Tweet
Kiriakou and Katie
John Kiriakou, a former CIA agent, pled guilty this morning to disclosing information identifying a covert agent. The plea was part of a deal with prosecutors to only go to jail for up to thirty months.
The charge he pled guilty to was under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA). According to Reuters, “court papers” showed that “he revealed the name in an email to a journalist in 2008.”
A post published by Bmaz at Emptywheel noted:
To date, there have been no reported cases interpreting the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), but it did result in one conviction in 1985 pursuant to a guilty plea. In that case, Sharon Scranage, a former CIA clerk, pleaded guilty for providing classified information regarding U.S. intelligence operations in Ghana, to a Ghanaian agent, with whom she was romantically involved. She was initially sentenced to five years in prison, but a federal judge subsequently reduced her sentence to two years. That. Is. It.
In the case of Kiriakou, as the Government Accountability Project’s (GAP) Jesselyn Radack wrote, “The IIPA charge is based on Kiriakou’s allegedly confirming the name of one “Officer A” and that name eventually ending up in a SEALED Guantanamo defense filing.”
Firedoglake revealed key information on who “Officer A” was last week. The name of “Officer A” was not published in the post. After the post was published, the individual’s name began to circulate on the internet because it was posted to Cryptocomb.org by a source. (Note: Firedoglake has no way of knowing whether the source that posted to Cryptocomb.org is the same source that came forward to share information on “Officer A.” In fact, it was brought to Firedoglake‘s attention that multiple individuals in human rights organizations were aware of this person’s identity.)
This is who “Covert Officer A” happens to be and who Kiriakou is going to jail for “uncovering”:
. . . The CIA officer listed as “Officer A” in the John Kiriakou complaint has been revealed to be Thomas Donahue Fletcher. Born in 1953. Fletcher is currently a resident of Vienna, VA. Further – source states journalists have known identity of this person prior to August 2008, when Kiriakou allegedly confirmed the identity in an email to Matthew Cole, formerly of ABC News. . . . Thomas Donahue Fletcher was the chief of the Headquarters Based Rendition Group and was personally responsible for the rendition of Abu Zubaydah (as well as other high-value detainees) to the CIA black site in Thailand and witnessed and played a role in Zubaydah’s torture…
Radack put it succinctly in her most recent post: This is a “tragic bookend to the torture narrative: Kiriakou will be going to jail, while Fletcher happily enjoys retirement in Vienna VA, safe with protection from “the most transparent administration in history.”
It must be made clear Kiriakou went on television while the Bush Administration was still in power. He said on television that the CIA had an official policy of torture. He called waterboarding torture. This put a target on him. He became a person the federal government would be watching closely. They would be searching for some kind of political offense they could charge as a crime.
With this plea, the Obama administration can claim victory in its war on whistleblowers. It can be proud that it made certain this man’s life was destroyed and his family was brought to the point where they were willing to beg for mercy and be done with the government’s prosecution.
If there is anything positive to come out of this, it is that Kiriakou will be out of jail in just over two years. He’ll be able to see his five children grow up. But, while he is in jail, a “retired” agent, who aided in the kidnapping of “terror suspects” for renditions, will be on the outside and free.
38 Comments
Welcome to the Gulag. I hope the next purge doesn’t focus on people with European sounding names. Great post and will be front paged I hope.
but the same outfit just couldn’t get anyone for Plame?
Now I think Plame was lucky she didn’t get charged with something. Just ruining her and her husband’s life was good enough I suppose.
locking up candidates for President, pepper spraying peaceful protesters, and kidnapping people off of the streets of Italy.
Thank you for this coverage, Kevin.
I hope that everyone who comments here will actually read the post which bmaz put up at Emptywheel’s place, as well as the comments made in response to the post.
Please note earlofhuntingdon’s comment, @ 7, as it is especially concise in its spot-on analysis.
DW
Thomas Donahue Fletcher … let that name be long remembered along with the infamy which was brought upon this nation.
Let Barack Obama’s behavior, in NOT “criminalizing” what his administration identifies as simply, “policy differences”, that is torture and beginning the “war” in Irak based upon obvious and demonstrated lies, also be long remembered.
As we remember these things, let us not forget the courage and the honor which John Kiriakou, once upon a time, when it was most necessary and dangerous, displayed, publicly and to our benefit. To the benefit of conscience and principle.
We owe such remembrance both to ourselves and to posterity, that it may be fully understood that not every one was party to treasonous deceit and the intentional destruction of the Rule of law and civil society, that some dared stand for truth and for justice.
DW
So I assume this means that sufficient precedent has now been established to arrest Karl Rove and Dick Cheney for the Plame outing, right?
You can say that again. This is just tragic.
