{"id":20816,"date":"2019-05-09T21:49:33","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T21:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/09\/ex-air-force-intelligence-analyst-charged-with-leaks-to-reporter\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:31:08","slug":"ex-air-force-intelligence-analyst-charged-with-leaks-to-reporter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/05\/09\/ex-air-force-intelligence-analyst-charged-with-leaks-to-reporter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Air Force intelligence analyst charged with leaks to reporter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2014 A former government intelligence analyst has been charged with leaking classified documents about military campaigns against terrorist group al-Qaida to a reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested Thursday morning and will make an initial appearance at the federal courthouse there, authorities said. An indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, charges him under the Espionage Act with counts including obtaining and disclosing national defense information, as well as theft of government property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the indictment, Hale worked as an intelligence analyst for the Air Force and later as a contractor assigned to the government\u2019s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indictment says Hale began communications with a reporter in 2013 while at the Air Force and continued communications after going to NGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the indictment, Hale provided 11 Top Secret or Secret documents to the reporter and his online news outlet. Those documents were later published either in whole or in part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They include a secret memo outlining a military campaign against al-Qaida overseas, a top secret intelligence report on an al-Qaida operative, and a secret PowerPoint slide \u201coutlining the effects of the military campaign targeting Al-Qaeda overseas,\u201d according to the indictment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in the federal courthouse in Nashville, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern ordered Hale released under pretrial supervision pending his next hearing, which is May 17 in Alexandria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Hale’s attorneys \u2014 Jesselyn Radack, who specializes in representing whistleblowers \u2014 said the investigation of Hale had essentially lay dormant for five years up until Hale’s arrest. She said the Trump administration is continuing and escalating what she called “a toxic trend” started under the Obama administration of aggressively prosecuting legitimate whistleblowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the charges, what he\u2019s accused of is classic whistleblowing,\u201d Radack said. \u201cHe contacted a reporter about a matter of extreme importance that\u2019s been shrouded in secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Court papers do not identify by name the reporter who allegedly received the leaks, but details in the indictment make clear that Jeremy Scahill, a founding editor of The Intercept, is the reporter who received the leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indictment states that many of the classified documents were disclosed in an October 2015 news article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 15, 2015, Scahill published an article on The Intercept titled \u201cThe Assassination Complex\u201d that relies on \u201ca cache of secret slides that provides a window into the inner workings of the U.S. military\u2019s kill\/capture operations at a key time in the evolution of the drone wars.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story says the documents \u201cwere provided by a source within the intelligence community who worked on the types of operations and programs described in the slides. The Intercept granted the source\u2019s request for anonymity because the materials are classified and because the U.S. government has engaged in aggressive prosecution of whistleblowers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scahill\u2019s book, \u201cDirty Wars,\u201d was published in 2013, and the indictment indicates Hale and Scahill met while Scahill was promoting the book at a Washington, D.C., bookstore. The book reported on the use of drones to attack and kill targets like al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, among other things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The indictment states that Hale listed his work with drones on kill and capture operations on his resume and quotes Hale in a text message to a friend stating that Scahill \u201cwants me to tell my story about working with drones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the indictment, Hale and Scahill used an encrypted messaging service called Jabber to communicate throughout 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Betsy Reed, The Intercept\u2019s editor-in-chief, issued a statement Thursday saying they do not comment on matters related to anonymous sources. She did say the documents described in the indictment \u201cdetailed a secret, unaccountable process for targeting and killing people around the world, including U.S. citizens, through drone strikes. They are of vital public importance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She criticized the Trump administration for following the path of the Obama administration in aggressively prosecuting leaks and using \u201cthe Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers who enable journalists to uncover disgraceful, immoral, and unconstitutional acts committed in secret by the U.S. government.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t