Well, that is just rich, isn’t it? If you’re Edward Snowden and you pass classified material to journalists for the public good and to report illegal activity, you are charged with espionage and endangering national security and forced into exile. If you’re David Petraeus, war hero, and you pass classified material to your mistress to include in a biography she’s writing about you for personal gain, you’re given probation and allowed to collect huge fees for talking about national security.David H. Petraeus, the best-known military commander of his generation, has reached a plea deal with the Justice Department and admitted providing his highly classified journals to a mistress when he was the director of the C.I.A.
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He is eligible for up to one year in prison but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of probation for two years and a $40,000 fine.
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[T]he deal also ends two years of uncertainty and allows Mr. Petraeus to focus on his lucrative post-government career as a partner in a private equity firm and a worldwide speaker on national security issues.
NYT
So that’s the criterion, is it? Whether the disclosure has a negative impact on our national security? Hmmmm. What negative impact on our national security has occurred as a result of the disclosures provided by Edward Snowden?“The broader nation needs his advice, and I think it’s been evidence that people still want to hear from him,” said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. “People are forgiving and know he made a mistake. But he’s also a national hero and a national resource.”
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In the days after Mr. Petraeus resigned in 2012, Mr. Obama appeared to clear him of any significant wrongdoing. At Mr. Obama’s first news conference after being re-elected, the president said he had no evidence that Mr. Petraeus had disclosed classified information “that in any way would have had a negative impact on our national security.”
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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