Fascinating item in the Times today -- fascinating for several reasons:
When Shamai K. Leibowitz, an F.B.I. translator, was sentenced to 20 months in prison last year for leaking classified information to a blogger, prosecutors revealed little about the case. They identified the blogger in court papers only as “Recipient A.” After Mr. Leibowitz pleaded guilty, even the judge said he did not know exactly what Mr. Leibowitz had disclosed.So we now have judges who are trying and sentencing people without knowing what they are supposed to have done. Truly we live in an age of miracle and wonder.“All I know is that it’s a serious case,” Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States District Court in Maryland, said at the sentencing in May 2010. “I don’t know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea.”
Now the reason for the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the Obama administration’s first prosecution for leaking information to the news media seems clear: Mr. Leibowitz, a contract Hebrew translator, passed on secret transcripts of conversations caught on F.B.I. wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Those overheard by the eavesdroppers included American supporters of Israel and at least one member of Congress, according to the blogger, Richard Silverstein.One imagines that Leibowitz -- to whom be all honor, by the way -- regrets now that he didn't have the שכל to give his material to some bloody-minded resolutes, like, say, Wikileaks, rather than this squishy self-censoring Tikkunist Silverstein. My man Julian Assange, we can confidently say, would not have burned the documents and strangely forgotten the name of a US Congressman having ex parte communications with the Israeli Embassy, communications I'm sure we would all dearly love to hear.In his first interview about the case, Mr. Silverstein .... said he had burned the secret documents in his Seattle backyard after Mr. Leibowitz came under investigation in mid-2009....
...Mr. Silverstein took the blog posts he had written based on Mr. Leibowitz’s material off his site after the criminal investigation two years ago.... He said the transcripts also included a three-way conversation between a congressman from Texas, an American supporter of the congressman and an embassy official; Mr. Silverstein said he could not recall any of the names.
Comments (11)
It's great that there are people like Assange out there, but I'm guessing if I was in Silverstein's position I would probably, unfortunately, do the same. I'd also probably shit my pants.
Posted by Paul Alexander | September 6, 2011 7:53 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 19:53
Yeah. Me too. That was my point, really: once Leibowitz decided to break the law -- and again, all honor to him for doing so -- he would have done better to find somebody equally bold to give the material to. Now he's got the worst of both worlds: he's a branded felon and, thanks to Mr High Minded Fix The World Law Abiding Silverstein, the stuff still didn't get out.
If this sounds like a criticism of Leibowitz, who is now an instant hero of mine, it's not. How was he to know? This was his first time. He couldn't have known -- because you can't know, until you've experienced it -- how thoroughly a deeply moral liberal can fuck you, the second you decide to defy the signs and walk on the grass.
Posted by MJS | September 6, 2011 8:10 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 20:10
“All I know is that it’s a serious case,” Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States District Court in Maryland, said at the sentencing in May 2010.
And you know this, how? Oh, I get it. They wouldn't have charged him if he wasn't guilty. If I had shelled out six figures for law school I wouldn't be asking stupid questions.
Posted by Happy Jack | September 6, 2011 8:27 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 20:27
silverstein = lamo. It was a trap.
Posted by moshe | September 6, 2011 9:29 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 21:29
Posted by MJS | September 6, 2011 9:38 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 21:38
Happy Jack, who are you to question the decisions of a federal judge, huh? Know your role, jabroni!
Posted by Paul Alexander | September 6, 2011 10:30 PM
Posted on September 6, 2011 22:30
moshe's right. Leibowitz didn't leak shit; he took his info into a cul de sac.
Posted by davidly | September 7, 2011 8:20 AM
Posted on September 7, 2011 08:20
Nothing ever dies on the internet. I wonder if the caches or captures of Mr. Silverstein's blog still exist in some der googler wasteland.
Seriously, though.
How many times has Chris Floyd been able to recover from hack attacks because he has subscribed readers who have his material in cache?
Posted by Jack Crow | September 7, 2011 9:25 AM
Posted on September 7, 2011 09:25
And hot damn, the header for the article? For reals?
"Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel"
Without getting into the nationalist anti-nuances of alliance and snoopwork, the whole damned story is about the Feds tracking Israeli spying efforts - only slightly behind those of Russia and China, who actually have cause - in the US.
But the Times doesn't disappoint. If ever a paper knew its readership to the marrow, it's the NYT.
Posted by Jack Crow | September 7, 2011 9:34 AM
Posted on September 7, 2011 09:34
"But the Times doesn't disappoint. If ever a paper knew its readership to the marrow, it's the NYT."
And you can't really blame them for that can you Jack? I mean providing the product that your customers demand is the key to economic success. At least that's what my heroin dealer once told me.
(eh... I don't actually do heroin anymore, I only say that in the interest of full disclosure)
Posted by Drunk Pundit | September 7, 2011 9:10 PM
Posted on September 7, 2011 21:10
The line I knew was that the real customers were the advertisers. The people who buy the paper are the product, and "Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel" helps keep their quality suitable.
Posted by Save the Oocytes | September 13, 2011 5:35 PM
Posted on September 13, 2011 17:35