By BRYAN RAHIJA
Last Friday, a judge sentenced Thomas Drake to one year of probation and community service, effectively closing the book on the Justice Department's (DOJ's) embarrassing witch-hunt against the National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower.
Drake, who blew the whistle on a wasteful electronic surveillance program that he and other whistleblowers say put civil liberties of Americans at risk, eventually pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of misusing a government computer after the wheels fell off the Justice Department's misguided case against him.
Echoing what many critics have said, Federal District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett had harsh words for DOJ:
Judge Bennett reserved his strongest condemnation for the Justice Department, saying the two and a half years that elapsed between the search of Mr. Drake’s home and his indictment in 2010 was far too long
The visibly angry judge said that Mr. Drake had been through “four years of hell” and that the dragging out of the investigation — and then the dropping of the major charges on the eve of trial — was “unconscionable.”
“It doesn’t pass the smell test,” he said.
Oh, and, regarding Drake's whistleblower allegations? Shane also offers this important bit of context:
Apart from the drastic reduction of the charges he faced, Mr. Drake has seen some vindication for his views. The Trailblazer program was shut down as a failure after the N.S.A. paid contractors more than $1 billion. And an investigation by the Defense Department inspector general — based in part on information Mr. Drake provided — concluded that the agency “may be developing a less-capable long-term digital network exploitation solution” to tap into foreign telephone and Internet traffic.
That Department of Defense Inspector General report was first made public by POGO in June. POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian's statement at the time still rings true:
“This is just more evidence that the government never should have prosecuted Thomas Drake,” said Danielle Brian, POGO’s executive director. “We should be thankful that Mr. Drake had the courage to stand by his convictions and do what was best for the country.
The lead contractor for the Trailblazer program was Science Applications International Corporation.
Bryan Rahija edits POGO's blog.
Calling our "justice" system justice is an oxymoron, a travesty of real justice.
How can this system be called justice, when known, not perceived, war criminals are let go free and the same policies that made a mockery of this judicial system are still in place. The CIA is still operating-ahem-undercover blacks boxes, torture of prisoners, with torture methods that if prisoners were allowed to choose, they would rather go to a Chinese jail than one operated by this "Christian and democratic" nation.
This "judicial system" allows innocent prisoners be condemn to death and hadn't been for the Innocence proyect, the numbers, I'm sure, would have rivaled those of the old USSR "judicial" system.
How can there be justice if the people who complain about government malfeasnaces, crimes are the ones that pay dearly with their careers for something they should have hailed as heroes. It was reported in Frontline how aan Army sergeant that reported war crimes to his OIC had to watch over his shoulder every minute so as to not become another "casualty" of war for upholding his oath to defend the Constitution. Nobody likes a party pooper and in war, in politics, in every endeavour, the heroes, true heroes are considered traitors and the true criminals, war criminals are considered "heroes." If this is justice, then I'm Superman.
Posted by: Emile Zola | Jul 23, 2011 at 01:42 PM
I don't understand why this story has not got more traction.
The legal ramifications notwithstanding, NSA analysts insisted the MITRE Corporation-created "ThinThread" worked,
for a mere $3M dollars whereas the SAIC built 1.6 billion-dollar,"Trailblazer" did not.
I guess in any war truth is the first casualty.
Posted by: LewisKlim | Jul 19, 2011 at 04:40 PM