intelligence analyst daniel hale the 31 year old man who blew the whistle on the u.s. government's drone assassination program was forced to plead guilty for violating the espionage act yes that dusty old woodrow wilson era 917 law the 21st century leaders like bush obama and donald trump have been using to silence u.s. government whistleblowers that that law raised its ugly head again this time under the reign of u.s. president joe biden's justice department according to the washington post hale shared 8 secret and 3 top secret documents with the journalist believed to be the intercepts jeremy scahill and that the documents detailed in the protocol for ordering drone strikes and shed light on civilian casualties an internal military debates over the accuracy of intelligence. i mean response to hill's indictment betsy reed the editor in chief of the intercept told the media quote these documents detailed a secret unacceptable process for targeting and killing people around the world including us citizens all through drone strikes they are of vital public importance and

and let me add one more thing about the kind of person daniel hale is i know daniel personally. and i know that he's been struggling to work since his arrest like all of us do who wants to hire someone who's been charged with national security felonies well he got a job as a dishwasher at a restaurant here in washington d.c. and he was recently fired why was he fired because he was trying to organize the kitchen workers into a union that's how much he cares about his fellow man that no matter what the cost is to him he's willing to take that risk that's the kind of guy he is. and john do you think the 1st amendment and the freedom of the press can survive the u.s. espionage and in today's america. no not in. not as the founding fathers intended it no i don't believe that it can you know there's been this incremental whittling away especially as it relates to the espionage act since the very beginning of the obama administration remember that between the passage of the espionage act in 1917 and the an occupation of barack obama in 20093 americans were charged with espionage for s

john kerry alco again told us that despite the consequences daniel hale feels he did what he had to do. i have to tell you when he called me a few hours ago he was surprisingly upbeat and optimistic and he he remarked about how much press this issue has been getting since he decided to plead guilty so in the end i think that he thinks that this is been worth it that americans know more about the drone program now than 8 they did 6 months ago or a year ago and even though he's likely going to go to prison it was worth it the u.s. is flying these drones or at least it was until recently that were used ostensibly to kill terrorists or would be terrorists but in reality to kill anybody who might resemble a terrorist and that included women children the elderly and anybody else who happened to be on the ground i believe that we're we're a nation of laws and we have to abide by those laws whether we like them or not if we don't like them we should change them go through the process and change them if congress has not declared war on a country we don't have a right to attack it we just can't

hale was arrested 2 years ago and charged with violating the act and other related offenses when joe biden came to power some hoped that there would be changes to the drone program but now there are reports he aims to boost exports of unmanned weapons to countries including those with poor human rights records former cia analyst john kiriakou who you just heard from earlier told us that the terms of the espionage act leave hale with little hope. this is the really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal the best thing to do for daniel as it was for me as it was for so many others here charged

2014 he was a contractor at the national geospatial intelligence agency the us government targeted hale for prosecution after he disclosed documents in 2014 to the intercept for its dirty wars project he was charged in march 200-1000 with violating the espionage act and other related offenses and in may he was arrested on his 1st day in office joe biden temporarily limited counterterrorism drone strikes outside the battle zones in afghanistan syria and iraq however reports say that the president wants to boost armed drone exports to several countries with controversial human rights records here are just a few examples of how drone warfare can impact civilian populations. john kiriakou former cia analyst and whistleblower who was forced to plead guilty in his own case spoke personally with daniel hale he thinks the us federal government should be held to the same legal standard as it holds others. i actually spoke with daniel about 3 hours ago about this very subject the scary thing here is that he has pleaded guilty to one count under the espionage act but the prosecutors have not yet d

data which hale gave to the online news site the intercept back in 2014 was actually made available to the public and he's now accused of disclosing classified intelligence information his supporters say these kinds of exposures are essential using the espionage act in this way to prosecute journalists sources and spies chills newsgathering and discourages sources from coming forward with information in the public interest particularly when it relates to national security where government secrecy is at its height these documents detail the secret unaccountable process for targeting and killing people around the world including u.s. citizens through drone strikes there are a vital public importance and they related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment but hale was arrested 2 years ago in charge with violating the espionage act among other related offenses our president biden has imposed temporary restrictions on drone strikes in most countries but there are reports he aims to boost exports of unmanned weapons to countries including those with poor human rights records j

are vital public importance and the related to their disclosure is protected by the 1st amendment hale was arrested 2 years ago and charged with violating the espionage act and other related offenses president biden has imposed temporary restrictions on drone strikes outside most countries but there are reports he aims to boost exports of unmanned weapons to countries including those with poor human rights records john kiriakou again say is that however justified it will blow is exposure of drone strikes they have next to no chance of proving that to us operating base. this is really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't

when he disclosed documents to the intercepts for its dirty wars project in 2004 seed 2 years ago hale was arrested and charged with violating the espionage acts and other related offenses he pleaded guilty to one count of leaking classified information for others are pending. well john kerry ocular a full my cia analyst on the whistleblower told as hale has little hope for justice this is the really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal the best thing to do for daniel as it was for me as it was for so many others here charged under the espionage act is to take a deal and to hope for the lightes

john kiriakou a former cia analyst and whistleblower told us hale has little hope of justice. this is really the worst part of the of the espionage act this is the reason why ed snowden can't come home this is the reason why i couldn't go to trial this is the reason why jeffrey sterling the other cia whistleblower was convicted because there is no affirmative defense we are prohibited by law from going into court and saying i did it but i did it for this reason and in the case of daniel hale this was a war crime he did it because he was exposing a war crime he's not allowed to say that and so he really doesn't have any chance of acquittal the best thing to do for daniel as it was for me as it was for so many others here charged under the espionage act is to take a deal and to hope for the lightest possible sentence the decision that was made early on even before joe biden was inaugurated to pursue the appeal against julian his son it was that decision that made it clear that joe biden was going to pursue national security leaks just like barack obama did and just like donald t

hale is accused of disclosing 11 top-secret or secret documents to a reporter. does not name the reporter, but unnamed government sources have told media outlets that the reporter is investigative journalist jeremy scahill of the intercept. new mexico's legislature has passed a bill that would legalize recreational marijuana and expunge the criminal records of some individuals convicted of marijuana possession. governor michelle lujan grisham has promised to sign the bill, which would make new mexico the 16th u.s. state to legalize recreational cannabis. this follows new york governor andrew cuomo's signature wednesday of a similar bill. in virginia, governor ralph northam is urging the state's general assembly to legalize recreational marijuana by july 1st, instead of waiting until 2024. virginia's supreme court ruled thursday the city of charlottesville can take down two statues of confederate generals after some residents sued to stop their removal. the statues are ofthomas “stonewall” jackson and robert e. lee. lee's statue was at the center of the deadly, w