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Revealing the name of a covert agent can jeopardize their life and the lives of others. The claim that it's an "open secret" doesn't exactly hold water (being an oxymoron and all).He did not leak the name of just any random agent, but the name of an agent directly involved in the torture program:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/26/us/ex-officer-for-cia-is-s...
> In October, Mr. Kiriakou pleaded guilty to one charge of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act when he disclosed to a reporter the name of an agency officer who had been involved in the C.I.A.’s program to hold and interrogate detainees.
Edward Snowden knowingly intentionally leaked thousands/millions of classified intelligence documents to reporters.
What do both of these men have in common?
They both worked for a government that refused to hold its own criminals accountable.
From http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/us/former-cia-officer-plea...
> In 2010, Justice Department officials overruled a recommendation by its ethics office to sanction for professional misconduct the Bush-era lawyers who wrote those memos, and decided not to charge C.I.A. officials for destroying interrogation videotapes. Then in August, Mr. Holder announced that no one would be prosecuted for the deaths of a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2002 and another in Iraq in 2003, eliminating the last possibility of criminal charges by officials who carried out brutal interrogations in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
And let me check http://www.hasjamesclapperbeenindictedyet.com .... still showing "NO". And that's for a man who is taped on YouTube as having committed perjury before congress!
When the government refuses to obey the law it is saying that there are two laws: one for them, and one for us.
Under these circumstances what are you supposed to do?
The definition of a whistleblower is someone who finds themselves in such circumstances. Ethically responsible government employees have no choice but to go outside the system so that the criminals within the system have some shred of a chance of being held accountable. Without names there is no accountability, and without accountability the government will continue to commit crimes with impunity.