Thomas Drake, Legal Whistleblower, Traitor

[Shiranu]

//http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/23/110523fa_fact_mayer

On June 13th, a fifty-four-year-old former government employee named Thomas Drake is scheduled to appear in a courtroom in Baltimore, where he will face some of the gravest charges that can be brought against an American citizen. A former senior executive at the National Security Agency, the government's electronic-espionage service, he is accused, in essence, of being an enemy of the state. According to a ten-count indictment delivered against him in April, 2010, Drake violated the Espionage Act—the 1917 statute that was used to convict Aldrich Ames, the C.I.A. officer who, in the eighties and nineties, sold U.S. intelligence to the K.G.B., enabling the Kremlin to assassinate informants.

He went through the legal channels, and revealed some of the same things Snowden did... corruption, waste and legal violations going on in the NSA. He is facing at least 35 years in jail and the charge of being a traitor.

This is why Snowden, this is why Manning, this is why whistleblowers don't take the "legal" route... because the legal route is a trap set up by the people committing the violations, so they can distract you from the information being leaked and say, "LOOK AT THIS CRIMINAL!"

[Plu]

I wonder how much longer until a revolution breaks out in the US. And how many hours until the people are crushed by their own military...

[Hydra009]

He went through the legal channels, and revealed some of the same things Snowden did... corruption, waste and legal violations going on in the NSA. He is facing at least 35 years in jail and the charge of being a traitor.

Yeah, but how old is he?  I want to want to use age-appropriate putdowns.

Looks like yet another case of "OMG AIDSING THE TERRIRISTS!" Didn't you guys just love that rhetoric during the Bush admin?  

[Jason78]

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots.

I think there's a reason that the tyrants that run the country call them traitors.

[SGOS]

He is facing at least 35 years in jail and the charge of being a traitor.

He used legal channels and now faces 35 years in jail?  Help me out here.  I've suddenly lost the ability to understand the meaning of legal.

As a humanitarian compromise, rather than jailing him, they could just take him to a cinderblock room in the basement of the Ministry of New Think, and  work on his brain until he behaves however the Hell they want him to behave.

[Jmpty]

You know they dropped all the charges against him, right?

[SGOS]

You know they dropped all the charges against him, right?

Too bad.  I wanted to read more comments from readers of news articles on my yahoo home page.

[Jmpty]

You know they dropped all the charges against him, right?

Too bad.  I wanted to read more comments from readers of news articles on my yahoo home page.

:rollin:

[Plu]

So, did they do anything about the people the whistle was blown about? Or is the general story in the media right now

- Guy blows whistle on government
- Guy gets locked up and scared shitless
...
- silenty release without informing people
- ignore actual whistle


Because that would paint a very suspicious picture, if this is how it's being sold to people by the media and/or government itself. Almost as if they're trying to scare people into not blowing whistles or something.

[Jmpty]

This happened quite a while ago. It was in the news.

[Plu]

If you say so :) I don't get an awful lot of US news here.

I was just surprised that this something  happened a while ago and the OP was only aware of the first part of the story. Sometimes it means loss of interest. Sometimes it means the media stopped reporting on it.