A former National Security Agency executive has been indicted on 10 felony charges for allegedly leaking classified details of the Bush administration’s intelligence policies to a national newspaper. The indictment alleges that Thomas Drake, a former big shot in the agency’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, sent hundreds of emails to a reporter, and served as a source for several articles. If convicted, he faces a prison term of 5 to 20 years.
“We take our mission very seriously,” new NSA Director Keith Alexander told the Washington Post after his confirmation hearing today. “Ours is to protect classified information.” Drake had access to several highly classified documents, according to the indictment. His public defender says he’s been “extremely cooperative” with investigators. Fox News identifies the reporter as Siobhan Gorman, who worked for the Baltimore Sun at the time and is now with the Wall Street Journal.
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