CyBER-BlackSEC--Exclusive: SECRET Spy Agency Seeks Cyber-OPS Curriculum

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By Tabassum Zakaria

FORT MEADE, Maryland | Tue May 22, 2012 4:42pm EDT
 
(Reuters) - The National Security Agency is trying to expand U.S. cyber expertise needed for secret intelligence operations against adversaries on computer networks through a new cyber-ops program at selected universities.

The cyber-ops curriculum is geared to providing the basic education for jobs in intelligence, military and law enforcement that are so secret they will only be revealed to some students and faculty, who need to pass security clearance requirements, during special summer seminars offered by NSA.

It is not easy to find the right people for cyber operations because the slice of the hacker community that would make a quality cyber operator inside the government is only a sliver.

The "quality cyber operators" the NSA is looking for are few and far between, says Neal Ziring, technical director at the agency's Information Assurance Directorate.

"We're trying to create more of these, and yes they have to know some of the things that hackers know, they have to know a lot of other things too, which is why you really want a good university to create these people for you," Ziring told Reuters in an interview at NSA's headquarters in Maryland.

NSA has two main missions: to protect U.S. government computer networks and to collect foreign intelligence through electronic means like satellites and decode it.
Of 20 universities that applied, only four received this week the new designation of Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Operations: Dakota State University, Naval Postgraduate School, Northeastern University and University of Tulsa.

Out of 10 requirements, the two most lacking at many schools were courses on "reverse engineering" - or how to gain knowledge of a technology or product to reproduce it - and cellular communications and mobile technologies, NSA officials said.

"We found a lot of schools weren't emerging with the technology, weren't keeping up," said Captain Jill Newton, who leads NSA's cyber training and education programs.

INNER WORKINGS

NSA officials say the program, which is part of President Barack Obama's national initiative to improve cybersecurity through education, aims to prepare students for careers at the U.S. Cyber Command, the NSA's signals intelligence operations and law enforcement agencies investigating cyber crimes.

U.S. officials from the Obama administration and Congress have been banging the drums loudly about the need for greater cybersecurity, accusing China and Russia of hacking U.S. systems for economic gain.

"Right now you hear a lot of talk about foreign countries, China in particular, coming into our networks. They get in, they look around, they see what they might want, they send it home, and you don't know what else they've left behind," Dickie George, a former NSA official, said. "Why wouldn't we want to do the same thing? It's not a one-way game."

Many universities are now focused on web technologies such as how to write applications for the iPhone, which is not what is required for cyber operations to collect intelligence or defend the government's systems, NSA officials said.

That requires knowing "the guts, the internals of the operating systems, having to understand how the hardware actually works," said Steven LaFountain, a senior NSA official who guides academic programs.

Newton said a cyber operation might involve altering computer systems to work to one's advantage and doing that "without being seen or without it being obvious that I was changing the inner workings of the operating system."

"It could be very useful for a defender, so as you see your stuff being adjusted, corrupted, exploited, messed with, and being able to recognize when that is happening to you, to be able to better defend against it," she said.

About 15 years ago, there was a mindset that the computer system being compromised happened rarely and if the security was hardened that would be sufficient to secure it, but the security environment has changed, said Ziring, a computer scientist and the first non-mathematician in his position at NSA.

"What we've realized these days is that's hokum, that doesn't work any more, that systems are under attack constantly," Ziring said.

"For many systems, especially those that for mission reasons have to work in a very exposed space, being under some degree of compromise is sort of their new normal state."

That requires actively defending the systems by blocking and mitigating known problems and hunting for the unknown by looking for anomalies, Ziring said.

ETHICAL ISSUES

One mandatory requirement in the curriculum is covering legal and ethical issues so students understand the limits.

"We still found a lot of schools are still a little reluctant on how they characterize what they are teaching," LaFountain said.

