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Torture Whistleblower Becomes 6th Charged with Espionage Act Under Obama
Summary: Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was indicted yesterday under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking classified information to journalists regarding the CIA's use of waterboarding (labeling it as torture). Kiriakou is the sixth whistleblower to be charged by the Obama administration under the Espionage Act – more than all other administrations combined.
GAP’s Jesselyn Radack blogged on this development this morning.
Key Quote: The Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization, blasted the indictment — the sixth criminal leak case opened under the Obama administration.
Jesselyn Radack, the organization's national security and human rights director, said the Justice Department was punishing a whistleblower under a law intended to prosecute spies and that Kiriakou was being targeted partly because of his public statements questioning the use of waterboarding.
"Back when no one was saying anything, back in 2007 when we were arguing about the validity of waterboarding, he was the only CIA official to say waterboarding was torture," she said.
Summary: More coverage of USDA inspector whistleblowers who are speaking out about a public safety-threatening poultry inspection plan called HIMP. Three federal inspectors provided GAP's Food Integrity Campaign with affidavits detailing horrific problems at HIMP plants like the speeding up of inspections lines (to up to 10,000 birds per hour per inspector), and only being allowed to see the backside of the bird (not the front, where the breast meat is).
Key Quote: Three USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors submitted the affidavits to the nonprofit whistleblower group Government Accountability Project, which claims the proposal to expand an existing pilot program aimed at streamlining inspections would in fact allow for more “self-policing” in the poultry industry.
Related Article: The Consumerist
Summary: This RT segment criticizes the US for supporting Internet freedom around the world, but then attempting to shut down sites it disagrees with, like WikiLeaks. State Department whistleblower and GAP client Peter Van Buren is quoted.
Key Quote: “Because WikiLeaks published documents which embarrassed the American government in many ways, WikiLeaks becomes the enemy,” a former employee of the US State Department, Peter van Buren, told RT.
Summary: Longtime BP whistleblower Kenneth Abbott is now charging that the oil company lied to the government about the design of the Atlantis oil platform (near where the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened) being approved by registered engineers.
Summary: The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), an anti-same-sex marriage group, is calling for an investigation of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Internal Revenue Service after HRC released a NOM 2008 IRS tax return. HRC says the document was received from a whistleblower, and is not providing any further information. This comes less than two weeks after HRC released other internal NOM documents obtained through an investigation by the state of Maine into alleged improper campaign finance practices by NOM.
Summary: Two former employees of a Connecticut health center have filed whistleblower complaints with the state health agency, claiming that they were fired after reporting the mishandling of a tuberculosis case and mismanagement of funds to authorities.
Hannah Johnson is Communications Associate for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
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Protecting Corporate, Government & International Whistleblowers since 1977
Protecting Corporate, Government & International Whistleblowers since 1977
Well-played, Justice Department. Indict former CIA officer John Kiriakou on Tuesday evening, but don't unseal the indictment until 4:59pm on Thursday, right before the holiday weekend, in order to avoid press coverage of the Obama administration's 6th Espionage Act prosecution of a whistleblower.
Before I start deconstructing the Indictment, here's a key to reading the tea leaves:
So what's the back-story here? In the government's own words:
Like the Drake case before it, this case is about retribution and politics, not justice.
To support Kiriakou, please "like" the Defend John K Facebook page or go here.
Jesselyn Radack is National Security & Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
Before I start deconstructing the Indictment, here's a key to reading the tea leaves:
Officer A = undercover
Officer B = former CIA career & targeting analyst Deuce Martinez (never undercover)
Journalist A = Matthew Cole
Journalist B = Scott Shane
Journalist C = mentioned in original charges, but dropped from Indictment
Facts Not in the Indictment/Kiriakou's Whistleblowing Disclosures:Officer B = former CIA career & targeting analyst Deuce Martinez (never undercover)
Journalist A = Matthew Cole
Journalist B = Scott Shane
Journalist C = mentioned in original charges, but dropped from Indictment
* Refused to be trained in torture tactics
* First CIA officer to call waterboarding "torture" (2007/ABC News)
* Helped expose CIA's torture program as policy rather than playtime (2009/The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror)
* First CIA officer to call waterboarding "torture" (2007/ABC News)
* Helped expose CIA's torture program as policy rather than playtime (2009/The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror)
It's outrageous that John Kiriakou, a whistleblower, is the ONLY INDIVIDUAL TO BE PROSECUTED IN RELATION TO THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S TORTURE PROGRAM.
