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Ex-U.S. NSA employee sentenced to prison for exposing secrets

JacksinPA

JacksinPA

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-to-prison-for-exposing-secrets-idUSKCN1M52SZ

(Reuters) - A former U.S. National Security Agency employee was sentenced in a federal court in Baltimore on Tuesday to 5-1/2 years in prison, after pleading guilty last December to illegally taking classified information outside the spy agency, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Nghia Hoang Pho, 68, of Ellicott City, Maryland, removed documents that contained classified national defense information and kept them at his home without authorization, the department said in a statement.
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At least they didn't get him from trying to sell them to China or Julian Assange.

This guy sounds like he was not the sharpest pencil in the drawer.
 
JacksinPA said:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-to-prison-for-exposing-secrets-idUSKCN1M52SZ

(Reuters) - A former U.S. National Security Agency employee was sentenced in a federal court in Baltimore on Tuesday to 5-1/2 years in prison, after pleading guilty last December to illegally taking classified information outside the spy agency, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Nghia Hoang Pho, 68, of Ellicott City, Maryland, removed documents that contained classified national defense information and kept them at his home without authorization, the department said in a statement.
======================================
At least they didn't get him from trying to sell them to China or Julian Assange.

This guy sounds like he was not the sharpest pencil in the drawer.
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If no espionage, then this sounds like NSA-People-Being-NSA-People (NSA People are sort of infamous for being... very weird), and this one in a criminally negligent manner.

Negligence with classified information that one has sworn to protect, however, is a violation of the Espionage Act. It's good that this happened - far more people who misuse classified information in venal or blatantly negligible ways need to face justice.
 
JacksinPA said:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-to-prison-for-exposing-secrets-idUSKCN1M52SZ

(Reuters) - A former U.S. National Security Agency employee was sentenced in a federal court in Baltimore on Tuesday to 5-1/2 years in prison, after pleading guilty last December to illegally taking classified information outside the spy agency, the U.S. Justice Department said.

Nghia Hoang Pho, 68, of Ellicott City, Maryland, removed documents that contained classified national defense information and kept them at his home without authorization, the department said in a statement.
======================================
At least they didn't get him from trying to sell them to China or Julian Assange.

This guy sounds like he was not the sharpest pencil in the drawer.
Click to expand...

So...what is the difference between what this guy did, who obviously had no intention of releasing classified information and what Hillary did?
 
Kal'Stang said:
So...what is the difference between what this guy did, who obviously had no intention of releasing classified information and what Hillary did?
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One was a clueless, negligent public servant; the other was clueless, negligent "political royalty" that was running for the executive office.

Negligent handling of classified data is a crime....as this has shown, had it been anyone else, a double standard is applied.
 
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Kal'Stang said:
So...what is the difference between what this guy did, who obviously had no intention of releasing classified information and what Hillary did?
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This guy mishandled a hell of a lot more classified information than Hillary did and nobody at NSA can pretend to not know better whereas a political appointee like Hillary can apparently get away with playing stupid.
 
Kal'Stang said:
So...what is the difference between what this guy did, who obviously had no intention of releasing classified information and what Hillary did?
Click to expand...

Hillary had the FBI and DOJ on her side and this guy did not.
It is who you are and who you know.
 
Skeptic Bob said:
This guy mishandled a hell of a lot more classified information than Hillary did and nobody at NSA can pretend to not know better whereas a political appointee like Hillary can apparently get away with playing stupid.
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For one thing, the rules changed while she was in office. Nobody bugged her to change, bureaucracies are slow to change.

The other reason is that the higher you go up the food chain, the more leeway you need to do your job. The wilful ignorance on the Right would be astonishing, if it weren't a constant.

Imagine if Hillary won, and brought Russians into the Oval Office (a no no) allowed them to bring in equipment (another no no) didn't tell America about it, we learned about it from the Russkies, told the Russkies she'd just tried to obstruct justice, and was likely to have engaged in a criminal conspiracy with the Russians to undermine America.

