Federal contractor charged with leaking secrets

[cal04]

Source: Associated Press

The Obama administration on Friday accused an analyst who worked at the State Department of leaking top secret information about North Korea to a reporter. He is pleading innocent. It was the latest move in an aggressive campaign to crack down on leaks, even as the administration has supported proposed legislation that would shield reporters from having to identify their sources.

Steven Kim, who worked at State as an employee of a contractor, was named in a federal indictment unsealed Friday. He was charged with illegally disclosing national defense information, which carries a top penalty of 10 years in prison, and with making false statements to the FBI, which has a maximum five-year sentence.

The Justice Department said in June 2009 Kim knowingly passed information about U.S. intelligence concerning a foreign country to a national news organization and in September of that year falsely denied to the FBI having had recent contacts with a reporter from that news organization. The material was classified top secret/sensitive compartmented information because it concerned the military capability of the foreign country and related to U.S. intelligence sources and methods.

An individual briefed on the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters not included in the filing, said the country was North Korea and the news organization was Fox News.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100827/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_leak_prosecution

[Richard Steele]

1. He leaked to Fox News? I'm torn.

Generally, I regard whistleblowers in a positive light,
as people who assume personal risk in violating the law
for the sake of the "Greater Good".

But if this guy thinks Fox News is the place to go
with important information, then he's obviously
too fucking stupid to know what the Greater Good is.

I'm gonna reserve comment until more facts come my way.
The only thing that's clear to me is that I don't have enough
information to form an opinion.

Yet.

[DCKit]

2. +1

But you have to admit that the WAPO and NYT are (now) just as sketchy.

He probably doesn't know about alternative outlets outside the MSM.

[Richard Steele]

3. You raise a fine point. Thank you.

Given the environment within which he's built his career,
his horrendously erroneous choice might be understandable.

[Wednesdays]

4. K&R

:kick: