The Hardball Challenge

The House member's idiotic statement that BP was shaken down is a subject other Republican politicians have been asked about. Even though the Republican leadership has disavowed itself of the idiocies of this particular Representative, Rush Limbaugh has endorsed it so no Republican wants to say Rush is wrong.

Chris Matthews of "Hardball" is so amazed by this reticence that he has offered a standing invitation to any Republican who is willing to come forward and say Rush is wrong, not just about this, but about anything!! It is just incredible to watch all the Republicans twist and squirm to avoid saying simply that Rush is wrong, about anything!

Whatever happened to the once-great movement of conservatism? Time was when there were princpled conservatives, people like Barry Goldwater, whose shining moments included speaking out for abortion rights, and speaking out for Nixon's resignation in light of the rampant corruption in his administration. These were the actions of a real conseravtive, not the lamebrain crap that passes for conservatism today. They were the actions of a movement fashioned after the great Edmund Burke, who spoke out against the war against the American colonies, and pursued the impeachment of Warren Hastings on principle.

The Espionage Act of 1917

President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act of 1917 on June 15, 1917, after the United States had entered World War One two months earlier. Wilson was adamant that the restrictions on free speech were essential to the success of the war effort.

The title "Espionage Act" has always been a misnomer, as very few prosecutions under the Act have involved spies working for a foreign power. The most prominent early prosecuton was against Eugene Debs for a speech Debs gave in Canton, Ohio on June 16 1918, protesting the United States involvement in World War One. Even though Debs was careful to couch his comments as being against the war, and not intended to encourage violation of the draft requirement, he was nevertheless prosecuted and convicted.

Debs lost his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, and began serving his ten-year sentence on April 13, 1919. What is shocking is that the Supreme court vote against Debs was 9-0, showing that the Court's recent decisions upholding the overreach of executive power is nothing new.

President Wilson was under tremendous pressure to pardon the saintly Debs, but at the time the war had not officially ended, because the Treaty of Versailles was still being drafted, and Wilson wanted to wait until the Treaty was finalized before he issued any pardons. But even after the signing of the Treaty he still resisted, saying that he wouldn't issue the pardon until his Attorney General had recommended this action. But then the AG made the recommendation, and Wilson still stubbornly refused. It was left to Wilson's successor, Warren G. Harding, to pardon Debs, which he did in December of 2021, after which he welcomed Debs to the White House.

Other cases through the years since have been similar to the Debs case, in that what was being punished was not espionage activity, but speech that should have been protected under the First Amendment. The most outrageous era in this regard was during the Obama administration, when no less than nine(!) whistleblowers were prosecuted. I will review five of these cases.

1. Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning. Manning, a U.S. army intelligence analyst, was convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military documents and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. His motivation was to show the misconduct and incompetence of the U.S. military in the wars in Iraq and Afghhanistan. He served seven years in prison before receiving a commutation to time served from Obama.

The Manning case was quite similar to that of Daniel Ellsberg, who was prosecuted for releasing "The Pentagon Papers" in 1971, revealing the incompetence and mistakes of the U.S. Vietnam War involvement. The Ellsberg case ended in May of 1973, when the trial judge dismissed the case for "gross governmental misconduct".

2. John Kiriakou. Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was convicted for disclosing the name of a CIA officer involved in the agency's post-9/11 torture program to a journalist. He was also accused of leaking information about CIA activities related to waterboarding. Kiriakou pled guilty to violating the Espionage Act and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

3. Edward Snowden. Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, leaked a vast array of classified documents revealing the U.S. government’s mass surveillance programs, including the collection of phone records and internet metadata. Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act and fled to Hong Kong and then Russia, where he was granted asylum. He has not returned to the U.S. and remains a highly controversial figure.

4. Reality Winner. Winner, a former NSA contractor, was accused of leaking a classified intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election to the news media. Winner was arrested in June 2017 and charged with violating the Espionage Act. In 2018, she pled guilty to leaking the document and was sentenced to more than five years in prison.

5. Jeffrey Sterling. Sterling, a former CIA officer, was accused of leaking classified information regarding a CIA operation to expose Iran's nuclear program to New York Times journalist James Risen. Sterling was convicted in 2015 of violating the Espionage Act and sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

An examination of these cases reveals that they all involved whistleblower actions in the tradition of Daniel Ellsberg. These actions were designed to inform the public about what the government was doing, and none were done on behalf of any foreign power.

Conclusion: The Espionage Act of 1917 should be repealed, and in its place should be enacted an act more narrowly tailored to protect legitimate free speech activities. Judges should be required to be lenient in sentencing when the leakers are not motivated by anti-American sentiments. After all, the true patriot is not the person who supports the government right or wrong, but the person who wants to improve the government.