FBI前特工承認向美聯社記者泄密面臨12年監禁

Ex-FBI agent pleads guilty in national security leak

中國日報網 2013-09-25 09:22

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An ex-FBI agent has agreed to plead guilty to leaking information to a reporter about an al-Qaeda bomb plot and to child pornography charges.

Donald Sachtleben, 55, is to be sentenced to 12 years in prison.

The May 2012 disclosures jeopardised an international intelligence operation and put lives at risk, officials said.

Investigators identified him after seizing phone records of the Associated Press, which published an article on the Yemen-based al-Qaeda plot.

"This unauthorized and unjustifiable disclosure severely jeopardized national security and put lives at risk," Deputy Attorney General James Cole said in a statement.

"To keep the country safe, the department must enforce the law against such critical and dangerous leaks, while respecting the important role of the press."

In May 2012, the Associated Press published an article describing a successful effort to disrupt a plot by Yemen-based al-Qaeda militants to bomb a US-bound airliner.

In court documents, Sachtleben of Indiana admitted giving a reporter information on a plot matching that description.

US Attorney General Eric Holder called the national security disclosure among the most serious he had ever seen.

"It put the American people at risk, and that is not hyperbole," he told reporters in May.

The Associated Press declined to comment on its relationship with Sachtleben, but said he had pleaded guilty "to revealing secret information for an Associated Press story".

Sachtleben worked for the FBI as a bomb technician from 1983-2008 and held top secret security clearance.

Stored secrets

In 2008, he was rehired as a contractor, maintaining his security clearance and continuing to have access to classified defence information, according to court documents.

On 2 May 2012, he disclosed secret information to a reporter, according to a court document he signed.

Nine days later he was arrested on separate charges of trading images of child pornography online, having been identified during an investigation into another man accused of possession of child pornography.

An FBI search of Sachtleben's computer, seized in the child pornography investigation, revealed improperly stored secret documents, according to court records.

On Monday, Sachtleben pleaded guilty to unauthorised disclosure of national defence information, unauthorised possession and retention of national defence information, and two charges of distributing and possessing child pornography.

The plea agreement calls for him to be sentenced to a total of 140 months in prison - 43 for the national security offenses and 97 for the child pornography charges.

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綜合外國媒體報道，美國司法部9月23日宣布，一名曾在美國聯邦調查局（FBI）工作25年的排爆專家已向法庭認罪，承認向美聯社泄露機密信息，如果法官接受其認罪協議的話，他將入獄12年。

2012年5月，美聯社刊發了一篇報道，講述美國情報和安全人員查獲關聯“基地”組織也門分支的新型炸彈、成功挫敗一起恐怖分子針對飛往美國民航航班的襲擊陰謀。然而奇怪的是，美國當局并未向媒體通報上述案件。

此后，有關部門進行了一場全面聯邦調查、以查明事件原委。調查人員獲取了20條美聯社記者和編輯使用的電話線路的通訊記錄，發現聯邦調查局前雇員唐納德·扎赫特勒本與美聯社的一名記者過往甚密、十分可疑。

扎赫特勒本今年55歲，居住在印第安納州卡梅爾鎮。1983年至2008年，扎赫特勒本在聯邦調查局工作，作為一名排爆專家，他擁有接觸高級機密的權限。2008年，扎赫特勒本被雇為政府承包商，其工作權限被保留，他仍然可以獲取機密國防信息。

根據法庭文件，調查人員從扎赫特勒本的“電子設備”中調取了電子郵件和短信，確認他早在2009年秋天就成為美聯社一名“A記者”的線人。2012年4月30日至5月2日，扎赫特勒本與“A記者”多次聯系，他就是在此期間向“A記者”透露了有關挫敗恐怖分子襲擊陰謀的機密信息，稱聯邦調查局“當時在進行一個持續中的、秘密的、敏感的炸彈分析”。

2012年5月11日，扎赫特勒本被控在網上交易兒童色情圖片而被捕，他的電腦也被查封。聯邦調查局搜查其電腦時，在其中發現了許多非法存儲的機密文件。

“為保證國家安全，司法部必須確保如此嚴重、危險的泄露信息行為受到法律制裁，與此同時，也會依法保護新聞自由。”美國司法部副總檢察長詹姆斯·科爾稱，扎赫特勒本泄露機密信息“嚴重損害了美國國家安全、將民眾的生命安全置于危險之中”。

華盛頓首席聯邦檢察官羅納德·梅琴指出，在美軍擊斃本·拉登一周年之際披露美國當局發現恐怖分子使用新型炸彈意圖襲擊赴美民航客機，“這對敏感的情報行動構成了威脅”。“針對扎赫特勒本的起訴，反映出我們下定決心要把那些違背工作職責、無法保護國家機密不被泄露的人繩之以法的決心，同時也對其他人敲響了警鐘，”梅琴說。

23日在法庭上，針對檢方提出的泄露國防機密信息、非法存儲國防機密信息、以及兩項散布和持有兒童色情圖片的指控，扎赫特勒本均承認有罪。根據認罪協議，數罪并罰，他將面臨共計140個月的監禁，其中泄密罪和傳播兒童色情照片罪分別需入獄43個月和97個月。

目前，美聯社拒絕就扎赫特勒本案以及其與扎特特勒本的關系作出回應。