Tuesday, February 28, 2012

President Obama promised to enhance whistle-blower laws, but is actually using the Espionage Act to prosecute them

It's the Chicago way...

Via The NYT:
Jake Tapper, the White House correspondent for ABC News, pointed out that the administration had lauded brave reporting in distant lands more than once and then asked, “How does that square with the fact that this administration has been so aggressively trying to stop aggressive journalism in the United States by using the Espionage Act to take whistle-blowers to court?” 

He then suggested that the administration seemed to believe that “the truth should come out abroad; it shouldn’t come out here.” 

Fair point. The Obama administration, which promised during its transition to power that it would enhance “whistle-blower laws to protect federal workers,” has been more prone than any administration in history in trying to silence and prosecute federal workers. 

The Espionage Act, enacted back in 1917 to punish those who gave aid to our enemies, was used three times in all the prior administrations to bring cases against government officials accused of providing classified information to the media. It has been used six times since the current president took office.

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