The interrogators who tortured prisoners, the officials who gave the orders, the attorneys who authored the torture memos, and the CIA agents who destroyed the interrogation tapes have not been held professionally accountable, much less charged with crimes. But John Kiriakou is facing decades in prison for helping expose torture.
The fact that national security and intelligence officials have become the exception to the Obama administration's mantra of "looking forward, not backward" and Bush-era law breaking sets a dangerous precedent: if you torture a prisoner, you will not be held criminally liable, but if you blow the whistle on torture, you risk criminal prosecution under the Espionage Act.
The charges result from an investigation that was triggered by a classified defense filing [by attorneys representing Guantanamo detainees], which contained classified information the defense had not been given through official government channels, and in part, by the discovery . . . of photographs of certain government employees and contractors [alleged torturers] in the materials of high-value detainees.
In other words, instead of an investigation into the government's withholding of exculpatory information from GITMO detainees' lawyers, the government investigated how the lawyers obtained the information. And instead of investigating the 70 names and 25 photos of the detainees alleged torturers, the government investigated how the prisoners found out.
Marcy Wheeler had an interesting take on the Justice Department's case:
Are they really preparing to argue that helping men mount a fair defense in court injures the United States? That ensuring our legal system works the way it is supposed to work, rather than the way the kangaroo courts at Gitmo have been set up, hurts this country?
Even though plea negotiation are supposed to be in good faith, the government increased the charges and penalties in the Indictment because, like NSA whistleblower Tom Drake, Kiriakou rejected a handful of plea offers because he refused to plea bargain with the truth.
Two of the Espionage Act charges stem from Kiriakou's alleged communications with New York Times reporter Scott Shane, for a story he wrote in 2008 and for which – Wheeler reports – Shane had "around 23 other sources (including former CIA Executive Director Buzzy Krongard)." Yet again, Kiriakou - who blew the whistle on waterboarding - is the only one to be charged, and 3 1/2 years after the article was published as a result of an investigation having nothing to do with the Shane article.
Don't bother looking for any clarity in the Making False Statements charge, a typical add-on to intimidate defendants. The Justice Department struggles to explain the indictment in its own convoluted press release:
The indictment also charges him with one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to the Publications Review Board of the CIA in an unsuccessful attempt to trick the CIA into allowing him to include classified information in a book he was seeking to publish.
So, according to the Justice Department, Kiriakou has been charged with a felony for trying to trick the CIA but failing. Even if this is true - doubtful considering the Justice Department's abysmal record prosecuting whistleblowers under the Espionage Act - doesn’t the Justice Department have more important crimes to prosecute? Certainly the Justice Department can't indict everyone who’s tried to trick the CIA. And, even by Justice's own admission, NO classified information was published and the CIA cleared Kiriakou book in its entirety. What the government really seems to be angry about is that Kiriakou's book sharply criticized the CIA’s torture program and revealed embarrassing information about the FBI - namely that the FBI shelved potentially actionable intelligence in the aftermath of 9/11.
Like the Drake case before it, this case is about retribution and politics, not justice.
To support Kiriakou, please "like" the Defend John K Facebook page or go here.
Jesselyn Radack is National Security & Human Rights Director for the Government Accountability Project, the nation's leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization.
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou
Former CIA officer charged with revealing information to journalists
By Carol Cratty
A former CIA officer was indicted Thursday for allegedly disclosing classified information to journalists and lying to a CIA review board about material in a book he wrote.
John Kiriakou, who worked for the CIA from 1990 to 2004, faces a maximum of 45 years in prison if convicted on all charges. The five-count indictment includes three charges under the Espionage Act, alleging Kirakou revealed national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it –specifically, reporters.