"We are not asking them to teach kids how to break into systems, we're not asking them to teach that. And a lot of them have said they wouldn't teach that," he said. "We're just asking them to teach the hardcore fundamental science that we need students to have when they come to work here."

While the open education provides the basic knowledge, it is not until they arrive at the NSA that newly hired cyber operators get trained in their secret jobs.

"In our operational developmental organization, we would spend up to 12 months to give them the secret sauce, the tradecraft, the really deep technical training so that they could make themselves useful in doing what we need them to do, and that's with that technical underpinning," Newton said.

Ziring said it was important to figure out the next step in threat evolution so the technologies can be built to address it.

"The threat actor's action cycle is speeding up and getting shorter. The defender's cycle has to get shorter. So what technologies can we build that will help that?"
CONTINUE Reading Full Story HERE…

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/us-usa-intelligence-education-idUSBRE84L12T20120522

[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]

 

It's NSA DAY at the BlackBOX Intel-CENTER!

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Growing State Surveillance: National Security Agency Whistleblower William Binney (April 20, 2012)

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BlackNET MemberJames Bamford: Inside the NSA's Largest Secret Domestic Spy Center (at the bottom of this center column)

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BKNT--OSSI Open Source Industry Day co-hosted by the National Security Agency!

Thank you for registering for the OSSI Open Source Industry Day co-hosted by the National Security Agency!

There are only about 100 seats remaining. If your partners, associates and coworkers are interested in attending please recommend they register immediately. http://thebridge.oss-institute.org/index.php/calendar/opensourceindustryday

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Please let us know if you are interested in setting up on the afternoon of the 29th. We have limited access to the facility prior to 5/30.

All tables are expected to be ready to receive traffic by 0730 on May 30th. Doors will open at 0630 for exhibitors, 0730 for attendees. The continental breakfast will be served in the exhibit area to encourage interaction with attendees.

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[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]

FISA Applications for Covert Surveillance Increased in 2011

By: Anthony Kimery

05/04/2012 ( 9:16am)

Coinciding with an increase in federal investigations of terrorists, espionage and other threats on United States soil that fall under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and require that applications for covert surveillance be submitted and approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), in fiscal year 2011, the government submitted 1,745 applications to FISC. 

All applications were for foreign intelligence purposes pursuant to FISA to conduct covert electronic surveillance and/or physical searches, to gain access to certain business records (“including the production of tangible things”). They also included requests made by the FBI pursuant to national security letter authorities. 

“The 1,745 applications include applications made solely for electronic surveillance, applications made solely for physical search, and combined applications requesting authority for electronic surveillance and physical search,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich informed Congress through Vice President Joe Biden in the required annual report on FISA surveillance applications by the government. 

“Of these, 1,676 applications included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance,” Weich said. “Of these 1,676 applications, two were withdrawn by the government. The FISC did not deny any applications in whole, or in part. The FISC made modifications to the proposed orders in 30 applications. Thus, the FISC approved collection activity in a total of 1,674 of the applications that included requests for authority to conduct electronic surveillance.” 

The government submitted 1,579 FISA applications in fiscal year 2010, including 1,511 for electronic surveillance. 

Government counterterrorism intelligence officials told Homeland Security Today on condition of anonymity that part of the increase in FISA surveillance applications “came about directly from” investigations of thwarted domestic and foreign terrorist plots against the United States in FY 2010 and FY 2011, as well as in response to materials seized in relation to the raid on Osama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and the resulting investigations. 

“The new report says that the government filed 205 applications for business records for foreign intelligence purposes last year, compared to 96 in the previous year,” and that “the number of ‘national security letters’ (a type of administrative subpoena) declined last year,” noted Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) Project on Government Secrecy in his FAS blog, Secrecy News. 

“In 2011, the FBI requested 16,511 national security letters pertaining to 7,201 US persons, compared to the 2010 total of 24,287 letter requests concerning 14,212 US persons,” Aftergood added. 

