A Century of Repression (The History of Media and Communication) by Ralph Engelman & Carey Shenkman

Author:Ralph Engelman & Carey Shenkman [Engelman, Ralph & Shenkman, Carey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science / Political Freedom
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Published: 2022-10-04T04:00:00+00:00

In May 2015, Sterling was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. His lawyers called attention to the plea deal earlier that year given to General David Petraeus, the former head of the CIA and American forces in Afghanistan, who pled guilty to a misdemeanor with no jail time for lying to the FBI about sharing with his biographer-lover notebooks filled with extremely sensitive classified information—information that included code words and the identity of covert operatives. In June, a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Sterling’s conviction. Sterling, like John Kiriakou before him, was now going to prison for revealing secrets in the public interest, where Petraeus received a slap on the wrist for disclosures for personal gain, permitting him to pursue a lucrative career as a consultant and lecturer. Sterling wrote from prison about his experience as a Black inmate, and the negligent care he received for a severe heart ailment.54 He was released from prison to a halfway house in January 2018, after serving more than two years of his sentence. His wife, Holly, commented, “We maintain hope that we can begin the arduous journey of rebuilding our life that the government vehemently destroyed. Jeffrey’s legacy is now branded with the scarlet letter of being a supposed traitor to his country—the country he still loves.”55

The prosecution of Sterling had resulted in Risen’s clash with the Justice Department. The case of State Department contractor Stephen Kim similarly illustrated how the reach of the Espionage Act was being progressively extended to threaten journalists as well as insider sources during the Obama administration. Indeed, Kim’s disclosures in 2009 to Fox reporter James Rosen was a precipitating factor in the decision of the Obama administration to increase use of the Espionage Act to punish insider sources and threaten press freedoms. Kim—no less than Drake, Kiriakou, and Sterling—possessed impeccable credentials as a patriotic, highly regarded intelligence professional. Born in Korea, he moved with his family to the United States at age six and became a naturalized citizen. After receiving a master’s degree in national security at Harvard and a doctorate in diplomatic and military history at Yale, Kim pursued a career of government service in national security. In 2002, Kim was hired by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where he worked from 2002 to 2014 in a variety of capacities, including assignments as a contractor at the Department of Defense and State Department. Kim became a senior analyst for North Korea’s nuclear program and command structure; his reports were broadly shared within numerous intelligence agencies. During the administration of George W. Bush, he personally briefed Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley, as well as former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, on Korean matters. In June 2008, he became a senior advisor for intelligence for Verification, Compliance, and Implementation (VCI) in the office of the assistant secretary of state. His portfolio expanded beyond his expertise in Asian affairs to include arms control and security in Iran, the Middle East, and Latin America.

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