The Justice Department released a statement Thursday announcing that it had secured an indictment against former National Security Agency official Thomas Drake, who is accused of leaking classified information to a Baltimore newspaper reporter in 2006 and 2007.
Though the indictment does not name the reporter or newspaper that information was allegedly leaked to, the description “applies to articles written by Siobhan Gorman, then a reporter for The Baltimore Sun, that examined in detail the failings of several major NSA programs,” The New York Times’ Scott Shane reported.
Gorman’s articles focused on problems surrounding the NSA’s Trailblazer Project, which was shown to be a horribly mismanaged program that hemorrhaged money and produced nothing of value. In a January 2006 article, she quoted intelligence expert Matthew Aid, who described Trailblazer as “the biggest boondoggle going on now in the intelligence community.”
In the statement announcing the indictment, Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said, “Our national security demands that the sort of conduct alleged here — violating the government’s trust by illegally retaining and disclosing classified information — be prosecuted and prosecuted vigorously.”
Prosecuting an NSA whistleblower for leaking embarrassing information seems like an odd move from President Obama’s Justice Department, given that the president repeatedly stated a desire to look forward, not backward with regard to crimes committed during the Bush administration.
The previous administration established a torture regime that a 2009 report from the Senate Armed Services committee said led directly to the deaths of numerous detainees. A 2006 review by Human Rights First found that an estimated 100 detainees had died in custody. Many of the cases were clearly homicides, and a number of the victims had obviously been tortured to death.
Despite a mountain of evidence that the Bush administration crafted a policy that was directly responsible for systematic torture at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Force Base and various secret CIA prisons, there has been no criminal investigation and certainly no indictments of anyone responsible.
After evidence of torture began to mount, the CIA destroyed numerous interrogation tapes too, a clear case of wiping out evidence that should constitute an obstruction of justice. We know they destroyed the tapes because they admitted it. It’s been frequently reported on, and the names of those responsible are in the public record.
Yet despite a mountain of evidence that the CIA destroyed evidence that some of its agents had tortured detainees, the Justice Department’s “investigation” has turned up nothing, and there have been no indictments.
The previous administration also instructed the NSA to illegally spy on U.S. citizens. Information on that secret program was leaked to the New York Times in 2005, triggering civil lawsuits against the government. Three federal judges have since ruled that the program was illegal.
Yet despite a mountain of evidence that the Bush administration illegally spied on American citizens, including confirmation from three federal judges, there have been no criminal investigations, and none of the responsible parties have been indicted.
So we won’t prosecute people responsible for the torture (and murder) of detainees, for destroying evidence of torture and for illegally spying on American citizens. For stuff like that, we need to look forward, not backward.
But if you leak information demonstrating that a government program is a massive waste of money, we need to vigorously prosecute you, because clearly, in such a case, it’s simply too dangerous to not look backward.
This selective application of the law is ridiculous. Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason. Political inconvenience is not an acceptable reason to overlook criminal behavior, and high-ranking government officials should not be above the law.
After eight years of rampant criminal behavior from the Bush administration, the Obama administration should be doing its best to show the American people that it believes the law applies equally to everyone.
Instead, just as its predecessor, the Obama administration thinks it’s above the law.
David Brooks is a communication senior and may be reached at [email protected]
