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May 17, 2011

New Yorker Expose Reveals Obama’s Expansive Attack On Whistleblowers 
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A major new exposé by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker magazine has
revealed new details about the Obama administration's attack on
whistleblowers. The article focuses on former National Security Agency
analyst Thomas Drake who is being prosecuted for leaking information
about waste and mismanagement at the agency. The New Yorker reveals the
Obama administration has used the Espionage Act of 1917 to press
criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security
leaks—more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous
Administrations combined. Gabriel Schoenfeld of the Hudson Institute
said, "Ironically, Obama has presided over the most draconian crackdown
on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon." Yale University
Professor of Constitutional Law Jack Balkin said the increase in leak
prosecutions is part of a larger transformation, what he described as
bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance
state.



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