“As is usually the case, the FIS Court did not deny any electronic surveillance applications in whole or in part last year, though it made modifications to 30 of them,” Aftergood said. 

http://www.hstoday.us/industry-news/general/single-article/fisa-applications-for-covert-surveillance-increased-in-2011/e9156b55f749dfc336fb515d803d3d12.html

[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]

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CyBER-BlackSEC- OPEN SOURCE

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NSA Director Elaborates On DHS Minimum Cybersecurity Standards

By: Mickey McCarter

05/09/2012 ( 9:00am)

The director of the National Security Agency (NSA) recently wrote to Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to defend comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, such as that championed by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).

On March 27, Army Gen. Keith Alexander, NSA director and chief of US Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), told a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee that he believes the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) should oversee the hardening of the cybersecurity of US critical infrastructure. McCain attacked such reasoning as placing too much control of national cybersecurity in the hands of an inexperienced DHS bureaucracy and as promulgating regulations that would be burdensome to business.

Two days later, McCain wrote to Alexander to ask him to clarify his views on his support of the Cybersecurity Act (S. 2105), the bill sponsored by Lieberman, Collins and others. Alexander defended a significant role for both DHS and NSA in national cybersecurity last week in his response, a copy of which was obtained by Homeland Security Today.

In his letter, Alexander said congressional legislation should bolster information sharing and critical infrastructure hardening.

"If the Department of Defense (DoD) is to defense the nation against cyberattacks originating from outside the United States, it must be able to see those attacks in real time. This requires legislation that, at a minimum, removes existing barriers and disincentives that inhibit the owners of the critical infrastructure from sharing cyber threat indicators with the government," Alexander wrote.

"Additionally, given DoD reliance on certain core critical infrastructure to execute its mission, as well as the importance of the nation's critical infrastructure to our national and economic security overall, legislation is also needed to ensure that infrastructure is sufficiently hardened and resilient," he added.

Businesses currently lack incentives generally to upgrade their cybersecurity defenses to the level required to successfully defend them, the general argued. Setting some minimum security requirements would ensure that owners and operators of core critical infrastructure take measures to harden their networks and thereby discourage adversaries from attacking those networks.

"At the same time, it is important that legislative requirements not be too burdensome," Alexander acknowledged.

In the March 27 hearing and in other forums, McCain contended that the NSA has more cybersecurity expertise and experience, and thus strengthening its cybersecurity capabilities would be more sensible than building up the cybersecurity capabilities of an ineffective DHS.

But Alexander disagreed, saying in his letter that DHS, NSA and the FBI have distinctive and unique roles in national cybersecurity.

"No single public or private entity has all of the required authorities, resources and capabilities; cybersecurity requires a team," Alexander wrote.

The distribution of cybersecurity responsibilities across DHS, FBI and NSA complement one another, forming such a team effort, he said. DHS works to secure unclassified federal civilian networks, to increase the capability of core critical infrastructure and to bolster national resilience. In the event of a significant cyberattack, DHS would coordinate the federal response, Alexander said.

Meanwhile, the FBI investigates, prevents and responds to cyberattacks with its criminal and intelligence authorities as the lead agency for domestic cyberthreat intelligence and attribution as well as law enforcement and domestic counterintelligence. The FBI feeds DHS information to strengthen cybersecurity preparation and protection measures.

The private sector shares information with DHS and the FBI currently, but that information sharing is limited, which weakens the efforts of those agencies to secure cyberspace, Alexander said.

"With respect to both the DHS and FBI roles, the limited, voluntary information sharing by the private sector inhibits the government's ability to protect domestic cyberspace, which is why it must be a key element of any cyberlegislation as I mentioned earlier. It would also greatly benefit DoD, which assists DHS and the FBI with intelligence support in their respective roles," he wrote.

NSA and CYBERCOM must work to defend national assets from foreign cyberthreats. They collect intelligence, attribute attacks, provide guidance for strengthening US national security, and distribute intelligence to DHS, Alexander said.

