FBI identifies suspected ‘second leaker’ for Snowden reporters
In a Yahoo News exclusive, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified an employee of a federal contracting firm suspected of being the so-called second leaker who turned over sensitive documents about the U.S. government’s terrorist watch list to a journalist closely associated with former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden. The case in question involves an Aug. 5 story published by the Intercept, an investigative website co-founded by Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who first published sensitive NSA documents obtained from Snowden. The FBI recently executed a search of the suspect’s home, and federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia have opened up a criminal investigation into the matter, the sources said.
Investigators are continuing to pursue it, but are not ready to charge yet.
Anonymous source to Yahoo News
Headlined “Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers,” the Intercept story cited a classified government document showing that nearly half the people on the U.S. government’s master terrorist screening database had “no recognized terrorist affiliation.” Sources familiar with the investigation say the disclosures prompted the National Counterterrorism Center to file an official notification with the Justice Department that classified material has been compromised and a violation of federal law may have taken place. It’s an open question, however, whether the second leaker could face charges. There are concerns among some within the U.S. intelligence community that top Justice Department officials—stung by criticism that they have been overzealous in pursuing previous leak cases—may now be more reluctant to bring criminal charges involving unauthorized disclosures to the news media.
Any attempt to criminalize the public release of those stories benefits only those who exercise virtually limitless power in secret with no accountability.
John Cook, editor of the Intercept
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