Former Military Intel Analyst Arrested and Charged With Leaking Classified Info To Media

Daniel Everette Hale, 31, a former Intel analyst was arrested and charged with leaking classified information to a news outlet, The Intercept.

Hale, a U.S. Air Force veteran allegedly leaked classified material about a classified military campaign against al-Qaeda terrorists between 2013-14.

The indictment claims that Hale while holding a  Top Secret-Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) security clearance, gave 11 Top Secret documents to an Intercept reporter who published it online.

https://twitter.com/geeknik/status/1126553925530869762

According to allegations in the indictment, beginning in April 2013, while enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and assigned to the NSA, Hale began communicating with a reporter. Hale met with the reporter in person on multiple occasions, and, at times, communicated with the reporter via an encrypted messaging platform.  Then, in February 2014, while working as a cleared defense contractor at NGA, Hale printed six classified documents unrelated to his work at NGA and soon after exchanged a series of messages with the reporter.  Each of the six documents printed were later published by the reporter’s news outlet.

They need to start charging the reporters as well. Calling yourself a “journalist” doesn’t make you immune to the same laws every other citizen must abide by.

According to allegations in the indictment, while employed as a cleared defense contractor for NGA, Hale printed from his Top Secret computer 36 documents, including 23 documents unrelated to his work at NGA.  Of the 23 documents unrelated to his work at NGA, Hale provided at least 17 to the reporter and/or the reporter’s online news outlet, which published the documents in whole or in part. Eleven of the published documents were classified as Top Secret or Secret and marked as such.

According to allegations in the indictment, in August 2014, Hale’s cell phone contact list included contact information for the reporter, and he possessed two thumb drives.  One thumb drive contained a page marked “SECRET” from a classified document that Hale had printed in February 2014 and had attempted to delete from the thumb drive.  The other thumb drive contained Tor software and the Tails operating system, which were recommended by the reporter’s online news outlet in an article published on its website regarding how to anonymously “leak” documents. [Department of Justice]

Who are they hiring these days? Seems we live in an age where the leaks just can’t be fixed not even by one of the best plumbers around.

Let me get this straight. Of the last 15 people charged with leaking classified information, 14 were from the military, yet James Comey, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, and Robert Mueller all get a pass for committing the same crime?

I served for eight years, and the very thought of sharing anything classified and ending up in jail frightened me. The one thing about security clearances is they are supposed to go deep into your background to see if you would be susceptible to blackmail. I had a Top Secret Clearance with a Special Background Investigation, and I was clean as a whistle. It pains me to see these guys selling out for a result that would land them behind bars.

I have no sympathy for the veteran caught up in this, but if he has a family, I feel sorry for what they will have to go through.

Wayne is a freelance writer who was named the 2015 American Conservative Union Blogger of the Year and awarded ... More about Wayne Dupree
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