While DoD relies upon core critical infrastructure to carry out its missions, DoD can work with DHS to secure that infrastructure, with DHS taking the lead on standards for civilian systems, he continued, stressing that doing so would not interfere with DoD reliance on "power, transportation, telecommunications and the Defense Industrial Base (DIB)."

"Pursuant to the administration's proposals, DHS would, in consultation with the private sector and in coordination with DoD and other sector-specific agencies, be responsible for setting cybersecurity requirements and ensuring they achieve a baseline level of security," Alexander wrote. "DoD would share the responsibility to protect the DIB with DHS, support DHS efforts to protect other critical infrastructure and defend the nation in the event of a cyberattack on the critical infrastructure. FBI would be responsible for conducting investigations of intrusion activity in those critical infrastructure networks inside the United States."

DHS cannot protect core critical infrastructure without the assistance of NSA and the FBI, but it is wholly appropriate that it lead core critical infrastructure protection efforts for the private sector, the general emphasized.

McCain expressed concerns that technological innovations could outpace the ability of DHS, or even NSA, to keep up with national cybersecurity defenses.

But Alexander said proposals championed by the White House and envisioned by the Cybersecurity Act would not specify particular technologies and thus ensure maximum flexibility.

"The proposed security requirements in the administration's proposal would not dictate specific measures that may become outdated but rather would require critical infrastructure to achieve security results using methods of their choice," Alexander wrote.

He added, "We expect this approach will actually result in greater innovation, as companies look to the commercial market to produce security products and services that satisfy these requirements. Additionally, it is important to note that the administrations' proposal leverages, rather than duplicates, existing regulatory processes, allows for exemption of certain core infrastructure for which sector-specific regulatory agencies have sufficient requirements and enforcement mechanisms, and explicitly excludes regulation of technology products and services."

Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mickeymccarter

http://www.hstoday.us/industry-news/general/single-article/nsa-director-elaborates-on-his-support-for-dhs-setting-minimum-cybersecurity-standards/d61cdc4b727b11fb00c8460ebf8370bf.html

[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]

NSA employee accused of leaking information sentenced to probation

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baltimoresun.com

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

9:12 PM EDT, July 15, 2011

Thomas Andrews Drake, the former NSA employee accused of felony espionage but convicted of a misdemeanor computer violation, was sentenced Friday in Baltimore's federal court to 240 hours of community service and one year's probation.

It was an abrupt end to a lengthy case that became a rallying point for both free-speech advocates and those seeking to plug media leaks. It had also threatened to imprison Drake, who was accused of retaining classified information to give to a Baltimore Sun reporter, for up to 35 years before a surprising plea deal was struck on the eve of trial last month.

This has been "an extraordinarily difficult ordeal for me, and [it caused] tremendous pain [for] my family and friends and colleagues," Drake, 54, told the court in a quiet voice.

In delivering the sentence, U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett had harsh words for the government, calling it "unconscionable" that Drake and his family were dragged through "four years of hell" only to have prosecutors ultimately back down on all felony charges. 

He refused to impose a fine on Drake and warned the Justice Department that if the evidence doesn't support the charges, prosecutors need to act swiftly in making amends. 

"What kind of message is sent by the government when the government dismisses a 10-count indictment?" Bennett asked. "If the executive branch of the government doesn't provide an explanation, it's up to the judicial branch to note the impropriety of it."

After the sentencing, Drake said he was tired and looking forward to rebuilding his life. "I paid a very high price as a public servant for choosing my conscience over my career and blowing the whistle on government wrongdoing," he said. 

FBI agents searched his Glenwood home in November 2007, but he wasn't indicted — on 10 charges of retaining classified information, obstruction of justice and making false statements — until April 2010. Then, days before his scheduled June 13 trial, prosecutors offered him a chance to plead guilty to "exceeding the authorized use of a computer," a misdemeanor.

