WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) – The U.S. government’s
decision to charge former government contractor Edward Snowden
with espionage marks the seventh time the Obama administration
had attempted to punish those believed responsible for leaking
classified information.
The following is a list of the seven cases and details
surrounding them.
EDWARD SNOWDEN
Snowden, 30, is a former technical employee for Booz Allen
Hamilton who was contracted to work for the National Security
Agency.
In news media interviews, he has revealed that he was
responsible for disclosing documents that showed that the
top-secret National Security Agency has access to vast amounts
of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large
companies such as Facebook and Google, under a government
program known as Prism.
Snowden said the government had worked through the secret
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to gather so-called
metadata – such as the time, duration and telephone numbers
called – on all calls carried by service providers such as
Verizon.
According to a criminal complaint filed by the Justice
Department that was dated June 14 but came to light on Friday,
Snowden was accused of theft of government property,
unauthorized communication of national defense information and
willful communication of classified communications intelligence
to an unauthorized person.
The latter two offenses fall under the U.S. Espionage Act
and carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and fines.
FBI TRANSLATOR
Shamai Leibowitz was an FBI translator in 2009 when material
that he heard while translating ended up on a blog. He reached
an agreement with prosecutors before he was charged, and pleaded
guilty in 2009 to one count of disclosing classified
information. He was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
NSA WASTE
Former NSA official Thomas Drake was suspected in 2010 of
revealing information about the agency’s warrantless wiretapping
program. He was indicted under the Espionage Act but said the
only information he leaked was about waste in a NSA program,
which he gave to the Baltimore Sun newspaper. The 10 felony
counts were dropped when he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and
he received no prison time.
WIKILEAKS SOURCE
Bradley Manning, an Army private first class, is on trial in
a Maryland military court, accused of passing more than 700,000
classified files to WikiLeaks in the biggest leak of secret
documents in U.S. history. Manning, who pleaded guilty to 10
lesser charges in February, faces 21 additional counts including
aiding the enemy and could get life in prison if convicted. The
trial is expected to last through the summer.
NORTH KOREA INTEL
Stephen Kim, a U.S. State Department contract analyst,
divulged to a Fox News reporter information on U.S.
intelligence’s assessment of how North Korea would respond to
new sanctions. A grand jury indicted him in 2010 for disclosing
defense information and making false statements, based in part
on Fox News records the government seized without notice. He has
pleaded not guilty and a trial date is possible in late 2013 or
early 2014.
BOOK SOURCE
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was charged in 2011 with
illegally disclosing classified information about Iran to James
Risen, a New York Times reporter, for his book “State of War.”
The case is pending, as the government has tried unsuccessfully
to force Risen to testify about his sources.
INTERROGATION LEAK
Former CIA officer John Kiriakou was charged in 2012 with
divulging to journalists secret information about the CIA’s
interrogation program, including the identity of a covert
officer. In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to
one count and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
He started serving the sentence in February.
(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Paul Simao)
