SoylentNews

takyon writes:

Former CIA agent Jeffrey Sterling has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for sharing classified information with New York Times reporter James Risen:

Sterling's lawyers had asked the judge not to abide by sentencing guidelines calling for 19 to 24 years behind bars. They argued Sterling should be treated with the same leniency shown to former Gen. David Petraeus, who was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and avoid prison after admitting to leaking classified information to his biographer and then-girlfriend, Paula Broadwell. Sterling's lawyers also pointed to the case of former CIA agent John Kiriakou, who was recently released from jail after a 30-month sentence for disclosing the name of a covert agent to a reporter, and to the 13-month-sentence handed down to Stephen Kim, who pled guilty to talking about a classified document with a Fox News reporter.

Sterling, a 47-year-old former case officer in the agency's Iran Task Force, was a handler of a Russian-scientist-turned-spy who was the focal point of a complicated effort to provide Iran with faulty blueprints for nuclear centrifuges that, if used, would disrupt the nation's effort to build its own nuclear weapons. According to James Risen, the Times reporter who wrote a book in 2006 disclosing the operation, the Iranians realized the blueprints were faulty and extracted accurate information from them. The prosecution disputes Risen's reporting, contending that the operation was a success.

Though lighter than expected, Sterling's sentence continues a trend of what appears to be highly selective punishment of leakers. Classified information is regularly leaked by government officials who want to make themselves or the government look good. Such "authorized leaks" are rarely prosecuted. For instance, an array of highly classified information about the killing of Osama bin Laden — which made the Obama Administration look resolute and militarily effective — was leaked to the press and no one was punished in connection with the leaks. It tends to be only unauthorized leaks, particularly those that highlight wrongdoing or ineptitude, that the Department of Justice takes an interest in.