FORMER KERRY AIDE PLEADS GULTY TO LEAKING CLASSIFIED SECRETS AND DISCLOSING THE IDENTITY OF A COVERT CIA OFFICER - and the Plame-gate Left is silent...

LEFTIST SCUMBAG PLEADS GUILTY:

A former CIA officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaking the identity of one of the agency’s covert operatives to a reporter and will be sentenced to more than two years in prison. 

As part of a plea deal, prosecutors dropped charges for John Kiriakou, 48, that had been filed under the World War I-era Espionage Act. They also dropped a count of making false statements. 

Under the plea, all sides agreed to a prison term of 2 1/2 years.

 BACKGROUNDER:

A former CIA officer was charged Monday with disclosing the identity of a covert CIA officer and with telling journalists the name an agency officer involved with the interrogation of alleged Al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah. 

The Justice Department charged that John Kiriakou, 47, who worked as a CIA officer from 1990 to 2004, revealed the information to journalists and that one reporter passed some of the secrets onto attorneys representing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. 

Kiriakou’s case is the sixth leak-related criminal prosecution brought since President Barack Obama took office, a figure that exceeds the number of such cases in all previous administrations combined. 

“Safeguarding classified information, including the identities of CIA officers involved in sensitive operations, is critical to keeping our intelligence officers safe and protecting our national security,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement. “Today’s charges reinforce the Justice Department’s commitment to hold accountable anyone who would violate the solemn duty not to disclose such sensitive information.” 

CIA Director David Petraeus said Monday that “CIA fully supported the investigation from the beginning and will continue to do so.” 

Petraeus also reminded CIA personnel of their duty to keep secret matters secret. 

“When we joined this organization, we swore to safeguard classified information; those oaths stay with us for life. Unauthorized disclosures of any sort—including information concerning the identities of other Agency officers—betray the public trust, our country, and our colleagues. Given the sensitive nature of many of our Agency’s operations and the risks we ask our employees to take, the illegal passage of secrets is an abuse of trust that may put lives in jeopardy,” the CIA director said in a message to the spy agency’s employees. 

Kirioakou made an initial appearance in federal court in Alexandria, Va., Monday afternoon after surrendering to the FBI earlier in the day, Justice Department officials said. He was released on a $250,000 unsecured bond, according to a DOJ spokesman. 

The leak probe was triggered in 2009 after defense lawyers for Guantanamo prisoners surprised prosecutors by submitting a sealed filing that included the names of government officials allegedly involved in various operations related to the war-on-terror prisoners. 

Investigators later determined that defense lawyers had shown prisoners photo arrays including suspected interrogators and that 32 photos of CIA officers, FBI agents and others were found at Guantanamo in the possession of “high-value detainees.” 

Ultimately, “the investigative team concluded that no laws were broken by the defense team,” the complaint says. It adds that defense attorneys never told the terror suspects the names of those in the photos. 

However, the investigation — assigned to U.S. Attorney in Chicago Patrick Fitzgerald to avoid conflicts with Justice Department lawyers working on prosecuting Guantanamo prisoners — focused on government employees who might have leaked the identities of the officers. 

Kiriakou worked for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee investigator from March 2009 to April 2011, according to Senate records.

NO SURPRISE HERE THAT THIS LEFT-WING FORMER SPOOK WORKED FOR KERRY AND THE DEMS: 

KERRY HIMSELF WAS A TRAITOR WHO AIDED THE NORTH VIETNAMESE DURING THE VIETNAM WAR.

AND THERE IS NO SURPRISE HERE THAT THE LEFT IS SILENT:

PLAME-GATE WAS ABOUT "GETTING" CHENEY AND BUSH, AND NOT ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY LEAKS.

THE LEFT REALLY COULD NOT GIVE A CRAP ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY AT ALL, LET ALONE NATIONAL SECURITY LEAKS.

MOST ON THE NEW LEFT HAVE NO PRINCIPLES - ONLY AFFILIATIONS MEANT TO SERVE THE MACHINE AND ACCOMPLISH THEIR SINGLE GOAL; A SOCIALIST UTOPIA.

ASK THE PEOPLE WHO SURVIVED STALIN'S RUSSIA AND MAO'S CHINA HOW THOSE UTOPIAS WORKED OUT.