10 June 2011

BKNT--FLASH--NSA's Drake to plead guilty to misdemeanor--OS

flash - OPEN SOURCE

US/1; ATTN: JAG/1; HST/2, JAG/4; US/30; JAG/5

Ex-NSA official Thomas Drake to plead guilty to misdemeanor

By Ellen Nakashima, Updated: Thursday, June 9, 2011 - 9:30 PM

Days before his trial was set to begin, former National Security Agency manager and accused leaker Thomas A. Drake accepted a plea deal from the government Thursday that drops the charges in his indictment, absolves him of mishandling classified information and calls for no prison time.

In exchange, Drake, who was facing 35 years in prison if convicted of violating the Espionage Act, will plead guilty to a misdemeanor of exceeding authorized use of a computer. He will pay no fine, and the maximum probation time he can serve will be capped at one year.

“It’s an unambiguous victory for Drake,” said Jesselyn Radack, director of national security at the Government Accountability Project, who supported Drake on whistleblower issues. “The prosecution’s case imploded.”

The deal brings to a close a five-year ordeal for Drake, 54, who came under investigation in 2006 in leaking to the media and who was indicted in May 2010 on allegations of willful retention of “national defense” or classified information, obstruction of justice and making a false statement.

It also is a setback for the Obama administration’s effort to punish alleged leakers of national security secrets using a widely criticized World War I-era law.

“As a tool for prosecuting leakers, the Espionage Act is a broad sword where a scalpel would be far preferable,” said Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at American University. “It criminalizes to the same degree the wrongful retention of information that probably should never have been classified in the first place and the willful sale of state secrets to foreign intelligence agencies.”

Justice Department spokeswoman Laura Sweeney said she could not comment on a pending matter.

CONTINUE READING full Story HERE...

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TWITTER FLASH- BlackNET Intell fails at first original Tweet @BlackHoleNET:

UpDATE: Judy Miller Tells Scott Malone About The White House-NSA AQ Intercept she had before 9/11

""And I always wondered how the person who sent that [intercept] warning must have felt." - - - - - - -- Judith Miller, 27 APR 2006 * ................................................. *- WSM, 2011: The very military intelligence official who in fact made sure that that intercept-intelligence was passed to the CIA and the WHITE HOUSE's Scooter LIBBY in the first place was the source who pointed Scott Malone to interview Member Judy Miller on this precise question in the first place also. ........................................... MUCH MORE on this still untold CRIMINAL 9/11 OBSTRUCTION of JUSTICE SCANDAL COMING Back to the BlackNET in September......... Names NAMED

History: UPI showed some love to BlackNET

[Ed Note: Digging up some old info; even back in the day UPI had discovered the BlackNET; and what we do...]

Original UPI Article Here

Feature: BlackNET abuzz over Iraq showdown

Published: Tuesday, March. 19, 2003 at 3:59 PM
By HIL ANDERSON

LOS ANGELES, March 19 (UPI) -- Ensconced at an undisclosed location in the lonely wooded mountains of West Virginia, the BlackNET has been abuzz in recent weeks as the United States prepares for the moment of truth in the Persian Gulf.

The pending invasion of Iraq and the possibility that it will bring new terrorist attacks to the United States has stoked the level of chatter on the Internet mailing list that has become a "must-have" for government officials, investigative reporters and world affairs scholars in the netherworld of international spooks.

"The consensus is that (Iraqi leader) Saddam (Hussein) is an eternal optimist," said Scott Malone, moderator and founder of the Web site dubbed "BlackNET," which was originally launched in Arlington, Va., in the immediate wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, suicide attack on the nearby Pentagon. "And (President) Bush is going to do exactly what he says."

Saddam's optimism is likely fading with American and British troops expected to be moving in on his dug-in military at any moment, but the imminent showdown has been the primary topic of discussion for months among the members of BlackNET who share a professional interest in the shadowy world of international terrorism.

"We picked up some Israeli chatter last week," Malone told United Press International on Monday in a telephone interview.

"It was some amateur radio buffs who were monitoring some U.S. fighter pilots who said the invasion was going to be on Tuesday."

The chatter appeared to have been off by a day, [not so--the invasion DID BEGIN that Tuesday,’ EST, just five hours after this article went out.] but it's the kind of fodder that makes BlackNET a font of tidbits and a plethora of analyses that go out to the membership list of roughly 100 in real time and uncensored and unfiltered by officials, editors and spokesmen.

And they seem to have found some of our members (from the article):

"It's an interesting group," said Morgan Clements, a member of the list and publisher of the Web site TerroristWarning.com.

"They have a curious and uncanny awareness of things which are not always publicly available and are clearly a group of knowledgeable individuals working toward a common goal behind the scenes without getting or expecting credit for the information they provide..."

"It's witty and sometimes even funny," observed member Roger Twinning. "It's a strange, overly informed and timely mutant (newswire)."

Being described as a "mutant" might not seem like high praise, but the White House said after Sept. 11 that the war on terrorism would sometimes be carried on outside the view of the mainstream media, and that might give the myriad BlackNET members a leg up on everyone else.

If you go directly to the UPI Pro; you'd find that there is more depth to the BlackNET then appears to the naked eye....

Malone, a multiple Emmy and Peabody award-winning investigative reporter who chronicled Middle East intrigue and the Branch Davidian siege at Waco, Texas, for the Public Broadcasting Corp. series "Frontline," says he limited BlackNET's membership to others who work in the field of intelligence gathering or homeland security, or those in ancillary fields such as public healthcare and cyber-security...

The members are all assigned a code number that keeps them both anonymous and protected against both repercussions from their bosses and static from Web surfers who have little to offer to the discussion other than a political ax to grind.

"It's like belonging to a secret club," he joked.

"The cachet of BlackNET is that you are part of a team; it's a cooperative of online investigations," Malone said. "I began this site to sell it to security firms, but then changed my mind. If it were to go public, we wouldn't be the same thing."

While BlackNET's MemberSHIP , as noted by UPI, is limited to people that work in the field of security and intelligence, you can read here some of our latest OPEN SOURCE intelligence, that is for unlimited public dissemination.

As always; keep your eyes here, as there will be more to come....
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Posted by W. Scott Malone at 6/19/2008 05:50:00 PM