Jeffrey Sterling was found guilty of illegally disclosing national defense information

A CIA whistleblower faces 100 years behind bars after he uncovered evidence of the agency planting false evidence on nuclear weapons in Iran.

Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling is due to appear in court for sentencing on April 24th 2015 for telling a New York Times reporter details concerning a reckless CIA operation that potentially sped up Iran’s nuclear advancement.

Although the evidence against the whistleblower is largely circumstantial and lacking evidence, he has still been convicted of for illegally disclosing national defense information and obstructing justice.

After joining the CIA on May 14, 1993, Sterling eventually rose to the rank of case officer and began working with the agency’s Iran Task Force.

He was eventually assigned to a mission conspiring to deliver flawed nuclear blueprints to the Iranian government codenamed Operation Merlin.

Unbeknownst to the Iranian government, the design flaws in the plan meant that it would waste years devising a nuclear weapon that could not detonate.

On August 22, 2000, Sterling filed a complaint with the CIA’s Equal Employment Office alleging employment-related racial discrimination. The CIA, in addition to the crimes it is known for, has a history of racial discrimination.
In 2001, he was eventually placed on administrative leave, after Sterling filed a civil lawsuit against the CIA.

New York Times reporter James Risen interviewed Sterling and published an article strictly regarding his termination from the CIA.

Then, according to a report by Chriswick.ca: “Sterling met with the Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSIC) in March 2003 to blow the whistle on a reckless CIA program codenamed Operation Merlin.

“A month later, Risen prepared to write an article exposing the mistakes made during Operation Merlin when then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice convinced New York Times senior officials to kill Risen’s story. Unable to publish his article about Operation Merlin in The New York Times, Risen began writing a book.”

The book was entitled “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration” and was published against the wishes of the CIA and The New York Times.

The CIA then set out on a mission to investigate and penalise both Sterling and Risen.

Sterling was arrested for illegally disclosing national defense information and obstructing justice. According to the indictment, Sterling had communicated with Risen and revealed classified documents about Iran to the investigative journalist. Sterling was also charged with obstruction for deleting an email that he had sent to Risen.

Despite multiple attempts through the courts to get Risen to reveal his sources for his expose on Iran, he never did.

However, this did not stop Sterling from eventually being convicted of disseminating information about Iran at a show trial trial involving anonymous CIA agents testifying behind seven-foot-high gray partitions.

Although lawyers acting on behalf of Sterling demonstrating CIA officials and numerous SSIC staffers could have given the information about Iran to Risen, Sterling was convicted without any evidence of recorded phone conversations or captured email exchanges between him and the reporter. This was based purely on the grounds that Sterling had previously approached Risen about his race discrimination claim against the CIA.

Furthermore, it directly flies in the face of Obama’s false and insincere promises to protect whistleblowers from prosecution and punishment.

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