We all know how the left views Scooter Libby. Despite the fact that, as it turns out, he didn't actually leak Valerie Plame's employment at the CIA... and that her employment wasn't even a secret (at least not to anyone who watched her drive into the CIA offices every day), he was prosecuted, convicted, and vituperatively remonstrated in the media.
We also know how the left views Assange and Manning - like two white-horse-riding, justice-dispensing renegades and heroes. This despite the fact that they actually DID commit crimes and endanger multiple lives and US operations.
I wonder how they'll view this guy. I guess it all depends on what he leaked and why he leaked it. As long as it was information that endangers US soldiers overseas, I think he'll be treated like a hero by the MSM. But God help him if he tried to leak something the left finds important to secure... like Obama's birth documents.
(CBS/AP) A former CIA officer is under indictment, accused of leaking classified information about Iran to a New York Times reporter.Ex-CIA Agent Arrested for Disclosing Secrets - CBS News
Federal prosecutors charged Jeffrey Sterling with 10 counts related to improperly keeping and disclosing national security information.
Jeffrey Alexander Sterling, 43, was charged in a federal grand jury indictment returned in the Eastern District of Virginia Dec. 22, and unsealed Thursday.
Sterling worked at the CIA from May 1993 until January 2002. He was arrested in St. Louis and is expected to make his an initial court appearance shortly.
The Justice Department does not say specifically what was leaked but, from the dates and other details, it is clear that case centers on leaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his 2006 book, "State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration" The book revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran.
Sterling, of O'Fallon, Mo., served on the Iranian desk at the CIA.
The Justice Department had twice subpoenaed Risen to force him to reveal his sources, but he refused.
The indictment charges Sterling with six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information, and one count each of unlawful retention of national defense information, mail fraud, unauthorized conveyance of government property and obstruction of justice.
The Justice Department release does not identify what kind of secrets Sterling allegedly disclosed, but says that he "he was assigned to a classified clandestine operational program designed to conduct intelligence activities related to the weapons capabilities of certain countries," in Iran, which the release refers to as "Country A."
Sterling allegedly funneled information about "Country A" and an unnamed "human asset" or intelligence source there to Risen as fodder for articles and later a book the Justice Department says was published in January, 2006 - Risen's.
The Justice Department claims that Sterling was retaliating for "the CIA's refusal to settle on terms favorable to him in the civil and administrative claims he was pursuing against the CIA," and that Sterling, an attorney, knowingly violated non-disclosure agreements and legal secrecy commitments he made as a sworn CIA officer.
Sterling faces decades in prison if convicted.
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