Drake was never charged with leaking, though it was a constant subtext to his criminal case, which came to symbolize an increasing government intolerance toward the disclosure of unauthorized information. 

Five alleged leakers have been pursued under the Espionage Act by President Barack Obama's Justice Department — more than all previous administrations combined, though two cases, including Drake's, were carried over from the Bush years.

Drake's case was built on a "house of cards, and it collapsed beneath the weight of truth," Jesselyn Radack, an attorney and director at the Government Accountability Project, which advocates for whistle-blowers, said after the sentencing. 

She and others fought for Drake's freedom through a media campaign that included interviews with The New Yorker and "60 Minutes" and the circulation of grass-roots petitions, along with a contingent of bloggers who repeatedly called the charges against Drake a stretch. 

While prosecutors described Drake as ego-driven, he was often portrayed by sympathizers as an honest, patriotic man, and even won a $10,000 Ridenhour prize in April for truth-telling.

Court documents filed by his federal public defenders, Jim Wyda and Deborah Boardman, claim that Drake believed he was protecting his country when he told The Sun reporter — identified in court documents as Siobhan Gorman, who now works for The Wall Street Journal — about allegedly wasteful programs at the Fort Meade intelligence agency. 

Gorman, who wrote a series of award-winning articles about NSA mismanagement and programmatic problems for The Sun in 2006 and 2007, declined to comment through a Journal spokeswoman. 

"In the end, I was just being an American who simply stood up as a public servant in defense of truth, justice and our Constitution," Drake said after the sentencing. 

The criminal case against him was his first "brush with the law," according to his attorneys, who described him in a 17-page sentencing memorandum as living an "exemplary life" dedicated to hard work in the public interest. 

Friends and family "herald his honesty and patriotism, and laud his commitment to family, citizenship and the ideals of the Constitution," the lawyers wrote.

Drake grew up in Texas and Vermont, where he attended the second and third grades in a one-room schoolhouse. 

He went to the Burr and Burton Academy in Manchester for high school, where his father, a World War II veteran, taught history. His mother was a secretary to author Pearl S. Buck.

A former Burr and Burton classmate described Drake in a letter to the editor, as a "quiet, kind and thoughtful guy." 

In 1979, when he was 22, Drake enlisted in the Air Force — the same military branch in which his father served — and took a special interest in German, learning the language and becoming an Airborne Voice Processing Specialist, who translated and analyzed intercepted communications.

He and his young family were stationed in England during the early 1980s, and moved to Arizona in 1985, where he flew on electronic warfare missions. His service evaluations call Drake an "outstanding airman" with "unlimited potential." He is called "mature and capable," "directly responsible for [his] unit's success," and was selected as an instructor of the year. 

A fellow German linguist, who has known Drake for 20 years, said in a letter to the court that Drake was "the straightest arrow I have ever known," who's never even tried marijuana. "He follows the rules," the man wrote. 

Drake earned several degrees while enlisted, including a bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland, Europe. He was honorably discharged in 1989. He and his family moved to the Washington area, where he worked for several consulting firms and defense contractors, primarily dealing with government NSA contracts, and the U.S. Navy Reserves. 

In late 2001, Drake began working for the NSA directly as a senior executive in signals intelligence. 

 

"Tom chose to work for the government because he felt that it was the best way he could make a positive difference," a former NSA colleague wrote in a letter to the court. 

Drake held a Top Secret security clearance and worked at NSA's Fort Meade location until the summer of 2006, when he took a teaching assignment at the National Defense University. He stayed there until late November 2007, when the NSA suspended his security clearance. 

According to the indictment against him, Drake had already reached out to Gorman by then, saying he was referred to her by "someone we both knew" — identified in court documents as former congressional staffer Diane Roark, who once had NSA oversight while working for the House Permanent Selection Committee on Intelligence. 

In a court document filed this week, prosecutors claim that Drake was obsessed with Roark, who retired in 2002, and had been feeding her information since 1999. He agreed to talk to Gorman to impress Roark, they claimed. 

