A federal jury found former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling guilty of leaking classified information. He was charged with providing New York Times reporter James Risen with information about a failed CIA mission managed by Sterling to stifle the Iranian nuclear program. The trial was delayed for years while prosecutors labored to force Risen to testify. Risen never relented, reiterating that he would not disclose the identity of his source of information on the failed mission that he published in a 2006 book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.” (Courthouse News Service, January 26, 2015, by Amanda Loviza-Vickery)
Prosecutors claimed Sterling leaked information to Risen in revenge after the CIA fired him in 2002. The government had no direct proof that Sterling leaked information to Risen but built a circumstantial case based partly on documented contacts by telephone and e-mails. Sterling’s defenders pointed out that he was a whistleblower who testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003 in a tense climate as the U.S. launched its assault on Iraq. (The New York Times, January 26, 2005, by Matt Apuzzo)
In The Intercept, January 27, 2005, Dan Froomkin excoriated Obama for pursuing the likes of Sterling while ignoring those involved in torture and betraying his pledge for an open and transparent federal government: “The Sterling case – especially in light of Obama’s complicity in the cover-up of torture during the Bush administration – sends a clear message to people in government service: You won’t get in trouble as long as you do what you’re told (even torture people). But if you talk to a reporter and tell him something we want kept secret, we will spare no effort to destroy you,” wrote Froomkin.