Obama is already toughest president on leaks

Source: MSNBC via The New York Times

In 17 months in office, President Obama has already outdone every previous president in pursuing leak prosecutions. His administration has taken actions that might have provoked sharp political criticism for his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was often in public fights with the press.

Mr. Drake was charged in April; in May, an F.B.I. translator was sentenced to 20 months in prison for providing classified documents to a blogger; this week, the Pentagon confirmed the arrest of a 22-year-old Army intelligence analyst suspected of passing a classified video of an American military helicopter shooting Baghdad civilians to the Web site Wikileaks.org.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has renewed a subpoena in a case involving an alleged leak of classified information on a bungled attempt to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program that was described in “State of War,” a 2006 book by James Risen. The author is a reporter for The New York Times. And several press disclosures since Mr. Obama took office have been referred to the Justice Department for investigation, officials said, though it is uncertain whether they will result in criminal cases.

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Steven Aftergood, head of the project on government secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, who has long tracked the uneasy commerce in secrets between government officials and the press, said Mr. Drake might have fallen afoul of a bipartisan sense in recent years that leaks have gotten out of hand and need to be deterred. By several accounts, Mr. Obama has been outraged by some leaks, too.

“I think this administration, like every other administration, is driven to distraction by leaking,” Mr. Aftergood said. “And Congress wants a few scalps, too. On a bipartisan basis, they want these prosecutions to proceed.”

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37653773/ns/politics-the_new_york_times/

And I was like, wtf? That crap is still gushing into the Gulf.

Shows where my mind is now...

Words fail.

proceedings with Karen Ignagni, AHIP and big pharma were not leaked.
Now that would have been one for transparency.
I'll never believe that Daniel Ellsberg was an enemy of the American people.
He is unrepentant and rightfully so.

... was approved by the President Himself ???????

I won't be doing any calling for him again.

They didn't trade secrets to the enemies of the United States. They exposed corruption from within. Leaking isn't the problem. Fucked up policies and the people who implement them are. We need leaker's when there is injustice. Mr. Obama is just trying to look tough. He might want to look for the real criminals. They are pretty easy to find as they were in the previous administration and the Republican Party. I'm an ex marine and I voted for Obama but at this point he can kiss my ass. I'm fed up with this "Good German" mindset in our military. We need more like these leakers.

from what he presented during his campaign, that we would be unhappy. Barack Obama - Ignorance is Acquiescence.

Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/11/wikileaks-founder-assange-pentagon-manning

Then there's all those Republicans and Democrats that want to close the Congressional Ethics Office (connected dots imho)
Lawmakers Seek To Gut Ethics Office (6-11-10 Politico article by Jonathan Allen & John Bresnahan via CREW)

http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/45149