fifth anniversary of Thomas Drake charged under espionage act

Drake posted this in twitter

Thomas Drake ‏@Thomas_Drake1 1h1 hour ago
5 yrs ago today I faced down a 35 yr prison term in a 10 felony count Espionage Act indictment handed down against me by the US gov't. 1/19

5 yrs ago today I faced down a 35 yr prison term in a 10 felony count Espionage Act indictment handed down against me by the US gov't. 1/19

Why? Because I dared to speak truth to power on gov't criminal conduct, wrongdoing, corruption & coverup. 2/19

On eve of trial gov't dropped all counts against me in last minute deal as their case collapsed inside court & court of public opinion. 3/19

After attempts by gov't for me to plead to class'd disclosure I pled out on my terms for "exceeding authorized use of a gov't computer" 4/19

After attempts by gov't for me to plead to class'd disclosure I pled out on my terms for "exceeding authorized use of a gov't computer" 4/19

I blew whistle after 9/11 on secret Deep State mass surveillance by NSA (approved by WH), $Bs in fraud & 9/11 intel failures & coverup 5/19

Went to press early '06 w/ unclass info on what I knew - exercising right to bring grievances against gov't under 1A in public interest 6/19

Retaliated & criminalized as Enemy of the State for blowing whistle on gov't subversion of Constitution in secret - crimes & wrongdoing 7/19

Was threatened by chief prosecutor in Apr '08 in secret FBI facility with spending the rest of my life in prison. 8/19

Why? Wud end up in prison if I didn't coop w/ leak investigation of press inc Dec '05 @RealJamesRisen & @EricLichtblau @nytimes article 9/19

And if I coop'd maybe I wud spend just a few decades in prison. Said I wudn't plea bargain w/ truth & resigned NSA shortly thereafter. 10/19

I was rendered nearly bankrupt, declared indigent & appointed public defenders by federal court after 4yr gov't criminal investigation 11/19

Disclosing & exposing secret crimes committed by gov't defined as state crime. 12/19

Under Obama 1st sig case (& 1st w'blower since @DanielEllsberg) as sacrifice to NatSec primacy & exec rule over rule of law & rights 13/19

I wudn't break my oath defending Constitution against gov't willfully violating it & our inalienable rights of life, liberty & privacy 14/19

Kept my freedoms & liberties. More precious now than ever bcuz gov't didn't take them away from me in defending for all against gov't. 15/19

Key to my 14 month public&private defense was .@JesselynRadack. She defended me in court of public opinion like noone else wud or did 16/19

@JesselynRadack got what was at stake in my case. Made 1st public case I was a w'blower & not just a leaker. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/27/opinion/la-oe-radack-20100427 … 17/19

@JesselynRadack was my voice for truth when I had none. Defended me w/ singular focus&dedication against gov't apologists & propaganda 18/19

Thomas Drake ‏@Thomas_Drake1 29m29 minutes ago
@JesselynRadack was sole witness for my w'blowing before court, while standing on arc of history in my case, bending it toward justice 19/19

Share
up
0 users have voted.

Comments

I miss reading her.

up
0 users have voted.

Drake posts many more things

Did you notice that the head of the Inspector General Office for the DOD recently became a whistle blower about how Drake's material had been leaked to the Justice Dept. That is against the law. And Drake's records had become "lost."

Drake was a forensic linguist flying above Eastern Germany in one of his early assignments. He was three from the top at the NSA and his first day was on 9/11. Congress was pissed at NSA and Drake was sent in as an outsider.

He headed up the job of determining if 9/11 could have been prevented. Yes.

They thought he gave info to James Risen who outed the government spying on Americans. He had not and Risen was under indictment for 7 long years and along the way gave them the middle finger and published another book Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War.

Suggest you follow them them both on twitter.

up
0 users have voted.

I don't do facebook or twitter. There are many reasons not to.

up
0 users have voted.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking

not be named some time ago. She is a courageous person. She has my deepest gratitude and appreciation.

up
0 users have voted.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking

snoopydawg's picture

I would love to see her post here too. The treatment she got on LOF was horrible. I think it was because he was being prosecuted under Obama and as we all know from that place, he can do no wrong.
Petrayous should have his ass sitting in manning's jail cell and she should be living life like he is.
You know about the piddly assed fine he paid and got to keep his rank and pension.
And Hillary did much worse for 4 years and that's why I don't think Obama will let her be charged.
F'ck him!

up
0 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Drake was threatened with the rest of his life in prison

The "officials" have no shame - they are protecting their budget and their power

If Snowden because of his charges he could not defend himself and he learned this from Drake

Even recently when NSA published some of the emails that showed that yes, Snowden did complain that that actions were in violation of the constitution, after years and years that they lied that Snowden had not done that. And Snowden will not reply because they only released some of the emails and he is not sure what game they are playing this time.

Like other branches of the mafia, they have ways to keep the lackeys silent

up
0 users have voted.

Just one quibble, betrayus was quilty of leaking pentagon/military classified material and she should have had whistleblower protection, no crime, no foul.

up
0 users have voted.

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. Stephen Hawking

up
0 users have voted.
mimi's picture

Intel Vets Urge Fast Report on Clinton’s Emails

For the Steering Group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

William Binney, Technical Director, NSA; co-founder, SIGINT Automation Research Center (ret.)

Thomas Drake, Senior Executive, NSA (former)

Philip Giraldi, CIA, Operations Officer (ret.)

Former Sen. Mike Gravel, D, Alaska; earlier, Adjutant, top secret control officer, Communications Intelligence Service, special agent the Counter Intelligence Corps.

Matthew Hoh, former Capt., USMC, Iraq & Foreign Service Officer, Afghanistan (associate VIPS)

Larry C. Johnson, CIA & State Department (ret.)

Michael S. Kearns, Captain, USAF Intelligence Agency (ret.), ex-Master SERE Instructor

John Kiriakou, Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer

Ray McGovern, former US Army infantry/intelligence officer & CIA analyst (ret.)

Elizabeth Murray, Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Middle East, CIA (ret.)

Todd Pierce, MAJ, US Army Judge Advocate (ret.)

Scott Ritter, former MAJ, USMC, former UN Weapon Inspector, Iraq

Diane Roark, DOE, DOD, NSC, & professional staff, House Intelligence Committee (ret.)

Robert David Steele, former CIA Operations Officer

Peter Van Buren, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (ret.) (associate VIPS)

Kirk Wiebe, former Senior Analyst, SIGINT Automation Research Center, NSA, (ret.)

Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve Colonel (ret) and former U.S. Diplomat

up
0 users have voted.