Editorials & Other Articles

KoKo

(84,711 posts) Sat Mar 21, 2015, 02:42 PM Mar 2015

Lawyers for CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Request "Reconsideration" Citing the Petraeus Deal

Lawyers for CIA Leaker Cite Selective Prosecution After Petraeus Plea Deal
By Peter Maass

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/20/lawyer-cia-leaker-cites-selective-prosecution-petraeus-plea/

Lawyers for Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA official convicted earlier this year of leaking classified information to a New York Times reporter, have requested a reconsideration of his conviction because two former generals, David Petraeus and James Cartwright, have received far more lenient treatment for what they call similar offenses.

“The principal difference between Mr. Sterling and Generals Petraeus and Cartwright are their respective races and rank,” the new filing states. “Like General Cartwright, General Petraeus is a white, high ranking official … The government must explain why the justice meted out to white generals is so different from what Mr. Sterling faced.”

In January, Sterling was convicted by a jury on nine criminal counts, including violations of the Espionage Act, for leaking classified information to Times reporter James Risen about a CIA effort to undermine Iran’s nuclear program. Sterling is to be sentenced in April and faces a maximum sentence of decades in jail. In a statement after the verdict was announced, Attorney General Eric Holder called the guilty verdict a “just and appropriate outcome.”

But the government is coming under increasing criticism for its uneven prosecution of leakers.

Earlier this month, Petraeus, who led U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and was the director of the CIA, reached an agreement with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information when he gave his lover and authorized biographer, Paula Broadwell, eight notebooks filled with highly-classified information about military plans and secret programs, covert agent names, and confidential discussions he had with senior officials including President Obama. Petraeus, who resigned from the CIA when his affair with Broadwell was revealed, also admitted to lying to the FBI, but he was not charged for that. The plea agreement calls for two years probation and a $40,000 fine but no jail time.

No charges have been filed against Cartwright even though it has been reported that federal prosecutors believe he leaked highly classified information to Times reporter David Sanger about a joint effort by the U.S. and Israel to cripple Iran’s nuclear centrifuges through a cyber-attack with a computer worm called Stuxnet. According to The Washington Post, the FBI has interviewed Cartwright on at least two occasions but has stopped short of indicting him.

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/03/20/lawyer-cia-leaker-cites-selective-prosecution-petraeus-plea/

2 replies

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Lawyers for CIA Leaker Jeffrey Sterling Request "Reconsideration" Citing the Petraeus Deal (Original Post) KoKo Mar 2015 OP

Betrayus walked, so should this guy Dems to Win Mar 2015 #1

Totally different situations jmowreader Mar 2015 #2

Dems to Win

(2,161 posts)

1. Betrayus walked, so should this guy

Reply to KoKo (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2015, 04:07 PM

Mar 2015

Hope his lawyers can get him off.

jmowreader

(50,562 posts)

2. Totally different situations

Reply to KoKo (Original post)

Sat Mar 21, 2015, 05:40 PM

Mar 2015

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Broadwell

Paula Broadwell is a West Point graduate (class of 1995) who served in the Military Intelligence Corps and was so engaged when she was doing the Mattress Mambo with the Director of Central Intelligence. As such, she had a Top Secret security clearance and I assume she also had access to "compartmented" information - the shit that's so secret only a handful of the cool kids get to work with it.

If I have some classified information to give to you, before I can do so I have to be sure you have enough of a security clearance to read the information AND that you have the need to know what's in it. If I have a North Korean rice forecast classified Confidential and you only work Ukrainian tractor parts, the fact you have a Top Secret clearance will not get you my document because you have no need to know about North Korean rice farming. Once you get it, you are required to store the information in a secure manner. Alternately, you can't give me your recipe for Ukrainian tractor tire rubber because I only work DPRK agriculture.

Paula Broadwell, in addition to probably not having the need to know what Petraeus gave her, took the shit home and stored it on her family computer - which you CAN'T do! But really, David Petraeus' biggest crime was fucking Paula Broadwell - they just can't put it in those exact words.

Compared with...
Jeffrey Sterling, who passed "highly classified" information to the New York Times...
or Chelsea Manning, who passed three quarters of a million State Department cables to Julian Assange...
or Edward Snowden, who passed probably every document the NSA had at the time to Glenn Greenwald...

Petraeus made a fairly minor violation (passing data to parties without need-to-know) and Broadwell one a bit more severe - mishandling data by storing it outside an approved facility.

I'd be happier throwing Petraeus and Broadwell in Leavenworth for five-to-ten than in letting these other guys just walk because "well, that OTHER guy got a slap on the wrist, why can't I have one too?"

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