, who had this to say about the Kiriakou case: “The bureaucracies know this intimidation keeps people in line. Other employees watch and say, not me, not my mortgage, not my family and remain silent.”
The only difference between THIS government and the government under Stalin is that THIS government hasn't made it a habit to just make someone "disappear"…yet. Ruining them is sufficient now but when intimidation and ruination fails, as it eventually will, then the only way to silence dissent and the exposition of truth and of what is behind the curtain will be to make them disappear. The only question remaining is how long before we get there.
FEMA has to put all those caskets and body bags to use.
"This, from the administration who pledged unprecedented transparency."
Yup, Obammie is lying, torturing, murdering filth. And that's your "hope and change" in the District of Criminals.
Cheney et al leaked the identity of Plame if I remember corrected, with no repercussions. Obama serves his masters very well.
Coming to a street near you …
Unwarranted Surveillance
Repeated patterns of threatening events are signatures of Color of Law violations in the form of unwarranted harassment and intimidation. The key identifying factor is that the threats occur atabnormally high frequency rates(multiple events daily). The abnormally high frequency rate eliminates the “coincidence” explanation and can only confirm participation by and protection of rouge elements of law enforcement and federal agencies.
The threat events are premeditated assaults by government agencies, local law enforcement and criminal elements in their employ.The intimidations involve threats to our property and personal safetywhile driving, I.e.: threatened head-on collisions; failure to yield the right of way; illegal lane changes; illegal backing; opening vehicle doors into traffic; aggressive tailgating, and all manner of recklessly bringing vehicles into conflict. Note that these events routinely occur half-a-dozen times a day. These constant threats are a form of non-verbal communication,informing us that we are being watched by entities with the resources and capabilities that can only be attributed to the federal government. It has happened before … COINTELPRO.
Yes, the American way is not mass prosecutions but selective ones to scare the rest.
McCarthyism worked that way.
Stalin did not have the subtlety to work that way. He made many more enemies than he needed to. Obama, Cheney and Bush are much more effective.
I am his sisters neighbor and she is EVIL ! Must run in the family….