No reporters were identified by name in the indictment.
One count charges that Kiriakou violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 2008 by identifying a covert agent called Officer A in the indictment.
One count charges that Kiriakou violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act in 2008 by identifying a covert agent called Officer A in the indictment.
Kiriakou also allegedly told reporters the name and contact information of an analyst known as Officer B, who was involved in the 2002 operation to capture alleged al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah. Zubaydah is one of three detainees the CIA later admitted waterboarding during interrogations. A government report revealed the technique was used on Zubaydah 83 times.
A CIA review board examines all books and other writings by former or current CIA employees to make sure no classified information is revealed.
Kiriakou and a co-author wrote a book called "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror." According to the indictment, Kiriakou lied when he submitted a draft of the manuscript to the agency in 2008 and claimed an investigative technique was fabricated.
The document quotes an e-mail Kiriakou sent to his co-author, who was not named in the indictment, which said in part, "I said some things were fictionalized when in fact they weren't. There's no way they're going to go through years of cable traffic to see if it's fictionalized, so we might get some things through."
The Justice Department said the charges resulted from an investigation into how pictures of U.S. employees and contractors ended up in the cells of high-value detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. According to the indictment, Kiriakou revealed information to a reporter who passed it on to an investigator for the defense team.
The Justice Department says the defense team then obtained surveillance photos of government employees. The photos were given to detainees to see if they could identify people involved or present at the time of their interrogations.
"There are no allegations of criminal activity by any members of the defense team for the Guantanamo Bay detainees," according to a Justice Department press release.
Kiriakou, 47, was initially charged in a criminal complaint in January. He remains free on bond and is scheduled to be arraigned on April 13. Neither he nor an attorney would comment when contacted by CNN.
Jesselyn Radack, national security and human rights director for the Government Accountability Project, has been monitoring the progress of the case against Kiriakou. "This is yet another pathetic attempt by the Obama Administration to try prosecuting non-spies under the Espionage Act," Radack told CNN.
She called the former officer a whistleblower who spoke out against waterboarding and said it was "outrageous" to use the Espionage Act against him.
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Categories: Legal, National News
April 5, 2012
EnlargeJacquelyn Martin/AP
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, leaves federal court in Alexandria, Va., in January.
A federal grand jury in Virginia has indicted former CIA officer John Kiriakou on charges that he violated the Espionage Act by allegedly sharing secret information about some of his colleagues with reporters.
Kiriakou, 47, promised never to divulge classified material when he joined the agency in 1990. But federal prosecutors led by Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald used Kiriakou's own email trail with journalists to build a case against him. The government ultimately concluded Kiriakou had shared the name of an officer operating undercover with an unnamed reporter and that he disclosed the name and contact information for another CIA employee who was involved in the capture of al-Qaida member Abu Zubaydah.
The Justice Department started digging around in 2009, after allegations that defense attorneys and investigators working for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, had improperly shared photos of undercover CIA officials with the detainees. Those defense lawyers and investigators did nothing wrong, prosecutors say. Instead, their investigation led instead to someone who once operated inside the government's own ranks — Kiriakou.
The five count indictment mostly mirrors an earlier criminal complaint the FBI unsealed before it arrested Kiriakou earlier this year. He's now free on bond, and due back in court for arraignment April 13th.
Prosecutors say he faces 10 years in prison if he's convicted on the espionage charges and five more if he's found guilty of trying to trick a CIA board into allowing him to publish classified information in his book.
Lawyers for Kiriakou had no immediate comment Thursday, but some free speech advocates have called him a whistleblower for publicly discussing the waterboarding of high value terrorism suspects during the years after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Update at 5:28 p.m. ET. The Sixth Charged:
The Government Accountability Project says Kiriakou is the sixth whistleblower to be charged by the Obama administration using the Espionage Act.
"The Obama administration's unprecedented use of the Espionage Act to target whistleblowers sends a chilling message to any national security worker considering blowing the whistle on corruption and wrongdoing," said the GAP's National Security & Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack in a statement. "The Espionage Act is an archaic World War I-era law intended to go after spies, not whistleblowers."
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