After expending the energy of 25 FBI Agents, five full-time Justice Department prosecutors, and countless taxpayer dollars over 5+ years, it is outrageous that the person facing prison is a protected whistleblower and recent recipient of the 2011 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-telling.
The people who authorized and perpetrated illegal NSA spying get a complete pass, and millions of taxpayer dollars were wasted on a fruitless, vengeful leak investigation, which ends in the indictment of a whistleblower. This is not the change Obama promised.
In no way am I suggesting that the Justice Department bring more prosecutions against whistleblowers. However, it is revelatory of the government's retaliatory motive in going after Tom Drake to compare who was not prosecuted as part of the leak investigation with Drake.
According to Politico, the people who admitted being New York Times sources are no longer subjects of criminal investigation:
Thomas Tamm - the former Justice Department official who publicly admitted calling the New York Timesfrom a Metro station pay phone and revealing the spying program.Russell Tice - the former NSA official who publicly acknowledged being a source for the 2005 New York Times story.
Politico also reported that the Diane Roark, a former House Intelligence Committee staffer and whistleblower, is no longer a subject of the New York Times leak investigation.
Meanwhile, even though Drake never gave classified information to any reporter, is not charged with doing so, and was not a source for the New York Times, he is facing trial in June for charges brought under the Espionage Act. Drake's prosecution is by far the most offensive to transparency and freedom of Obama's record-setting number of Espionage Act prosecutions brought against so-called "leakers."
Drake chronicled his grave situation and the terrible effect criminalization of whistleblowing has on our constitutional system during his Ridenhour Price acceptance speech:
To support Tom Drake "like" the Save Tom Drake facebook page or sign the petition to drop the prosecution.
Jesselyn Radack is Homeland Security & Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower advocacy organization. This post originally appeared in her Daily Kos column.
