Daniel Hale, the former U.S. Air Force intelligence analyst currently imprisoned for releasing top-secret documents on the government’s drone program, was given an international award for whistleblowing Wednesday. Blueprint for Free Speech, a nonprofit charity based in Australia, gave Hale its international prize, stating that his actions “prompted greater openness from the Obama administration about their drone policy, and greater demands for ongoing accountability to the public.”
Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison in July after pleading guilty to violating a single count of the Espionage Act, a controversial 1917 law often used against individuals who share national security information with the press. Originally intended for foreign spies, the law bars the accused from using their motivations for leaking as a defense. The judge, Liam O’Grady of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, dismissed four other charges against Hale with prejudice.
During Hale’s prosecution, government lawyers, who compared Hale to a heroin dealer and urged the court to deliver the harshest possible sentence, 11 years in prison, strongly implied that Hale was the source of The Intercept’s 2015 series “The Drone Papers.” As a matter of policy, The Intercept does not comment on the identity of its confidential sources.
Prior to his sentencing, Hale submitted a handwritten letter to the court in which he detailed his involvement in drone operations in Afghanistan and...
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