The Obama administration has been consistently escalating its war on whistleblowers despite non-stop criticism from the whistleblowing community, First Amendment advocates, and journalists. Glenn Greenwald, recently pointed out that Obama's campaign promises to
"protect whistleblowers" are merely "pretty words" that "have given way to the most aggressive crusade to expose, punish and silence 'courageous and patriotic' whistleblowers by any President in decades."
Given the latest anti-First Amendment tactics Greenwald describes the Justice Department using to go after journalist Jim Risen's source - such as secretly obtaining Risen's bank records - the Obama Justice Department is not easing up, and the criminalization of whistleblowing is rapidly becoming a criminalization of all First Amendment rights.
The Justice Department will no doubt continue its assault on whistleblowers with the ill-fitting Espionage Act as its weapon of choice. My organization, the Government Accountability Project, has learned of still more possible Espionage Act prosecutions the Justice Department is considering.
Not that the Obama administration needs another Espionage Act prosecution notch on its belt to be the most aggressive administration in history. The list of anti-First Amendment policies is long enough:
--Indictment of former NSA senior official Thomas Drake under the Espionage Act.
--Failed attempt to subpoena New York Times reporter Jim Risen to reveal sources.
--Prosecution of FBI linguist Shamai Leibowitz under the Espionage Act.
--Prosecution of accused Wikileaks source Bradley Manning.
--Prosecution of former State Department employee Stephen Kim under the Espionage Act.
--Indictment of former CIA employee Jeffery Sterling under the Espionage Act.
--Ethically-questionable subpoena of Sterling's former attorney is apparent contravention of Justice Department Regulations.
The shady tactics disgraced prosecutor William Welch has been using further taint the Justice Department's campaign against whistleblowers. Most recently, Welch casually admitted that exculpatory documents in the Drake's case have been destroyed. And, Drake's defense attorneys revealed in publicly-filed motions on Friday that Welch had withheld exculpatory material from the defense for ten months. Not only is the Obama administration escalating its war on whistleblowers, but the fight for whistleblowers is even more unfair when the government uses shady tactics to punish them.
To support NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, "like" the Save Tom Drake Facebook page or sign the petition to stop his prosecution.