Former Central Intelligence Agency engineer Joshua Schulte was convicted in federal court Wednesday for what some believe to be the biggest leak of classified material in the agency’s history.
Schulte was found guilty on nine counts in his second court case since his initial arrest in 2018. He was arrested on charges of stealing the CIA’s Vault 7 material and subsequently uploading it to Wikileaks. Some of the stolen data contained information about the CIA’s hacks of Apple and Android smartphones during foreign espionage operations.
According to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, Schulte was convicted of “one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.” He had argued in court that Schulte leaked some of the country’s “most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organizations” and other malicious influences around the world. more here
“… leaked some of the country’s “most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to battle terrorist organizations.”
Terrorist organizations or “white Christian nationalists”? I can’t figure if this guy is a traitor or a hero. But given who is prosecuting him, I can guess.
Couldn’t care less. The CIA is no ally of the people of the United States. My only ethical objection is that if you take a pay check to keep data secure, then you should keep it secure. If you don’t like what your employer does, then quit.
@TheMule — I’m in general agreement with your ethical objection. But what is the ethical solution when you discover that you’re being paid to secure data that is evidence of criminal activity?
I haven’t been following this case, so I don’t know if that was a question Schulte had to deal with. Knowing what I do know of the CIA, there’s a good chance he did indeed find evidence of illegality.
But Jan 6 was the most dangerous breach of security and on America in history……..
@TheMule
“If you don’t like what your employer does, then quit.”
But then nothing changes, the criminality/misconduct continues but a good man is no longer there.
The whole purpose of whistleblower laws is that an employee can expose malfeasance within an agency without having to quit and be protected from those doing the wrongdoing. We can quarrel about his methods, turning files over to WikiLeaks (the same problem I had with Snowden, BTW) but those CIA punks work for us and if they are doing something illegal, I would like to know about it.
And I’m betting that TonyR is spot on, that the files released reveal something rotten within the CIA, namely that they are going after American citizens that are only guilty of caring about this country and want their government to protect their rights under the Constitution.
“foreign espionage operations”. Would it be too far a stretch to interpret this as “Spying on Trump”?
@aleon – Unfortunately, no. Not too far a stretch. After all, Trump was the same thing as Russia to those swamp scum.
Snowden didn’t leak to Wikileaks.
Perhaps you’re confusing him w Assange?
Regardless of how anyone feels about either of them, or their methods to divulge, I am personally grateful for the fact they revealed our govt had turned against its own citizens.
Further, regardless of the govt claim their leaks resulted in harm to US soldiers, it has never been proven…not so even remotely so. Just another vague claim by liars in the deep state, and repeated by each administration.
He would never been caught except he was horning in on Clinton, Obama, and Biden territory.
Promote him!!
Why wasn’t he my replacement?
Guess they never heard about HRC’s shithouse server.
He must not have the right connections.
mortem tyrannis
izlamo delenda est …
ckskrs-in-action?
“one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history.”
funny! I always thought that was the Rosenbergs
maybe the same penaltyt should be applied
He should have first established a foundation and then sold secrets to China or Russia like Bill and Hillary did.
Who was “damaged”, how?