FBI linguist gets jail for leaking to blogger

An FBI linguist will serve 20 months in prison for passing confidential information to a blogger, Politico reports.

From the story:

The sentence for Shamai Leibowitz is likely to become the longest ever served by a government employee accused of passing national security secrets to a member of the media. His case represents only the third known conviction in U.S. history for a government official or contractor providing classified information to the press.

And it reflects a surprising development: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has taken a hard line against leakers, and Obama himself has expressed anger about disclosures of national security deliberations in the press.

This follows last month's indictment of Thomas Drake for allegedly leaking information about mismanagement at the NSA to a Baltimore Sun reporter and a subpoena of New York Times reporter James Risen over a book he wrote exposing a CIA program against Iran.

Four in the morning

1. A grand jury has indicted a former National Security Agency executive for leaking classified information to a newspaper - neither the newspaper nor the subject of the leak is listed in the indictment. Could it be related to the NSA wiretapping story broken by the New York Times?* WaPo

2. The Los Angeles Times missed the final score of the LA Dodgers game because of earlier deadlines. LAO

3. Salon and McSweeney's partner up. Salon

4. 1965 was a different time: "The journalist enjoys good standing in his community. He is even likely to be held in awe." Pitch

*Probably not that story. Scott Shane of the New York Times says it sounds like a story written by former Baltimore Sun writer Siobhan Gorman.

Rep. Harman allegedly caught in wiretap*, **

A National Security Administration wiretap caught Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, allegedly making a quid pro quo deal with a "suspected Israeli spy" while she was trying to get appointed chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee (the position would go to Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas). From CQ Politics:

Rep. Jane Harman, the California Democrat with a longtime involvement in intelligence issues, was overheard on an NSA wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two officials of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful pro-Israel organization in Washington.

Harman was recorded saying she would “waddle into” the AIPAC case “if you think it’ll make a difference,” according to two former senior national security officials familiar with the NSA transcript.

In exchange for Harman’s help, the sources said, the suspected Israeli agent pledged to help lobby Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., then-House minority leader, to appoint Harman chair of the Intelligence Committee after the 2006 elections, which the Democrats were heavily favored to win.

Of course, this raises many question - not the least of which is: How did it come about that an NSA writetap was recording a phone call to a member of Congress? (h/t Talking Points Memo)

*Update: The Capital J questions the timing of these leaks.

**Updated, two: Jeff Stein joined Warren Olney on "Which Way, LA?" today to talk about his story. You can hear the interview tonight at 7:30 p.m. on KCRW 89.9 FM, or download it here.