Betrayal: FBI linguist sentenced for leaking classified information to blogger

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http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-37621-Public-Safety-Examiner~y2010m5d28-Betrayal-FBI-linguist-sentenced-for-leaking-classified-information-to-blogger



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Betrayal: FBI linguist sentenced for leaking classified information to
blogger

May 28, 3:18 PM[image: http://image.examiner.com/img/greydot.gif]Public
Safety Examiner <http://www.examiner.com/x-37621-Public-Safety-Examiner>[image:
http://image.examiner.com/img/greydot.gif]Jim Kouri

A former FBI contract linguist, Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, aka Samuel Shamai
Leibowitz, age 40, was sentenced yesterday to 20 months in prison followed
by three years of supervised release for unlawfully providing classified
documents to the host of an Internet blog who then published information
from those documents on the blog, according to a Department of
Justice report obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police

According to the Associated Press, Leibowitz is the grandson of Yeshayahu
Leibowitz, a famous and well-respected philosopher, scientist and Torah
scholar in Israel who died in 1994. The elder Leibowitz was noted for his
controversial opposition to Israel’s stance against the the Palestinians.

His grandson continued along that path of controversy by working as a peace
activist and helping to defend Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian involved in
the murder Israelis and terrorist activities.

“The willful disclosure of classified information to those not entitled to
receive it is a serious crime,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General
for National Security. “Today’s sentence should serve as a warning to anyone
in government who would consider compromising our nation’s secrets.”

“Government employees who are given access to classified information are
prohibited from disclosing the information without permission,” said U.S.
Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.

“As a trusted member of the FBI ranks, Leibowitz abused the trust of the FBI
and the American public by using his access to classified information for
his own purposes,” said Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely.

According to Liebowitz’s plea agreement, from January through August 2009,
Leibowitz was employed by the FBI as a contract linguist in an office in
Calverton, Maryland. Leibowitz held a Top Secret security clearance and had
lawful access to classified documents and information relating to the
communication intelligence activities of the United States.

In April 2009, Leibowitz caused five documents classified as Secret, which
contained classified information relating to the communication intelligence
activities of the United States, to be furnished to a person not entitled to
receive such information.

The recipient was the host of a public blog available to anyone with access
to the Internet. The recipient then published on the blog information from
the classified documents.

Leibowitz leaked the documents to the unnamed blogger in April 2009. The
blogger — identified as “Recipient A in court filings — then wrote a post
based on the classified documents.

Critics are wondering how the FBI could contract someone with a history of
sympathy for terrorists and his so-called activism in Israel.

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