By NICK SCHWELLENBACH
It's too late to change anything related to the Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecution, which fell apart earlier this month. But it is further vindication for Thomas Drake, the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower who had faced five counts of violating the Espionage Act for having unauthorized possession of "national defense information." In the end, Drake ended up pleading to a misdemeanor charge of exceeding the authorized use of a computer.
Many of Drake's allegations of waste and ineffectiveness in an intelligence program at the NSA were backed up in a Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD IG) report, which POGO received today. The report is dated December 15, 2004, and has not been previously been made public in any form until today.
The report, which was heavily redacted, found that “the National Security Agency is inefficiently using resources to develop a digital network exploitation system that is not capable of fully exploiting the digital network intelligence available to analysts from the Global Information Network.” The DoD IG also found, in reference to TRAILBLAZER, that “the NSA transformation effort may be developing a less capable long-term digital network exploitation solution that will take longer and cost significantly more to develop.”
POGO obtained a copy of the DoD IG report through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The U.S. Department of Justice's (DOJ's) prosecution was believed to be an outgrowth of the DOJ’s investigation into disclosures of the NSA warrantless wiretapping to The New York Times and came after Drake blew the whistle on widespread problems with an NSA program called TRAILBLAZER. Most of the Espionage Act charges against Drake dealt with documents associated with his cooperation with this DoD IG audit. However, this month the government's case against Drake fell apart and prosecutors dropped the felony charges.
Nick Schwellenbach is POGO's Director of Investigations.
Portrait of Tom Drake by Robert Shetterly.
Congradulation on your victory Mr Drake.I know what you have gone through im an OSHA whistleblower since 4/20/09.
I'm at the end of my line and i will be posting a video on you tube about my case on how pathetic OSHA 11C is at protecting whistleblowers.The video only covers just a part of what i have gone through due to it would take too long on you tube.My son is in the proses of posting it today or tomorrow.It is a warning to other whistleblowers who are thinking of contacting OSHA and expecting protection.
Good luck Mr Drake
Gregg S
PROUD NAVY DAD
Posted by: Gregg S | Jun 25, 2011 at 01:06 PM
Thanks for posting this.
The report says that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence was involved in early criticisms (2001 NSA Modernization Study) of Trailblazer.
Diane Roark worked on that committee, IIRC? She is the one who said in the Jane Mayer New Yorker article that she was afraid to talk to her own kid for fear he would get in trouble. She was one of the people raided by armed FBI agents. She was the one the DOJ painted (in the indictment) as having received classified material from Drake after she was no longer a staffer. That was in Obama's DOJ indictment. Does she have a case agains them for defamation? Harassment? Something?
I am trying to understand why the DOJ felt the 2007 raids were necessary. It is very difficult to comprehend.
I would also like to know if there was a relationship between the AIPAC case falling apart and the decisions surrounding the Trailblazer investigation.
Posted by: decora | Jun 24, 2011 at 10:08 PM
It is great that Drake wasn't effectively prosecuted for his whistleblowing activities, and it is great that this report validates Drake's claims of NSA waste, but it remains a serious problem that the US government focused its energy on punishing those who sought to fix problems by communicating FACTS to members of Congress and the Pentagon IG, rather than fixing the revealed problems. If this story teaches us anything, it is that our systems of national security and justice have been co-opted to serve the interests of government contractors and corrupt decision makers, not the interests of the American people.
Posted by: Bob Savage | Jun 23, 2011 at 08:59 AM