This Is How A Police State Protects “Secrets” - Marcy Wheeler/Salon

[ND-Dem]

154. he filed a racial discrimination suit in 2000. That's when it began.

In April 2000, Sterling filed a complaint with the CIA's Equal Employment Office about management's alleged racial discrimination practices. The CIA subsequently revoked Sterling's authorization to receive or possess classified documents concerning the secret operation and placed him on administrative leave in March 2001.[12][13]

After the failure of two settlement attempts, his contract with the CIA was terminated on January 31, 2002.[14]

Sterling's lawsuit accusing CIA officials of racial discrimination was dismissed by the judge after the government successfully argued the state secrets privilege by alleging the litigation would require disclosure of classified information. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal, ruling in 2005 that “there is no way for Sterling to prove employment discrimination without exposing at least some classified details of the covert employment that gives context to his claim.”[15][16][17][18]

Conviction under the Espionage Act[edit]

Between 2002 and 2004, the U.S. federal government intercepted several interstate emails to and from Sterling, which were &quot ...) routed through a server located in the Eastern District of Virginia (...)". The authorities also traced telephone calls between Sterling and—according to a senior government official[7]—the journalist and book author James Risen. In the intercepted communications, Sterling allegedly revealed national defense information to an unauthorized person.[14]

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