Kiriakou blows the whistle on torture (if in fact he did — many people knew the name) and goes to jail. The guy who runs the rendition program enjoys a nice happy retirement.
The CIA has been trying to get the DoJ to prosecute Kiriakou for years for something, anything. They finally got him.
Ugh. I can’t tell you how disgusted this makes me.
Bmaz only supports certain whistleblowers. Bmaz hates Bradley Manning and has slandered him repeatedly. Bmaz wants Manning in the American Gulag for 35 years.
As for the Attorney General Holder, he is protecting torturers. But Holder is spending millions of taxpayer dollars to prosecute a mentally ill hacker. Ten years ago, Gary McKinnon did minimal damage to military computers that had no security. Holder has created a diplomatic incident because Britain will not extradite McKinnon. Holder does not get furious about torturers. He gets furious over a kid hacker.
So, when’s the indictment of Darrell Issa coming down?
I hope, Jane, that you also may mention Barack Obama’s role in this tragedy?
For it is Barack Obama who “signals” to the CIA and to the DoJ, precisely and exactly, what HIS priorities, as President and as Commander in Chief, specifically are.
The same applies, as few here will dispute, to Bradley Manning’s mistreatment and abuse.
And, Barack Obama fully deserves to be held to account for what HIS administration and the agencies which he controls, actually and in fact, do … or don’t do.
I am more than a little disgusted that TBogg may strongly “imply”, and not be held to any account, that any of us who do so, who hold Barack Obama to account, as is both our right AND our obligation, are, essentially racists whose purpose in noting Obama’s behaviors and choosing to vote for a third party candidate, for any number of conscientious reasons, is to “… make the black man go away.”
No doubt, I shall be accused of “telling” you “how to run this place”. I am not.
I am merely suggesting that disgust IS appropriate and, in NO WAY, racist, unfair, or unjust, when placing responsibility, for that disgust, where it actually, properly, and honestly lies.
TBogg is, of course, entitled to his own opinion, as unpleasantly “expressed” as it may be, he is not, however, entitled to his own facts … facts which are beyond reasonable and rational dispute.
DW
It is depressing. What is gained by ruining this mans life? Terrible.
I do not know what bmaz thinks of Bradley Manning, Frank 33, so I cannot, reasonably, know whether I would agree with your assessment or not.
I do consider that the post, which Kevin links us to, speaks to some of my concerns and that the comment section is even more powerful in its reflection of some very finely considered analysis.
That said, I do admit to areas of disagreement with bmaz. Nonetheless, I am willing to hear what he has to say for his expertise, in many areas, is substantial and worthy of my basic respect.
Were you to provide some links that substantiate your perspective, I should be most willing to look at them.
Anticipating those links, I thank you in advance.
DW
Future whistleblowers – that is, if any are courageous enough to tell the truth and stick their necks out – will look back in envy at the light and beneficent sentence that John Kiriakou will “enjoy.”
No snark. I think this is the tip of the iceberg, and it’ll only get worse from here for those who have the courage of their convictions, like Kiriakou.
Now tell me WHY, exactly, I “should” vote for Barack Obama???
Thanks for the post. Excellent reporting, as usual, even as I read it with loathing & disgust.
This forced confession of a writer and punishment is a perversion of the rule of law. And, when the rule of law can be bent any which way to punish and scapegoat, then we should all be afraid.
How bad does it have to get?
When do we get to the point where we are not welcome anywhere……. to apply for jobs, when no one will work for us, when certain professions are not available to us, when we are not allowed to live in certain areas, and can only travel for short distances because we don’t have the right papers? Does it have to get that bad before people will reject this kind of abuse?
The State wants complete secrecy for itself and all of its deeds, good and evil, but complete transparency for the individual citizen. This is an imbalance of power that does not end well.
What is gained … is the “deterrent effect”, bluedot12.
This President, as a number of Kevin’s posts make clear, wants total control of “information” and has sought to prosecute “whistle-blowers” with more vigor than any of his predecessors …
There is to be ONE and ONLY one, “official history” and any who might affect the “one indispensable nation” as Obama terms the USA, and THE official “story”, are enemies and an endless “threat”.
That is my “take”.
What is yours, bluedot12?
DW
Is there any reason right now to think the enlargement of the list of “comfortable retirees” of Vienna, VA isn’t going to grow like a runaway train?
General Petraeus, has chimed in on this, giving it the formal whitewash I presume he would like for his own criminal torture program in Iraq:
I
My thought was that this guys “crime” seemed small potatoes. They have already exacted sufficient punishment. In fact, already too much. So it must be they want to make an example of him. But that is also foolish. Do they really think his case will establish a precedent? I suppose they do. Our war machine punishes all who cross it.
