The Afghanistan Report the Pentagon Doesn't Want You to Read | Michael Hastings. The campaign against whistleblowers in Washington. Washington, DC - On January 23, the Obama administration charged former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to journalists about the waterboarding of al-Qaeda suspects.
His is just the latest prosecution in an unprecedented assault on government whistleblowers and leakers of every sort. Kiriakou's plight will clearly be but one more battle in a broader war to ensure that government actions and sunshine policies don't go together. By now, there can be little doubt that government retaliation against whistleblowers is not an isolated event, nor even an agency-by-agency practice. The number of cases in play suggests an organised strategy to deprive those in the US of any knowledge of the more disreputable things that their government does. The Obama administration has already charged more people - six - under the Espionage Act for alleged mishandling of classified information than all past presidencies combined. Silent state Fighting back. MEDIAROOTS – Reporting From Outside Party Lines.