She's have been impeached as fast as the paperwork could be processed.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Trump is the President. He can share classified info with who ever he wants as President.
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That's a terrible excuse. Of course he can, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid, or worse, thing to do.

It's certainly worse than anything Hillary did, unless you have evidence of her giving up classified information directly to the Russians?
 
JustHanging said:
That's a terrible excuse. Of course he can, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid, or worse, thing to do.

It's certainly worse than anything Hillary did, unless you have evidence of her giving up classified information directly to the Russians?
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Just because you think that it was terrible doesn't mean that its not a valid excuse. What's Hillary's excuse? You do know that the FBI said that it was quite possible that Russia did access her email when she was in Russia via her phone...you know that right? You know, since she was using an unsecured phone.
 
JustHanging said:
That's a terrible excuse. Of course he can, but that doesn't mean it wasn't a stupid, or worse, thing to do.

It's certainly worse than anything Hillary did, unless you have evidence of her giving up classified information directly to the Russians?
Click to expand...


Stupid, retarded, short sighted, whatever you wish to call it, it wasn't illegal.....a notable point that must be acknowledged.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Just because you think that it was terrible doesn't mean that its not a valid excuse.
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I'm not arguing if Trump had the right to do it, apparently he did. Giving up classified information to the Russians is worse than anything Hillary did, unless you have evidence that she also gave up classified information to the Russians. Do you?

What's Hillary's excuse? You do know that the FBI said that it was quite possible that Russia did access her email when she was in Russia via her phone...you know that right? You know, since she was using an unsecured phone.
Click to expand...

Please provide evidence that Hillary intentionally gave up classified information to the Russians, like Trump. Unless you can do that, you're comparing apples and oranges.
 
JustHanging said:
I'm not arguing if Trump had the right to do it, apparently he did. Giving up classified information to the Russians is worse than anything Hillary did, unless you have evidence that she also gave up classified information to the Russians. Do you?

Please provide evidence that Hillary intentionally gave up classified information to the Russians, like Trump. Unless you can do that, you're comparing apples and oranges.
Click to expand...

Prove that what Trump did was actually a bad thing. ;)
 
Bum said:
Stupid, retarded, short sighted, whatever you wish to call it, it wasn't illegal.....a notable point that must be acknowledged.
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That was my intention when I said "of course he can (give up the information)". Sorry for not being clearer.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Prove that what Trump did was actually a bad thing. ;)
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Revealed: The highly sensitive Israeli intelligence on Isis that Donald Trump gave away to Russia

'Mission deep into Syria revealed after Israeli operatives say President's leak 'confirmed our worst fears'

The US President’s decision to spill the information during a meeting with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was described as having brought Israeli spies’ “worst fears” to life.
...
Israel and the US have a close intelligence-sharing relationship but spies from the Middle Eastern nation had previously been warned not to share sensitive details with the Trump White House, according to reports in Israeli media.

And now that Trump has threatened to weaponize classified information for political attacks, obviously Israel and other allied nations will be even more reticent to share information with the USA.
 
JustHanging said:
Revealed: The highly sensitive Israeli intelligence on Isis that Donald Trump gave away to Russia

'Mission deep into Syria revealed after Israeli operatives say President's leak 'confirmed our worst fears'

The US President’s decision to spill the information during a meeting with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was described as having brought Israeli spies’ “worst fears” to life.
...
Israel and the US have a close intelligence-sharing relationship but spies from the Middle Eastern nation had previously been warned not to share sensitive details with the Trump White House, according to reports in Israeli media.

And now that Trump has threatened to weaponize classified information for political attacks, obviously Israel and other allied nations will be even more reticent to share information with the USA.
Click to expand...

Your own article says

At the time, US National Security Adviser H R McMaster said the President “wasn’t even aware where this information came from” and “wasn’t briefed on the sources and methods”.

“At no time were intelligence sources or methods discussed,” he said. “The President did not disclose any military operations that were not already publicly known... I was in the room. It didn’t happen.”
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Let me guess...you consider that a lie?

And who exactly described it as "having brought Israeli spies' "worst fears" to life."? I know the media did. Without even knowing what all was discussed.
 
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