Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale will be sentenced within the next hour, and if the US government has its way, he will receive the harshest sentence ever issued against someone for releasing documents without government authorization to the press.

THREAD will follow sentencing
Daniel Hale, who was involved in drone program while in US Air Force and deployed to Afghanistan: "The most disturbing thing about my involvement in drones is the uncertainty if anybody that I was involved in 'kill or capture' was a civilian or not. There's no way of knowing."
US prosecutors say Daniel Hale shared documents with a reporter for "self-aggrandizement," and it was not to inform American citizens. But @soniakennebeck, director of "National Bird" (in which Daniel appeared), wrote a letter to the court that counters this attack.
Daniel Hale's personal letter to the court on why he disclosed documents on the US military's drone program:

"The answer came to me, that to stop the cycle of violence, I ought to sacrifice my own life and not that of another person."
thedissenter.org/daniel-hale-le…
The public was cleared out of courtroom during Daniel Hale's sentencing so prosecutors could further present "secret evidence" alleging ISIS “distributed” two of the documents Hale disclosed in an "internet compilation" for their followers.
Harry Cooper, former CIA executive expert for classification, who trained top officials, disputed the claim that ISIS gained some advantage.

"An adversary who has gained tactical advantage by receiving secret information would never publicize their possession of it" #DanielHale
Daniel Hale's defense received a document in discovery that showed the Espionage Act prosecution against him lacked the approval of "superiors" in the Justice Department, which is why he was not immediately charged after the FBI raided his home.
thedissenter.org/us-justice-dep…
Daniel Hale receives a 45-month sentence (3 years and 9 months).

Not the harshest sentence ever issued. Not what US prosecutors demanded from the judge. But still a severe punishment.
Daniel Hale receives 45-month prison sentence for releasing drone documents thedissenter.org/daniel-hale-re…
I'll go live at 4pm ET with @ChipGibbons89, who attended Daniel Hale's sentencing hearing. We'll both share our responses to the first major Espionage Act conviction under President Biden.

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More from @kgosztola

26 Jul
Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9 am (ET) on July 27. Notice he will come before the judge and have to wait for plea agreement hearing. Then he and his defense will have a very limited time to address the court. Image
Daniel Hale will have no time to go past the window given to him. There are four defendants waiting to go before Judge Liam O’Grady at 10 am (ET).
A federal court is about to put its stamp of approval on harshest sentence ever issued against former government employee or contractor responsible for “unauthorized disclosure” of information, and it will likely be one of shortest Espionage Act sentencing hearings
Read 5 tweets
23 Jul
Ahead of sentencing on July 27, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale penned a letter to the judge highlighting his experiences with US drone strikes in Afghanistan and how he "came to violate the Espionage Act."

I'll go through Hale's letter in this thread.

thedissenter.org/daniel-hale-le…
Hale describes his role in the US military's drone program, when he was deployed to Afghanistan. He tracked down "the geographic location of handset cellphone devices believed to be in the possession of so-called enemy combatants."
Hale recounts first time he witnessed US drone strike.

"I could only look on as I sat by and watched through a computer monitor when a sudden terrifying flurry of Hellfire missiles came crashing down, splattering purple-colored crystal guts on the side of the morning mountain."
Read 12 tweets
20 Jul
Saudi Arabia was temporarily prohibited from using Pegasus after Jamal Khashoggi was murdered. Then the Israeli government urged the NSO Group to "reconnect" the spyware for the Kingdom. theguardian.com/world/2021/jul…
What countries using NSO Group's Pegasus all have in common is they have "trade relations with Israel" or diplomatic ties that have improved.

Apartheid government of Israel bears responsibility for stories of repression against journalists and activists we're reading.
Use of Pegasus spyware made it possible for Morocco to target Algerians, mostly diplomats, in:

Angola
Belgium
Canada
Côte d’Ivoire
Czech Republic
Egypt
Ethiopia
Finland
Mauritania
Namibia
Nigeria
Rwanda
South Africa
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
UAE
Zimbabwe
Read 4 tweets
3 May
To mark #WorldPressFreedomDay, Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about a "Khashoggi ban," where the US will impose visa restrictions on those acting on behalf of foreign government who suppress, harass, surveill, threaten, or harm journalists and/or their families.
When will UC Global director David Morales and others involved in the espionage operation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuador embassy face restrictions?
Agents within the CIA or other US intelligence institutions conspired against Assange and WikiLeaks during the Trump administration. They engaged in activities that involved harassment, surveillance, threats, or harm to Assange and his family. Can they be banned?
Read 6 tweets
31 Mar
Drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, who was charged with violating the Espionage Act, pleads guilty in the Eastern District of Virginia
Sentencing was set for July 13. Judge Liam O'Grady allowed Daniel Hale to remain out of jail and under supervision of probation officer.
Daniel Hale faced five charges but pled guilty to only one charge—"retention and transmission of national defense information" [Espionage Act].
Read 6 tweets
2 Mar
Neera Tanden and her supporters do not have votes to confirm without offering an Alaska senator an expansion of fossil fuel drilling leases and/or continuation of lax climate protections.

If Tanden is confirmed to OMB, it will come at cost of fueling climate emergency.
Several media outlets now report Biden will withdraw Neera Tanden’s OMB nomination. This is the sane thing to do.
Withdrawing Neera Tanden’s OMB nomination was long overdue.

Media pundits will focus on right-wing opposition to her “mean” tweets, but let’s make sure to disrupt that narrative with the truth about her past opposition to progressive politics, like raising minimum wage to $15.
Read 4 tweets

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