Former NSA Executive Thomas A. Drake May Pay High Price for Media Leak
July 16th, 2010Via: Washington Post:
Throughout 2009, Drake’s attorney appealed to the prosecution to dismiss the case, arguing that Drake had violated no law. But in November, with a new prosecutor at the helm, it became clear that the case would move ahead.
That month, Drake ran into Seymour Hersh, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, in Bethesda. Drake, who knew of Hersh’s work uncovering the 1968 My Lai massacre, began talking to him and mentioned he was under investigation. He began sharing with Hersh what he had told congressional investigators years earlier, about the NSA’s pre-9/11 knowledge of al-Qaeda. The story, Hersh told journalists in Geneva in April, was “much more devastating, much more important” than what was reported in the Baltimore Sun. Neither man followed up with the other.
Related: NSA Whistleblower Used Hushmail to Communicate with Reporter
