It's funny how they say "these disclosures put lives at risk", and put him into prison. Because prison is itself risky and torturous.
I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#52He 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.
I hope you change your mind one day.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#53As 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.
I can see them imitating all the mistakes of A Colder War too, if only they had access to tools this dangerous: http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
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Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
so where is the public interest to justify whistleblowing?
Here I am veering from simply providing a précis to something closer to analysis, but not too close --- I think this is uncontroversial: Sterling isn't in prison for "whistleblowing", which describes the actions he took to alert the Senate Intelligence Committee to his concerns about "Merlin" and his complaints to CIA's IG about racial discrimination inside the agency. He's in prison for leaking details of a sensitiv…
As a counterpoint, here's what I expect Sterling and The Intercept might argue:
Sterling unsuccessfully raised several concerns, including criticisms of Merlin, internally with the CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee. Getting no results, he turned to external whistleblowing through a Pulitzer-winning reporter.
This is in keeping with Thomas Drake's behavior - after being punished for attempting to use internal whistleblowing, he went outside the government and was given a minimal suspended sentence akin to what Sterling might have expected.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#56Off topic but what is the name for this (as a style element?): > "Man, this is prison." > "Man, this is America."
I believe this an Anaphora, even if in this case, repetition are not really close to each other https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora_%28rhetoric%29
Side question to the side question: what's the term for that verbal habit some in the UK have developed in recent years, where the pronoun is restated at the end of the sentence? "That's good, that." Never found a good definition or analysis of it.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#57Earlier 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's a terrible plan if you forget to account for the fact that the victim likely employs smart people too, and that before setting out on a billion dollar endeavour they might do a lot of cross checking. And indeed that's what happened, and much quicker than planned:
"Operation Merlin backfired when the CIA's Russian contact/messenger noticed flaws in the schematics and told the Iranian nuclear scientists."
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
so where is the public interest to justify whistleblowing?
The blueprints weren't altered enough, apparently, and the Iranians were still able to use them to advance their nuclear program. Thus, it was sheer stupidity on the CIA's part. And you know what you don't do? Point out the big, mean guy's stupidity in public. He gets angry.
They likely wanted the Iranians to develop and test a nuclear weapon to justify invasion, or to use it against another middle Eastern country or against one of the other major powers in the area.
That was the real issue Sterling was bringing up.
Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
so where is the public interest to justify whistleblowing?
The blueprints weren't altered enough, apparently, and the Iranians were still able to use them to advance their nuclear program. Thus, it was sheer stupidity on the CIA's part. And you know what you don't do? Point out the big, mean guy's stupidity in public. He gets angry.
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Re: I Was a CIA Whistleblower, Now I'm a Black Inmate
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
so where is the public interest to justify whistleblowing?
The blueprints weren't altered enough, apparently, and the Iranians were still able to use them to advance their nuclear program. Thus, it was sheer stupidity on the CIA's part. And you know what you don't do? Point out the big, mean guy's stupidity in public. He gets angry.
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