Revising history doesn’t change history just one’s own perception of it. History has shown these bozos will take too much and go too far and no longer be in charge. They seem to think they have everything under control but they don’t and that is why they are pulling this strong arm shit. I think the Arab Spring can be a model for essentially non-violent change with the difference being we have people who know what to do once the bozos leave and the Tunisians and Egyptians are learning as they go. I am hopeful in the longer run and fear for the near term pain.
As bad as this administration is ,and as much as i would like to kick OBs’ ass the only choice i have is to vote DEM, the alternative would be a complete disaster.Just think, Bachmann,Fox, Ghomer,McCain etc.It is enough to make a strong man puke!
This s obviously not the place to mount a defense of Obama. But I do wonder to what extent the MIC mandates this kind of action. We are a warring nation. This sort of extreme loyalty goes hand in glove with it. We need to stop the insanity. That is easier said than done. Next time at the gym, ask around what people think of Muslims and such. Both our political parties are trapped in it.
I doubt Mr Fletcher will be doing much traveling abroad (unless he goes incognito).
The trouble with our system is that our politicians, who are in reality public servants, morph into the puppets of private interests once they’re elected. The rhetoric they employ is populist while their actions are corporatist.
All of which suggests we are in serious decline with fools like that in government on both sides.
We are so close to being that bad, it is truly scary. It is going to become increasingly difficult for American citizens to get passports (exit visas in effect), making them prisoners in their own country. I would not be at all surprised to see trackers becoming required for all private automobiles in a foreseeable future.
Silence from FDL PTB over this sort of thing is THUNDEROUS.
Ugh. That is, sadly, a post.
Scooter Libby and Darth Cheney must be laughing their asses off.
Too bad your partisanship blinds you to the fact that these clowns serve the same interests, and they’re not there to improve your life, only their own and their masters, at your expense. You’ll only have yourself to blame when you are droned or disappeared. Your masters appreciate your support.
“Trapped in it”?
I think not, bluedot.
They glory in it.
Fear may be “sold” as hotcakes, delicious, nutritious, a holy delight.
Remember, Eisenhower originally termed it the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex? The MICC. And he cahaged only because the political class had a conniption fit … a regular “profile” in duplicitous, self-serving deceit …
How many in the political class, which includes the media, have “interests” in the “racket, do you imagine?
DW
Good lord just use Google for heaven’s sake. You’ll get hundreds of posts that have been written here and appeared on the front page from virtually every writer laying responsibility for torture during his administration on Obama’s doorstep.
Don’t be a nitwit.
True, that, “virtually every”, Jane, and I sincerely thank you for so allowing (and encouraging) the many to share their considered analysis and conscientious concern.
There are few enough well-attended places where that is possible or permitted.
DW
I do not want to bash Bmaz, although he has called me “delusional”. He has repeatedly attacked Manning but I will only briefly mention his nonsense.
Ellsberg was actually INNOCENT of the charges against him.And he insults Rainey Reitman of EFF.
Why not? He may be playing in your corner of cyberspace, but he could still be playing for ‘the other team’. Those were war crimes and when people inside of government or inside of the military expose war crimes, they are called whistleblowers, and even if current law or current government does not protect them, justice calls for their protection from retaliation.
Thanks for the links, Frank. The ether ate my long and excellent response and I’ve not the time to respond further at the moment.
Except to say that I do differ with bmaz, on occasion, and that calling you “delusional” means he that has taken a long-term “interest” in you, as those whom he truly dislikes he invites, summarily, to leave.
;~DW
Jane, I believe sapphirebuletsofurelove was referring to the portion of DW’s post about TBogg’s profanity and ad hominem attacks on certain MYFDL posts that discuss voting third party. His arrogance is getting tiresome. I don’t care if he’s his arrogant self on his blog, but he has no call to use that approach with respected diarists.
I haven’t had the opportunity to be on those posts at the same time as he, or I would be sorely tempted to fight “fire with fire”, if you get my drift.
I wish that Bmaz would use his talents to support Manning who is definitely a Lamplighter, Whistleblower and Truth Teller. But he has chosen the other side. Perhaps because he is friends with some of the prosecutors in the Manning Kangaroo Court who he says he knows.
The Department of Justice and Holder seem to be insane. Kim Dotcom has 100 SWAT and Police invaders. And they have a video feed in Dotcom’s mansion, before the raid! Gary McKinnon is a script kiddie from ten years ago looking for UFO files. Holder wants to put him in jail for 60 years! Holder ordered the British to arrest Julian Assange under all circumstances.
But torturers, they remain free because they serve the One Percent Banksters.
How many passports in different names do you think he has?
Arbitrary by nature, fascist behavior….
Charge the whistle-blower, and the criminal walks