Former CIA Official Indicted

They told Glenn that if he voted for McCain the Administration would indict CIA leakers who chatted too freely with the NY Times - and they were right!  The WaPo:

A former CIA officer involved in spying efforts against Iran was arrested Thursday on charges of leaking classified information to a reporter, continuing the Obama administration's unprecedented crackdown on the flow of government secrets to the media.

Jeffrey A. Sterling, 43, of O'Fallon, Mo., was charged with 10 felony counts, including obstruction of justice and unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. A federal indictment made public Thursday in the Eastern District of Virginia accuses Sterling of leaking secrets after he was fired from the CIA and the agency refused to settle a racial discrimination claim he made [Mr. Sterling is black].

"Unauthorized disclosure of national defense information" seems to refer to the Espionage Act.

And from the AP:

The indictment did not say specifically what was leaked but, from the dates and other details, it was clear that the case centered on leaks to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his 2006 book, "State of War." The book revealed details about the CIA's covert spy war with Iran.

The timeline has something for everyone.  Mr. Sterling was at the CIA from 1993 to 2002; he filed a racial discrimination complaint in 2000 (under Clinton/Tenet).  He left in a huff in 2002 and commenced leaking to NY Times reporter James Risen (Bush/Tenet), after which an investigation was opened; Eric Holder's team has now delivered an indictment.

Folks who recall how the CIA got all mush-mouthed when apprised of Robert Novak's receipt of the Plame leak will find this interesting:

The indictment said that government officials warned Risen, identified only as Author A, and his newspaper employer, that Sterling's information could endanger a human asset's life and that in May 2003 the newspaper agreed not to publish it.

So in May of 2003 the CIA was able to intervene in a leak and articulate a reason to the NY Times so compelling that they refrained from publishing their story.  Yet when Ms. Plame's secret was revealed to Novak two months later, the CIA press office dug their toe in the carpet and stammered, CIA higher-ups were never brought in, Novak's editors were never contacted, and the story went out.  Baffling!  (Not.)

Whatever - people who care about the Plame leak have already made up their minds, and people who don't care won't start caring because of this.  I need to move on.

Comments

[The facts exist. Eckenrode's alive, but Russert's dead.]

No, I think that it is time for the Libby story to be told. Half of America would be fascinated by the story, and the other half horrified. Time for FitzGate.
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[Rob Crawford]

Sterling's claimed motive: he wasn't allowed to go into the field as a covert operative, in Iran, because he's black.

Um.... maybe someone should have explained to him what "covert" means.

[MoodyBlu]

Tom,

Don't move on. The Plame fiasco is what first brought me to this site. Was reading somewhere else on the innertubes, came across a link to JOM and you've been bookmarked ever since. Plame must live on!

[Half the world, too, except it's freezing its ass off.]

Look, Fitz's prosecution was a travesty, the trial result was appealable, and those can be shown. Half of America will be just as interested in this story as they were with the Swifties Tales.

We know Mainstream Media isn't interested because they were so complicit. But we really don't need them anymore. The audience is there. Half of America.
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[Hey, half of America might be interested in that story, too.]

Heh, I may be amused because I lack facts, but Sterling should be glad he didn't go covert in Iran, because somebody, I won't say who, pretty badly screwed up about our covert presence in Iran.
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[Ignatz]

It's hard to say whether this traitor should have the book thrown at him more because he's black or because he's apparently not Jewish.

[boris]

yer don't say

[Yep, mispelled. On purpose.]

Heh, Husky or Stehl, and why?
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[lyle]

If only Bush had as much spine to crack down on his own CIA which is an enduring mystery to me. However, the Plame deal will forever cement in my mind what a weasel Powell was/is. My opinion of him roughly equates with that of Wes Clark.

[narciso]

The dog that hasn't barked, in terms of emphasis, from a St. Louis Post Dispatch
piece;

According to court documents, Sterling worked for the CIA from 1993-2002. From November 1998 to May 2000, he was an operations officer on a clandestine effort to tamp down weapons production in an unnamed country.

That's Valerie's CPD, isn't it?

[Captain Hate]

Um.... maybe someone should have explained to him what "covert" means.

Since attention-monger Plame whined about that, the word must be a code for something else; possibly an antonym.

[clarice]

Novak said IIRC that no one in the agency asked him not to publish the story, that if they had he would have held it and that would explain why he was so astonished about what followed.

The intriguing thing to me is how Tenet was manipulated into insisting on a DoJ investigation of this, this one of thousands of such annual routine referrals.

[clarice]

"possibly an antonym" HEH!!

[I'm tellin' ya, news starved populace will be fascinated by this.]

A big story yet to be told.
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[Frau Steingehirn]

Moodyblu - I, too, found JOM at the time of Wilson/Plame fiasco. I truly thought I was alone in my thinking. My Plame folder is still full and at the ready.

Hear, hear, lyle (12:00).

[reliapundit]

the plame leak was treated as a domestic political issue: the msm tried to use it to destroy bush/cheney/libby and get kerry elected.

the nytimes/risen leaks were not political; they were aimed to weaken our robust responses to ww4/global jihad and to help the enemies of Judeo-Christian Civilization.

[Jane (sit on the couch or save your country)]

No, I think that it is time for the Libby story to be told.

And I think Clarice should write it. Get Pajama's to publish it in chapters like J Christian Adams.

[Mad Jack]

TM: I don't think "move on" means what you think it means!

[Easylikesundaymorning]

Plame leaked herself as part of operations.Maybe he didn't and that was the problem.Plame did this to get people killed,maybe thats why he was mad abot not getting field work.Anyone who wants that is an idiot anyway,unless you have a modus.

[sbw]

NBC (Russert & associates), DoS (Armitage and Powell), FBI (Eckenrode), CIA & exCIA (Plame &co., Comey, & VIPS for entertainment), DoJ & Fitz . . .

Some day someone will do the intrigue justice.