U.S. charges former CIA officer with leaking secrets

[News_Editor]

U.S. charges former CIA officer with leaking secrets

2012-01-24 04:58:43 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- U.S. prosecutors on Monday charged a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer with repeatedly disclosing classified information about fellow officers to journalists. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

John Kiriakou, 47, of Arlington, Va., is accused of releasing secrets about two CIA employees and their involvement in classified operations to two journalists between 2007 and 2009. Among the information he released was the name and contact information of a CIA agent who remains covert.

The investigation was launched in January 2009 when a classified defense filing was found to contain classified information the defense had not been giving through official government channels. Several months later, photographs of government employees and contractors were found in the materials of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

According to prosecutors, Kiriakou had shared the classified information to a journalist who, in turn, disclosed that information to a defense team investigator. "This information was reflected in the classified defense filing and enabled the defense team to take or obtain surveillance photographs of government personnel," the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

One of the CIA agents whose names were allegedly released by Kiriakou was an agent who took part in an operation in 2002 to capture and question top al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. Kiriakou first came to public attention in December 2007 when he described Zubaydah's waterboarding, which is a form of simulated drowning, during an interview with ABC News.

"Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of CIA officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. "Today's charges reinforce the Justice Department's commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information."

Kiriakou, who worked as a CIA intelligence officer between 1990 and 2004, has been charged with one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act for allegedly disclosing the identity of a covert officer and two counts of violating the Espionage Act for allegedly disclosing national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it.

In addition to those charges, Kiriakou has also been charged with one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to the Publications Review Board (PRB) 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.

According to prosecutors, prior to the publication of his book, "The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror", Kiriakou in July 2008 submitted a letter and draft manuscript to the PRB. He claimed a classified investigative technique, which he described as the "magic box", was fictional although he had previously told his coauthor that the technique was used in the operation to capture Zubaydah.

"There is a reference early in this chapter to a device called a 'magic box'," Kiriakou said in the letter to the PRB. "I read about this so-called device in a New York Times article. The information in that article was clearly fabricated, as we used no such device. I am unaware of any [such] device ... As it is fictionalized, I believe it is unclassified."

However, in an e-mail to his coauthor, Kiriakou admitted that he had lied to the PRB. "I laid it on thick. And 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 e-mail said.

Several months later, the PRB informed Kiriakou that it had reviewed the draft manuscript and found information regarding the technique was classified and that he could therefore not include the information in the book. The CIA has recently declassified the information to allow the prosecution to go forward and revealed the magic box is a device which can locate any switched-on cell phone.

Responding to the news of the arrest and charges, CIA Director David Petraeus said he was unable to comment on the specifics of the case. "When we joined this organization, we swore to safeguard classified information; those oaths stay with us for life," he said. "Unauthorized disclosures of any sort - including information concerning the identities of other Agency officers - betray the public trust, our country, and our colleagues. Given the sensitive nature of many of our Agency's operations and the risks we ask our employees to take, the illegal passage of secrets is an abuse of trust that may put lives in jeopardy."

If convicted on all charges, Kiriakou faces up to 30 years in prison.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2012-01-24

[soylentgreen]

They used the same threat of this kind of prosecution to gag Dr. Richard Fuisz's revelations about the Lockerbie bombing, CIA Heroin smuggling and Mossad foreknowledge of 911.

See: LOCKERBIE DIARY: GADHAFFI, FALL GUY FOR CIA DRUG RUNNING at:

http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2011/03/06/lockerbie-diary-gadhaffi-fall-guy-for-ci

and

http://theintelhub.com/2011/07/15/911-starting-over-with-the-truth-part-one/

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks_advance-knowledge_debate

Regarding the torture of Abu Zubaydah, that was done here in the land of Smiles, at the VOA base in Udon Thani, by James Mitchell, Bruce Jessen and Deuce Martinez:

http://tortureaccountability.org/james_mitchell

http://tortureaccountability.org/bruce_jessen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuce_Martinez

Some of the details and techniques used can be found here:

http://www.counterpunch.org/2007/04/14/shrinks-lies-and-torture/

http://tortureaccountability.org/archives

http://www.salon.com/2006/09/07/suskind_8/

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/us/12psychs.html?pagewanted=all

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrogation_of_Abu_Zubaydah

The CIA methods did not work, they just turned the man insane. The video tapes were destroyed but the notes remain. Investigations continue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/07/washington/07brfs-INTERROGATIO_BRF.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/washington/03web-intel.html?hp