Daniel Ellsberg:If Petraeus didn't commit felony-neither did Snowden, Manning, Sterling, or Kiriakou [View all]

[kpete]

Published on
Friday, March 06, 2015
byCommon Dreams

Daniel Ellsberg: Petraeus Case Shows Hypocrisy of Whistleblower Crackdown
If Petraeus did not commit a felony, neither did Snowden, Manning, Sterling, or Kiriakou, says leaker of Pentagon Papers

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On Tuesday, Petraeus pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of "unauthorized removal and retention of classified material." Under the parameters of the plea deal he made with the Justice Department, prosecutors will recommend two years probation and no jail time."

Compare that to the actions of Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years for leaking classified information. As Ellsberg noted: "Chelsea Manning had access to SCI every day… where she worked in Iraq. She chose to disclose none of it, nothing higher than Secret".

There is also the case of Jeffrey Sterling, convicted last month of leaking classified information to New York Times journalist James Risen, "having first revealed it to Congress, as I did," Ellsberg continued.

Sterling was also convicted under the Espionage Act and will be sentenced later this year. Manning is serving 35 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Ellsberg says Sterling’s "violations of security regulations were in no way more serious than what Petraeus has now admitted to", and that, while it’s too late to do anything about his conviction, the judge should take the Petraeus plea bargain into account at his sentencing.

"If disclosing the identities of covert agents to an unauthorized person and storing them in several unauthorized locations deserves a charge with a maximum sentence of one year," Ellsberg said, "then Edward Snowden should face not more than that same one count."

"The government had the chance to hold Petreaus out as an example on the same felony Espionage Act charges they’ve leveled (unfairly) against every conscientious whistleblower they’ve indicted," Timm concludes. "Their answer? Leaking should no longer be a felony. Let’s make sure we hold them to that, and not only for CIA Directors."


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