APRIL 23, 2015
Petraeus Got 'Bubble Bath' From Hypocritical Obama
Administration, Whistleblower Attorneys Say
The ex-CIA director has received probation for leaks to his
lover, the equivalent of feather dusting his butt.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus was sentenced Thursday to
two years probation for leaking highly classified information to a biographer
with whom he was having a sexual relationship – exposing what attorneys
for whistleblowers prosecuted by the Obama administration say is a glaring
double standard.
The U.S. “clearly has a two-tiered justice system when it
comes to classified information,” says Jesselyn Radack, a Government
Accountability Project lawyer who has represented several people
prosecuted during the administration's crackdown on leaks by low-level
officials. "If you’re a person in a position of power or you’re
politically well connected, you can leak with impunity."
Petraeus acknowledged last month in plea deal documents that
he gave mistress Paula Broadwell – author of his biography, “All In” – access
to eight “black books” that contained classified information from his time
leading military efforts in Afghanistan, and that he then lied about it to the
FBI.
The books included “classified information regarding the
identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and
mechanisms, diplomatic discussions, quotes and deliberative discussions from
high-level National Security Council meetings, and [Petraeus’] discussions with
the President of the United States of America," the documents say. They
also contained "national defense information, including Top Secret//SCI
and code word information.”
The retired four-star general was allowed to plead guilty to
one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information, with prosecutors
recommending probation rather than the maximum one-year prison sentence the
charge carries.
U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler gave Petraeus a $100,000
fine, more than doubling prosecutors' requested financial penalty, saying, according
to WBTV journalist Kristen Hampton, it was needed to promote respect for
the law and provide a deterrent for others.
The light penalty for Petraeus, who took prestigious
and well-paid
positions after leaving office in disgrace, contrasts sharply with the Obama
administration’s approach to other people who allegedly shared classified
information without permission.
Radack's clients – including former NSA employee Thomas
Drake, former CIA officer John Kiriakou and Edward Snowden – have not been
offered generous deals.
Kiriakou, a critic of Bush-era interrogation tactics he
considers torture, was released from prison in February after 23 months and
remains under house arrest for confirming the identities of agents with a
journalist who did not publish them. Drake faced a possible 35 years in prison
for allegedly mishandling classified information before the government’s case
fell apart and he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor in 2011.
Others prosecuted by the Obama administration include
Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentencing for sharing military and
State Department documents – largely of low classification – with WikiLeaks.
Stephen Kim, a former State Department contractor, is serving a 13-month sentencing
for sharing a classified assessment on North Korea with Fox News. And former
CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling faces a possible 24-year sentence next month after
being convicted of exposing to journalist James Risen a bungled plot to
undermine Iran’s nuclear program.
“Sterling faces a bloodbath on May 11 and David Petraeus got
a bubble bath,” Radack says. “It’s just outrageous.”
“I have clients who have faced decades to the rest of their
life in prison for leaking far less information that was classified at a far
lower level compared to what Petraeus leaked,” she says. “Petraeus’ conduct was
far more outrageous and potentially harmful to the U.S. than anything Snowden,
Drake, Kiriakou, Manning, Kim or Sterling allegedly or actually did.”
Abbe Lowell, a defense attorney for Kim, declined to comment
directly on Petraeus’ sentencing, but pointed to a passionate letter he sent
Justice Department officials last month about the Petraeus deal.
“The decision to permit General Petraeus to plead guilty to
a misdemeanor demonstrates more clearly than ever the profound double standard
that applies when prosecuting so-called ‘leakers’ and those accused of
disclosing classified information for their own purposes,” Lowell
wrote. “As we said at the time of Mr. Kim’s sentencing, lower-level
employees like Mr. Kim are prosecuted under the Espionage Act because they are
easy targets and lack the resources and political connections to fight back.
High-level officials (such as General Petraeus and, earlier, Leon Panetta) leak
classified information to forward their own agendas (or to impress their
mistresses) with virtual impunity.”
Panetta, who preceded Petraeus as CIA director from 2009 to
2011, improperly disclosed
classified information to the makers of “Zero Dark Thirty,” a film about the
operation that resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden. He was not
prosecuted.
Current CIA Director John Brennan faced similar scrutiny for
his role in leaking information about an allied nation’s spy being embedded in
al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula. The disclosure was made on TV by former
government official Richard Clarke, who was given the information by Brennan as
the administration struggled to explain why it claimed there was no credible
terror plot on the first anniversary of bin Laden’s death. The Associated Press
had reported an improved underwear bomb was intercepted then. Former FBI agent
Donald Sachtleben pleaded
guilty to leaking information about the bomb and agreed to serve 43 months
in prison, but neither Brennan nor Clarke faced charges for disclosing
information about the undercover agent.
American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ben Wizner, who also
is representing Snowden, says the slap on the wrist for Petraeus is in keeping
with how “officials in high places are treated by the legal system,” but
expressed hope the leniency could set a precedent.
“I don’t think the answer is to throw the book at people
like David Petraeus,” he says. “I think the answer is to extend lenient
treatment in appropriate circumstances to people like Snowden, whose actions
served the public good.”
Source: http://www.usnews.com