By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan
The Obama administration’s espionage case against alleged CIAwhistleblower Jeffrey Sterling is expected to come to trial soon, six years after he was indicted. In addition to Sterling, also on trial will be a central pillar of our democratic society: press freedom.
Federal prosecutors allege that Sterling leaked classified information to New York Times reporter and author James Risen. Risen has written many exposés on national security issues. In one, published in his 2006 book “State of War,” he details a failed CIA operation to deliver faulty nuclear bomb blueprints to the government of Iran, to disrupt that country’s alleged weapons program. Federal prosecutors think Sterling leaked the details of that operation to Risen. They want Risen to divulge his source in court, which he has so far refused to do, asserting the First Amendment’s protections of the free press. James Risen has vowed to go to jail rather than “give up everything I believe in.”
The role confidential sources play in investigative journalism was perhaps best demonstrated by journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. They had a confidential source dubbed “Deep Throat,” who gave them leads, confirmed details, and instructed them to “follow the money.” With the help of that source, they uncovered wrong-doing at the highest levels of government that ultimately led to the President Richard Nixon’s resignation from office in 1974, to avoid impeachment.
At about the same time, revelations about FBI, CIA and the NSA misconduct and outright criminality led to Congressional investigations that prompted creation of new laws, like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was supposed to rein in abuses, requiring a court-issued warrant for surveillance.
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