Roark could not be reached for comment Friday, and Drake declined to discuss the government's allegations after the sentencing. 

The case against him started to unravel in the week before the June 13 trial date, when prosecutors chose to withdraw certain classified exhibits. Drake pleaded guilty to the much lesser charge of unauthorized computer use on June 10.

"What he pled to is really theft," prosecutor William M. Welch II said in court, asking that Drake be forced to pay a $50,000 fine along with probation and community service. 

But Judge Bennett said the financial toll has already been severe. 

Bennett chastised him for exercising poor judgment and being careless, and ordered Drake to perform his community service at Fort Detrick in Frederick. He commended all attorneys, particularly the public defenders, and again voiced concerns about the duration of the case.

Afterward, Drake said he would have more to say about the ordeal in the months to come. 

"I now look forward to getting my life back, so I can live free again knowing that freedom is never free," he said. "It requires eternal vigilance." 

tricia.bishop@baltsun.com
CONTINUE READING Full Story HERE... 
www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-thomas-drake-sentencing-20110715,0,7628749.story

 

Legal Trouble in SpyLAND...

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;ATTN: HD/23; JAG/1; JAG/4; JAG/5; HST/2

[ed.note: TWO NSA-related articles below. Various Legal scholars cited.]

NSA leak trial exposes dilemma for Justice Department

By Ellen Nakashima and Jerry Markon, Published: June 10, 2011

 

A critical moment in the United States’ case against former National Security Agency official Thomas A. Drake came a week ago Friday, when a federal judge ruled that the prosecution could not shield from public disclosure classified information it wanted to present as evidence.

So the prosecutors, rather than reveal what the NSA considered sensitive material, withdrew their proposed exhibits.

That decision effectively doomed the government’s effort to put Drake behind bars for as many as 35 years for unlawfully retaining classified information. As the prosecution crumbled, so went the government’s opportunity to turn Drake’s case into a cautionary tale for would-be leakers. 

On Friday, Drake accepted lead prosecutor William M. Welch II’s offer to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor of misusing a government computer to provide information to an unauthorized person. Drake is expected to serve no prison time. 

“This is a just result,” said Debbie Boardman and Jim Wyda, Drake’s attorneys, in a statement. “Tom Drake should never have been charged under the Espionage Act. Tom never intended to harm his country. And he didn’t.”

The Drake case exposes a fundamental dilemma in prosecutions involving national security: How do you prove that a leaker released sensitive information without discussing that information in public? The case also raises the question of whether the Obama administration, which has brought more leak-related prosecutions than any previous administration, is overreaching in its desire to discourage leaks.

“There’s a real trade-off for the government, in which prosecuting may be more harmful to the nation’s interests than in not being able to prosecute,” said Geoffrey Stone, a University of Chicago constitutional law expert, referring to the balancing act between protecting classified information and a defendant’s right to a fair and open trial.

“The two goals are inherently in conflict,” said Barry J. Pollack, a lawyer defending a former CIA official, Jeffrey Sterling, in another leak-related prosecution. “A lot of these cases end up imploding because of that tension.”

The sudden collapse of the Drake case after years of preparation calls into question whether the Justice Department accurately assessed the likelihood of prevailing at trial, analysts said.

“It wasn’t a strong case to begin with,” said Steven Aftergood, a national security expert with the Federation of American Scientists. “Even the most basic facts, such as whether the documents in question were classified, were in dispute. So the government was beginning from a difficult position.”

The prosecution asked U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett to allow it to replace classified references with unclassified substitutions, but the judge said to do so would harm Drake’s ability to defend himself.

“These are tough cases by their very nature, but it is an important principle that people who have access to classified information follow the law and the agreements they signed to protect classified information,” said Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman.  

