AsiaMedia :: US: 'Good guy' Pentagon analyst jailed 12 years for leaking data: "US: 'Good guy' Pentagon analyst jailed 12 years for leaking data
Pentagon analyst admits to revealing information about national security to journalists and diplomats
South China Morning Post
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Alexandria, Virginia --- Frustrated with what he saw as US government inaction against the threat posed by Iran, Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin decided to take national security into his own hands.
He leaked classified information to reporters, an Israeli diplomat and two members of a pro-Israel lobby group, hoping the National Security Council would take notice.
He certainly got the government's attention. Franklin has been sentenced to more than 12 years in prison, even though the judge believed his intentions were good.
"The defendant did not seek to hurt the United States," US District Judge T.S. Ellis said at Franklin's sentencing for illegally disclosing classified information. "He thought he was helping to bring certain information to the attention" of the security council.
Franklin said he discussed classified information with the diplomat and two former lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee between 2002 and 2004. Worries about Iran have risen significantly since then.
Franklin, 59, a policy analyst whose expertise included Iran, pleaded guilty to three felony counts in October as part of a plea bargain that requires him to co-operate in the government's prosecution against the former lobbyists, who are scheduled for trial in April.
Franklin's sentence could be sharply reduced later if prosecutors are satisfied with the extent of his co-operation. He will remain free while the case continues.
Franklin did not speak at the sentencing, but said at his plea hearing in October he was motivated by frustration with US policy in the Middle East when he gave classified information to Israeli diplomat Naor Gilon and lobbyists Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman.
Prosecutor Kevin DiGregory said Franklin's actions were dangerous because "once the US government loses control of classified information, there's no way of knowing into whose hands that information may fall".
Date Posted: 1/22/2006"
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