<
https://www.techdirt.com/2022/07/29/the-case-against-reality-winner-was-a-travesty/>
"Ever since Reality Winner was arrested, we’ve written about the ridiculousness
of her case. It was yet another in a long line of cases using the Espionage Act
to go after whistleblowers who aren’t spies, but are actively trying to do the
right thing — and, as per the Espionage Act — not even allowed to give the
context to the court. And, as we noted, the information that Winner “leaked”
and for which she was sentenced to five years in prison, was publicly revealed
by other government agencies anyway, which seems to completely erase any claim
that the leaking of the documents caused some sort of harm to national
security.
This week,
60 Minutes conducted an interview with Reality Winner and it’s
worth reading (or watching). A key part is that Winner’s whistleblowing
actually helped to better secure the 2018 election, providing useful
information to protect against hackers:
But what prosecutors called grave damage was a bombshell of truth to the
Federal Election Assistance Commission, which helps secure the vote. In
hours, the commission issued an alert on the “NSA document leak.” It spelled
out the top secret email addresses “utilized by the attackers.” And urged
officials to “check email logs.” Blindsided by Winner’s revelation, the
commission called for “full disclosure of election security intelligence.”
Two former officials told us, Reality Winner helped secure the 2018 midterm
election.
That sure sounds like fundamental whistleblowing, and not “espionage.” But,
under the Espionage Act, Winner was not allowed to discuss any of that."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
