By Considering all the leaks coming from the government that has been going on for quite some time, I do find it interesting that the government now has decided to press charges against someone who was leaking to FOX News:
The Obama administration on Friday accused an analyst who worked at the State Department of leaking top secret information about North Korea to a reporter.
Steven Kim, who worked at State as an employee of a contractor, maintains his innocence.
He was named in a federal indictment unsealed Friday and charged with illegally disclosing national defense information, which carries a top penalty of 10 years in prison, and with making false statements to the FBI, which has a maximum five-year sentence.
In the Kim case, the Justice Department said the analyst in June 2009 knowingly passed information about U.S. intelligence concerning a foreign country to a national news organization and in September of that year falsely denied to the FBI having had recent contacts with a reporter from that news organization. The material was classified top secret/sensitive because it concerned the military capability of the foreign country and related to U.S. intelligence sources and methods.
A person briefed on the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not included in the filing, said the country was North Korea and the news organization was Fox News.
It was the latest move in an aggressive campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.
Recent disclosures to news media have revealed the potential for using CIA drones in the counterterrorist fight against al-Qaeda in Yemen, the close relationship of the CIA station chief in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the CIA’s practice of paying some members of the Afghan government for information. [USA Today]
Read the rest at the link, but supposedly what ever information he gave FOX News was well known in public information sources for those looking for it. It seems like there are some more serious leaks the government should be going after than this guy.
7:13 pm on August 28th, 2010 1
"Considering all the leaks coming from the government that has been going on for quite some time, I do find it interesting that the government now has decided to press charges against someone who was leaking to FOX News:"
Are you implying there are leaks the government choses not to investigate? If there is evidence of that, that would be news. It happened over a years ago so they have been investigating it for some time.
"… supposedly what ever information he gave FOX News was well known in public information sources for those looking for it."
Even if that were true, it's still top secret and a serious offense. He doesn't deserve a pass just because it was to Fox News.
7:35 pm on August 28th, 2010 2
"The material was classified top secret/sensitive because it concerned the military capability of the foreign country and related to U.S. intelligence sources and methods." Are you still sure that leak was OK, GI Korea?
8:58 pm on August 28th, 2010 3
"It seems like there are some more serious leaks the government should be going after than this guy."
You might want to watch tonight's 60 Minutes before making such a blanket statement.
By the way, the Bloom Box is reason enough to watch tonight's episode.
10:07 am on August 29th, 2010 4
“The material was classified top secret/sensitive because it concerned the military capability of the foreign country and related to U.S. intelligence sources and methods.”
Umm how can you talk away someone leaking TS/SCI information about your intelligence to a reporter? No matter how you spin it, the dude leaked TS/SCI, that is pretty heavy stuff.
12:24 am on August 30th, 2010 5
Absolutely Sickening. It's also sickening that these traitors didn't get a hell of a lot more time behind bars.
12:55 am on August 30th, 2010 6
Meanwhile WIKILEAKS is pressing hard to give full "discloser" to the goings on of my Military.
But never mind WIKILEAKS, lets go after the real enemy — FOX NEWS
Bunch of Liberal Commies on this site GI KOREA. I feel dirty commenting here after joeC and the other liberal cows.
1:01 am on August 30th, 2010 7
Oh and #5, Traitor is a strong word. Aim it at NBC and our current President and Speaker of the House.
1:41 am on August 30th, 2010 8
6/7, It should be aimed at all the press for not being on top of this and both the past and current Presidents and members of Congress who are not being proactive and instead have let the foxes have full access to the hen house; however, this has been a problem since the days of patriot/traitor B. Arnold. And 60 Minutes does take a shot directly at the President, but it was in the web extra and not the main story.
1:51 am on August 30th, 2010 9
But you see that it isn't and the enemy of Obama is Fox News. He has NBC and the rest (in his pocket).
"but it was in their web extra and not the main story".
4:32 am on August 30th, 2010 10
The targets of the investigations are not the leakees (the receiver of the leaks), it's the leakers.
7:30 am on August 30th, 2010 11
"Bunch of Liberal Commies on this site GI KOREA. I feel dirty commenting here after joeC and the other liberal cows."
Retired GI, please actually research the subject matter first before making such a spitefull inaccurate statemnet.
9:48 am on August 30th, 2010 12
Whoever leaks classified information and whoever receives such information and publishes it should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law such as that SPC who leaked the Afghan material to wikileaks. It doesn't matter the reason or to whom the material is leaked, these leaks are damaging to our national security.
10:18 am on August 30th, 2010 13
Laws are laws and the constitution is the constitution. You can't suspend the 1st amendment in the cast of reporting classified information, this has already been gone over. Now if your under federal statute / law for access to that classified information and you willingly divolge it to a third party who is not cleared for it, then you just broke all sorts of federal laws. Someone who is cleared for access to some classified informaion must handle it within the rules / laws set forth for that information. But if someone who doesn't have any special access were to preach about some classified information, they didn't violate any laws.
You go through all this when you get a clearance, once your granted access, especially something TS/CSI your forever bound to not speak about it.
11:58 am on August 30th, 2010 14
"Meanwhile WIKILEAKS is pressing hard to give full “discloser” to the goings on of my Military.
But never mind WIKILEAKS, lets go after the real enemy — FOX NEWS"
Going after the enemy from within, the one you actually have jurisdiction over (Fox News is American, Wikileaks isn't), makes more sense, don't you think?