Ex-Officer Is First in C.I.A. to Face Prison for a Leak

WASHINGTON — Looking back, John C. Kiriakou admits he should have known better. But when the F.B.I. called him a year ago and invited him to stop by and “help us with a case,” he did not hesitate.

Only an hour into what began as a relaxed chat with the two agents — the younger one who traded Pittsburgh Steelers talk with him and the senior investigator with the droopy eye — did he begin to realize just who was the target of their investigation.

On Jan. 25, Mr. Kiriakou is scheduled to be sentenced to 30 months in prison as part of a plea deal in which he admitted violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by e-mailing the name of a covert C.I.A. officer to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it. The law was passed in 1982, aimed at radical publications that deliberately sought to out undercover agents, exposing their secret work and endangering their lives. . .

There has been a total lack of serious investigations and prosecutions re the Intelligence Agents Identities Act since it was enacted (with Ted Kennedy trying to emasculate it to the point of destroying it).

Let’s see, related investigations never undertaken
:
*Kennedy’s contacts with Moscow (see Paul Kengor’s articles about this attempt to undermine Pres. Reagan’s defense policies).

* The concealment of the true DGI/paid agent identify of Chilean Marxist, former Ambassador Orlando Letelier and his ties to the marxist Institute for Policy Studies. One of the biggest intelligence coverups of the century re the US. Lots of leftist disinformation put out to cover Letelier’s role as a Cuban agent operating in the U.S.

While technically not an IAIA case, it is actually the opposite, an example of how the media, esp. the Wash. Post, covered up communist operations and agents in the U.S.
Jack Anderson used to do this on a regular basis in his “Merry-Go-Round” column.

* Sen. John Kerry’s use of discredited marxists in his attempts to smear the freedom fighters of Nicaragua, while actively supportiner the Sandinistas himself (along with Tom Harkin and Chris Dodd, among others in Congress). Kerry’s staff refused to release information on who he hired as smear artists (Porter, Varelli, and perhaps Avirgan).

*Rep. (Father) Robert Drinan (D-Mass) illegally getting into his files and others of the House Internal Security Committee and trying to/releasing some of them. The same for another Massachusetts red, then Rep. Michael Harrington (D-Mass), a certifiable leftwing nut, like Drinan.

* Rep. Ronald Dellum (D-CA) working with the marxists/Cuban DGI contacts of OC5/PEPIC and Counterspy magazine (Phil Agee and company), among others to expose US intelligence agents around the world (Led to the death of the head of the CIA Station in Greece, Mr. Welch) and assassination attempts on others (who might not have been intell people at all).

* Attempts by Rep. Don Fraser (D-Minn), in 1974, to force US Ambassador Graham Martin to reveal top secret information that could have cost some intell people their lives (I was at that hearing. Fraser was a psychopath and hardcore marxist).

* The exposure of actual or supposed US nuclear weapons storage sites around the world by Bill Arkin, then of the marxist Institute for Policy Studies. IPS was founded by far-left liberals and reds who marched to Hanoi and never returned. IPS was funded by Communist Party USA members and one suspected Soviet agent of influence, and led by many of them plus New Left marxists now employed by George Soros.

Scores of Congressmen/women and Senators worked with IPS on slashing the defense budget, exposing intelligence secrets, and aiding communist governments in Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Angola, among others.

IPS and their congressional followers also spread Soviet disinformation on defense and foreign affairs issues. IPS affiliated groups such as the National Center for Security Studies (NCSS), Center for International Policy, and even the Center for Defense Information (all with the Fund for Peace and IPS connections).

IPS had some serious connections with Moscow through various “peace” fronts and events. The KGB was deep into these operations. See Steve Powell’s “Covert Cadre” for some details on these operations. Also the book/study “The War Called Peace: The Soviet Peace Offensive”, 1982, Western Goals, Alex. Va. Other materials by the late Rep. Larry McDonald (D-GA) were published in the Congressional Record on the IPS, OC5/Counterspy, World Peace Council/US Peace Council (KGB ops), etc.

All these groups tried to expose US intelligence operations and directly or indirectly, those who were involved.

Never a prosecution, even under Reagan. One of his administration’s greatest failures.

No prosecutions under Obama for writers and/or organizations exposing Iraqi and Afghani citizens who helped the US to fight the terrorists. Why not?

The record is clear. The Intelligence Agents Identify Act was never going to be enforced, esp. during a Democratic administration.

The Kiriakou case is actually punishment for what he did to get Obama and his group of killers, not because he leaked the name of an intelligence official. Backdoor punishment for “waterboarding” (”torture”). A lesson to others that they are going to get prosecuted.

While he was careless in trusting any journalist, he apparently did not do it intentionally.

If we prosecuted those in the Obama administration who leaked our defense/intelligence secrets to the press, there wouldn’t be anyone left to run things.

Bad justice is no justice.

[If we prosecuted those in the Obama administration who leaked our defense/intelligence secrets to the press, there wouldn’t be anyone left to run things.]

I'm recollecting off the top of my head but when Attorney General Eric Holder went on his anti-CIA crusade 2009-10 he leaked the names of a number of contract personnel. These included two clinical psychologists allegedly working at detainee sites.

As you probably know, Holder is on leave from Covington & Burling where he is a senior partner. Covington & Burling represented, pro bono, approximately 20 Guantanamo detainees. Holder has done everything in his power to move detainees to the U.S. and federal court jurisdiction and has hired a number of detainee lawyers into the Justice Department, giving them access to classified information that can eventually be used to sue the U.S. government for “torture” and “unlawful detention.”

In addition to Ted Kennedy's long relationship with the KGB I think he also aided John Kerry's contacts with North Vietnamese envoys. Kerry claims he did not meet Ted Kennedy until he testified before Congress in 1971 as a leader of VVAW. This is absurd. As a teenager Kerry knew JFK and sailed on his yacht. And Ted Kennedy was Kerry's senator since 1962.

I think Ted Kennedy's senate staff stage-managed Kerry's 4-month Vietnam tour in the same way Joe Kennedy stage managed JFK's WWII service.

[“radical publications that deliberately sought to out undercover agents”]

The statute was motivated by ex-CIA employee Philip Agee who identified hundreds of covert U.S. agents working around the world in the late 1970’s. Agee did this through his book “Inside the Company,” through leaks to foreign news media and through a quarterly newsletter, Covert Action Information Bulletin, published by some of his associates.

From Agee’s 2008 New York Times obituary (he died in Havana):

“You can package it any way you want — the simple reality is he defected to the enemy during the cold war,” said Frank R. Anderson, 65, who worked as a clandestine officer for the C.I.A. abroad from 1968 to 1995. “He did everything he could to endanger his colleagues and fellow American citizens.”

Mr. Agee’s efforts and those of his associates, Mr. Anderson said, placed in danger not only Americans doing covert work but also all the foreign citizens who had associated with them, whether as spies or in daily life. Even when it did not result in physical threats, the exposure of spies disguised as diplomats or businesspeople forced the agency to withdraw them and caused costly disruptions of intelligence efforts, Mr. Anderson said.

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