He wasn't a whistleblower: he was a leaker. He permitted national-security information to fall into the hands of someone not cleared to handle it. Moreover, he shows not one whit of repentance for his crime.
You're talking about Daniel Ellsberg?
I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#42I just don't see how pursuing a complaint of racial discrimination against an organisation like the CIA is wise. This guy is obviously more courageous or naive than I am.
Unless you're beyond reproach, they will find a way to lynch you. Maybe even if you've done everything right. Going beyond official channels and trying to get revenge against the CIA seems suicidal.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course no whistle-blower ever got convicted of 'something else' as an act of retaliation for the whistle-blowing.
I guess, but that's a difficult argument to falsify; you could make the same claim about pretty much any prosecution.
No, you can only make those claims about defendants who in the past have attempted to blow the whistle on something and who then subsequently also got convicted for something else.
Given that the number of whistle-blowers is relatively small and that as a rule their lives turn to merry hell after they blow their whistle and that not rarely they are then prosecuted for something unrelated the claim is in fact not about 'pretty much any prosecution', even though you could make that claim that's not what I did.
I make the - simple to verify - claim that whistle-blowers tend to be punished in ways that have at first sight nothing to do with their blowing the whistle.
In fact I think you will find it rather harder to find examples of whistle-blowers that did not find some form of retaliation (through legal means or otherwise) on their path.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe don't assume that he's wrong. You only see what government presents to you about him. And you know, government would never make itself look bad.
It's an article in The Intercept . That isn't a publication that is known for making government look good.
For a view from the other side of political spectrum: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/twist...
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess, but that's a difficult argument to falsify; you could make the same claim about pretty much any prosecution.
No, you can only make those claims about defendants who in the past have attempted to blow the whistle on something and who then subsequently also got convicted for something else. Given that the number of whistle-blowers is relatively small and that as a rule their lives turn to merry hell after they blow their whistle and that not rarely they are then prosecuted for something unrelated the claim is in fact not abou…
You're moving the goalposts. The original comment you wrote, which I responded to, suggested that whistleblowers were routinely convicted of other crimes as retaliation. That's a point I'm interested in litigating. The fuzzier point is less interesting to me.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not an U.S. citizen, just a wild guess: It's not very wise to give somebody, even altered, nuclear blueprints. It's a similar type of stupid stuff that NSA does when it puts backdoors into devices or cryptosystems.
It's not a bad plan as the idea is that the victim would spend billions developing a weapon that is flawed from the drawing board. Nothing would work right and they would have to start over setting them back many years from a workable weapon.
Rewrites are a bad idea in software, where the code has no cost, and are an even worse idea in physical projects. Starting with a a slightly flawed design is much, much closer to a working weapon than starting from scratch.
It would be incredibly naïve for the victim to assume their stolen plans are perfect and perfectly implemented. They would run the test, it doesn't work quite right, they fix the flaws, and they're now far ahead of where they would have been.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#47As background: Sterling was convicted after it discovered that he'd been leaking details of "Operation Merlin" to reporter James Risen. "Merlin" was a scheme in which blueprints for Russian nuclear arms technology was to be altered, such that attempts to test those weapons would fail, and then passed through to Iran's nuclear program. "Merlin" ultimately failed.
If the CIA is going to be modelling their operations after Charlie Stross short stories, they might want to actually read to the end: http://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/
tl;dr: doesn't go well there either.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not an U.S. citizen, just a wild guess: It's not very wise to give somebody, even altered, nuclear blueprints. It's a similar type of stupid stuff that NSA does when it puts backdoors into devices or cryptosystems.
Well if they were getting the blueprints somehow anyway, subtle alterations to make them fail aren't a bad idea. The similarities with stuxnet are obvious, and that worked pretty well.
There's not really an analogy with student to make.
One program sabotaged the operation of existing technologies.
The other program advanced the technological state of nuclear weapon development in hopes that its flaws wouldn't be discovered until operation.
At best, this program pushed the Iranian nuclear program two steps ahead and one step back.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#49He wasn't a whistleblower: he was a leaker. He permitted national-security information to fall into the hands of someone not cleared to handle it. Moreover, he shows not one whit of repentance for his crime.
He's also a legitimate whistleblower, for his disclosures to the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2003 (which the government concedes went through proper channels).
Moreover, he shows not one whit of repentance for his crime.
I haven't looked into Sterling's own statements about the matter; but I would imagine that it had to do with his assessment that the operation he was exposing was so reckless (not just in execution; but in the very conception of the idea of attempting to spoof the Iranians with flawed weapon design plans that they can easily cross-reference with other sources) that he felt the general public had a right to know about it, which trumped the proscriptions of the various statutes which he is alleged to have violated.
You don't have to agree with with this stance. But arguably the public does benefit greatly from having this information become generally known.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not an U.S. citizen, just a wild guess: It's not very wise to give somebody, even altered, nuclear blueprints. It's a similar type of stupid stuff that NSA does when it puts backdoors into devices or cryptosystems.
It's not a bad plan as the idea is that the victim would spend billions developing a weapon that is flawed from the drawing board. Nothing would work right and they would have to start over setting them back many years from a workable weapon.
It is a bad idea if you grossly underestimate the operational competence and general cognitive fortitude of your adversaries, as the CIA appears to have done in this case. (Apparently the alterations were easy to spot, and it turns out the Iranians weren't so dumb as to blindly go out and execute them, as the operation's planners had hoped).