The Biden administration is urging a federal court to sentence drone whistleblower Daniel Hale to at least nine years in prison for leaking classified information about the U.S. drone and targeted assassination program. Hale was enlisted in the U.S. Air Force from 2009 to 2013, during which time he worked with the National Security Agency and JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Task Force, at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, where he helped identify targets for assassination. He later worked as a contractor for the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.
In March, Daniel Hale pleaded guilty to one count of violating the World War I-era Espionage Act for leaking documents exposing the drone program. He’ll be sentenced Tuesday. In a hand-written letter to Judge Liam O’Grady, Hale describes feeling immense guilt for his role in the U.S. assassination program. He wrote, quote, “Not a day goes by that I don’t question the justification for my actions.” Hale went on to write, “To say that the period of my life spent serving in the United States Air Force had an impression on me would be an understatement. It’s more accurate to say that it irreversibly transformed my identity as an American.”
— source democracynow.org | Jul 26, 2021