The Sterling case may illustrate other hurdles. The prosecution, led by Welch, is seeking to compel New York Times reporter James Risen to testify about his relationship with Sterling in order to establish Sterling was the source of classified information that appeared in his book.

“It seems they are unable to make their case without taking the extreme step of subpoenaing a reporter,” Aftergood said. “So the case is morphing into an assault on the press.”

The judge in that case has quashed one subpoena of the reporter. He is expected to oppose the government’s effort to force him to testify...

“Anytime you set out to prove 10 felonies and you end up with one misdemeanor, you’ve overreached.”

CONTINUE READING Full Story HERE...

baltimoresun.com

Drake pleads guilty to misdemeanor in NSA espionage case - Espionage charges to be dropped next month

By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

8:02 PM EDT, June 10, 2011, 2011

Years of government pursuit came to an end Friday when former NSA employee Thomas Drake pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of "exceeding the authorized use of a computer" — a quiet conclusion to an aggressive espionage case.

Drake, who warned government investigators about wasteful National Security Agency programs, was indicted last year for passing information to a Baltimore Sun reporter in 2006 and 2007.

He could have received up to 35 years in federal prison under a combination of criminal charges, including violation of the Espionage Act, yet he was never charged with leaking classified information. The deal came together as public pressure for leniency mounted and the June 13 trial date neared.

"It's breathtaking, and a week ago, I would have said it was impossible," said Steven Aftergood, who studies government secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists. "I expected the trial to begin on Monday, and a last-minute reversal like this is stunning. What it tells me is that the government miscalculated the strength of its own case."

The Department of Justice said it negotiated the plea in part to avoid having to release classified information through the trial.

"We must always strike the careful balance between holding accountable those who break our laws, while not disclosing highly sensitive information," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer said in a statement.

Drake, who declined through a lawyer to comment, could receive a maximum of one year in federal prison at his July 15 sentencing in U.S. District Court, though prosecutors said Friday that they will not oppose a "noncustodial" sentence — meaning one that does not include prison time.

Still, Drake's life is vastly changed, said Jesselyn Radack, a consultant on the case and a director at the Government Accountability Project, which advocates for whistle-blowers. His intelligence career is over, his finances are drained and he is personally spent, she said.

Drake's Espionage Act case, which began under the Bush administration and continued under President Barack Obama, is one of five being pursued by the federal government in court, and part of a larger strategy to shut down unauthorized disclosures of information. But many said the Drake case was an overreach.

"This [case] should never have been brought," said James Bamford, who wrote a book on NSA spying failures and was a consultant on Drake's criminal case. He declined to comment further, concerned about making public statements before sentencing.

Drake has had his say in The New Yorker and on "60 Minutes." Some NSA analysts and various advocacy groups have also taken up his cause, blogging about case developments, pointing out apparent flaws and circulating petitions asking for dismissal of the charges.

"He owes a massive debt of gratitude to the Fourth Estate, which really went to bat for him," along with his federal public defenders, said Matthew M. Aid, who's written one book on the NSA and just completed another about Obama's relationship with the intelligence community, due out early next year.

Aid said he interviewed several of Drake's supervisors for the book and concluded that Drake has a kind of "Jesus mentality where [he's] right, and everybody else is wrong," explaining Drake's assumption of the role of whistle-blower.

Drake and several others complained of waste in an NSA antiterrorism technology program called Trailblazer in 2002 to the Department of Defense inspector general. And Drake said in court filings that he later discussed NSA issues with Sun reporter Siobhan Gorman, who now works for The Wall Street Journal. Drake said he never gave Gorman classified documents, however.

Gorman published a series of articles in The Sun about NSA mismanagement and problematic programs, including Trailblazer...

CONTINUE READING Full Story HERE...

www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-md-nsa-drake-guilty-20110609,0,3734349.story

[Information contained in BKNT E-mail is considered Attorney-Client and Attorney Work Product privileged, copyrighted and confidential. Views that may be expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of any government, agency, or news organization.]