Petraeus to plead guilty: gets two years probation

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  • #19380
    PA Ram
    Participant

    WASHINGTON — Former military commander and CIA Director David Petraeus agreed Tuesday to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of removing and retaining classified material, admitting to providing his mistress with that material while he headed the CIA.

    The plea deal, revealed in documents filed in federal court in the Western District of North Carolina, means that Petraeus will likely avoid prison time. Federal prosecutors will ask for two years of probation and a $40,000 fine under the terms of the plea agreement.

    Petraeus was long believed to have given classified information to Paula Broadwell, a woman he had an affair with who also wrote a biography on the general. According to a court document laying out the factual basis for the plea agreement, Petraeus maintained eight “black books” that contained classified information, including notes from his discussions with President Barack Obama. He provided the books to Broadwell and delivered them to a residence in Washington, D.C., where she was staying in 2011.

    The books were later recovered at Petraeus’ home in Arlington, Virginia, a court filing said, by FBI agents executing a search warrant in April 2013.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/03/david-petraeus-plea-deal_n_6792344.html

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

    #19381
    PA Ram
    Participant

    Justice in America: one for the powerful, one for everyone else.

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

    #19395
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I couldn’t care less about that kind of thing myself.

    Cause to me, the CIA “itself” is a murderous, secret, lowdown,
    evil, monstrous organization-from-hell. So, i start
    from ‘that’ premise…so, to me, every chief of the CIA
    has been a criminal. I could go on…

    Have a nice day šŸ™‚

    w
    v
    ā€œOur present economic, social, and international agreements are based,
    in large measure, upon organized lovelessness.ā€
    Aldous Huxley

    #19397
    PA Ram
    Participant

    I couldnā€™t care less about that kind of thing myself.

    Cause to me, the CIA ā€œitselfā€ is a murderous, secret, lowdown,
    evil, monstrous organization-from-hell. So, i start
    from ā€˜thatā€™ premiseā€¦so, to me, every chief of the CIA
    has been a criminal. I could go onā€¦

    Have a nice day :)

    w
    v
    ā€œOur present economic, social, and international agreements are based,
    in large measure, upon organized lovelessness.ā€
    Aldous Huxley

    I’m not sure what that has to do with it but okay. To me, I find it unjust. They want to hang Snowden to the cross. Petraeus walks. That bothers me. I care about it.

    But can I do anything about it?

    No.

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

    #19416
    Avatar photonittany ram
    Moderator

    <div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>wv wrote:</div>
    I couldnā€™t care less about that kind of thing myself.

    Cause to me, the CIA ā€œitselfā€ is a murderous, secret, lowdown,
    evil, monstrous organization-from-hell. So, i start
    from ā€˜thatā€™ premiseā€¦so, to me, every chief of the CIA
    has been a criminal. I could go onā€¦

    Have a nice day :)

    w
    v
    ā€œOur present economic, social, and international agreements are based,
    in large measure, upon organized lovelessness.ā€
    Aldous Huxley

    Iā€™m not sure what that has to do with it but okay. To me, I find it unjust. They want to hang Snowden to the cross. Petraeus walks. That bothers me. I care about it.

    But can I do anything about it?

    No.

    Yeah, that’s what immediately came to mind – Patraeus vs Snowden.

    #19643
    PA Ram
    Participant

    http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/06/daniel-ellsberg-petraeus-case-shows-hypocrisy-whistleblower-crackdown

    Daniel Ellsberg: Petraeus Case Shows Hypocrisy of Whistleblower Crackdown
    If Petraeus did not commit a felony, neither did Snowden, Manning, Sterling, or Kiriakou, says leaker of Pentagon Papers

    ……..

    On Tuesday, Petraeus pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor charge of “unauthorized removal and retention of classified material.” Under the parameters of the plea deal he made with the Justice Department, prosecutors will recommend two years probation and no jail time.”

    Compare that to the actions of Chelsea Manning, who is serving 35 years for leaking classified information. As Ellsberg noted: “Chelsea Manning had access to SCI every dayā€¦ where she worked in Iraq. She chose to disclose none of it, nothing higher than Secret”.

    There is also the case of Jeffrey Sterling, convicted last month of leaking classified information to New York Times journalist James Risen, “having first revealed it to Congress, as I did,” Ellsberg continued.

    Sterling was also convicted under the Espionage Act and will be sentenced later this year. Manning is serving 35 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

    Ellsberg says Sterlingā€™s “violations of security regulations were in no way more serious than what Petraeus has now admitted to”, and that, while itā€™s too late to do anything about his conviction, the judge should take the Petraeus plea bargain into account at his sentencing.

    “If disclosing the identities of covert agents to an unauthorized person and storing them in several unauthorized locations deserves a charge with a maximum sentence of one year,” Ellsberg said, “then Edward Snowden should face not more than that same one count.”

    “The government had the chance to hold Petreaus out as an example on the same felony Espionage Act charges theyā€™ve leveled (unfairly) against every conscientious whistleblower theyā€™ve indicted,” Timm concludes. “Their answer? Leaking should no longer be a felony. Letā€™s make sure we hold them to that, and not only for CIA Directors.”

    "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. " Philip K. Dick

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