NY Times Breaks Major Story on Israel Whistleblower

The reasons for the extreme levels of secrecy surrounding the supposedly public trial are now obvious.

Shamai K. Leibowitz

(SALEM, Ore.) - New information reveals why a young F.B.I. translator named Shamai K. Leibowitz was sent to prison for 20-months last year by the Obama administration with few to no questions asked, even by Judge Alexander Williams Jr., of United States District Court in Maryland, who at the time of sentencing, in May 2010, admitted:

“I don’t know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea.”

For this, a U.S. judge sent a man to prison for 20-months.

Williams added, “All I know is that it’s a serious case,”

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. Included in the conversations were American supporters of Israel and at least one member of Congress, blogger Richard Silverstein of Tikun Olam, said, explaining that his blog is named after a Hebrew phrase that means “repairing the world.”

The blog offers a liberal perspective on Israel and Israeli-American relations. Silverstein told the NY Times that he had decided to speak out to make clear that Mr. Leibowitz, though charged under the Espionage Act, was acting out of noble motives. In a nation where freedom of speech is guaranteed, the Espionage Act has been a tool of the Justice Department in nearly all prosecutions of government employees who disclosed classified information to the news media. Under Obama, there are five cases, against people, for having spoken freely.

Scott Shane with the NY Times, said Leibowitz, was sent to a Federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house in Maryland, and prohibited by his plea agreement from discussing anything he learned at the F.B.I. for revealing classified information to a blogger.

For many, this automatically rings of Wikileaks and Bradley Manning who revealed the illegal U.S. slaughter of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indeed, we have entered a time when honesty is rewarded with a cell next to a big inmate named 'Big Bob'.

The Times article discusses how little prosecutors revealed about the case. The blogger was identified in court papers only as “Recipient A.”

The reason for the extreme levels of secrecy surrounding the supposedly public trial is now obvious.

From the New York Times:

In his first interview about the case, Mr. Silverstein offered a rare glimpse of American spying on a close ally.

He said he had burned the secret documents in his Seattle backyard after Mr. Leibowitz came under investigation in mid-2009, but he recalled that there were about 200 pages of verbatim records of telephone calls and what seemed to be embassy conversations. He said that in one transcript, Israeli officials discussed their worry that their exchanges might be monitored.

Mr. Leibowitz, who declined to comment for this article, released the documents because of concerns about Israel’s aggressive efforts to influence Congress and public opinion, and fears that Israel might strike nuclear facilities in Iran, a move he saw as potentially disastrous, according to Mr. Silverstein.

This story reveals many things. Chiefly among them is the fact that for real human beings, religion is a side note.

It is important on a personal level, and a terrible problem when viewed on a governmental level, which is everything to do with Israel, a religion-government that many Jewish people claim to be a very poor representative of Judaism, which was never intended to be a militant front.

It tells us that new media is an absolute scoundrel to those seeking to hide the truth about publicly funded matters, and it reminds us that even though they ran the story on Labor Day, when readership is predictably low, the NY Times has what it takes to belt the truth out in ways that leave opponents black and blue. Most unfortunately, it tells us that we have not made any ground as Americans with regard to the presidency, and that is a serious matter. We are raised to tell the truth, to always be open as people, and then our prized champions, the whistleblowers operating almost on their sense of morals alone, are trashed and victimized.

Special thanks to Alison Weir for making sure we knew about this important article, and the whole world owes a sincere thank you to Shamai K. Leibowitz for being a brave human being.

Visit the entire NY Times piece here.

Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel Scott Shane - NY Times

If that link does not work, visit this version by The Council for National Interest

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Silver Spoke Award by the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (2011), Excellence in Journalism Award by the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs (2010), Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), First-place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Tim has several years of experience in network affiliate news TV stations, having worked as a reporter and photographer at NBC, ABC and FOX stations in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon. Tim was a member of the National Press Photographer's Association for several years and is a current member of the Orange County Press Club. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. As News Editor, Tim among other things, is responsible for publishing the original content of 82 Salem-News.com writers. He reminds viewers that emails are easily missed and urges those trying to reach him, to please send a second email if the first goes unanswered. You can write to Tim at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

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Fema camp inmate September 8, 2011 10:36 am (Pacific time)

That about sums it up. Honesty is rewarded with a jail cell. Because we live under the military industrial complex, except even worse than when we were warned about it.

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