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Intellectual Property Law

: Threat Level

FBI Linguist Guilty of Leaking Classified Documents

By Kim Zetter

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An Israeli-American lawyer who worked as an FBI linguist pleaded guilty Thursday to providing an unidentified blogger with classified documents derived from U.S. communications intelligence.

Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, 39, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded to one felony count of disclosing to an unauthorized party five documents that were classified “secret” that he obtained through his work with the FBI.

Leibowitz leaked the documents to the unnamed blogger in April 2009. The blogger — identified as “Recipient A” in court filings — then wrote a post based on the classified documents.

“As a trusted member of the FBI ranks, Leibowitz abused the trust of the FBI and the American public by using his access to classified information for his own purposes,” said the FBI special agent in charge, Richard A. McFeely, in a press release.

The government does not allege that Leibowitz was paid for the documents. He pleaded guilty to violating a law prohibiting the unauthorized disclosure of classified information about “communication intelligence activities” — i.e., electronic spying.

Leibowitz, who holds dual citizenship, was employed as a contract Hebrew linguist for the FBI for only about three months before he leaked the documents. He worked in an FBI office in Calverton, Maryland, beginning in January 2009, and held a top-secret security clearance. As such, he had access to classified documents and information relating to the communication intelligence activities of the United States, according to the Justice Department press release.

According to the Associated Press, Leibowitz is the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a famous and well-respected philosopher, scientist and Torah scholar in Israel who died in 1994. The elder Leibowitz was recognized by some as the conscience of Israel for his controversial opposition to Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.

His grandson continued along that path of controversy by working as a peace activist and helping to defend Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian who was charged with murder and terrorism.

Laura Rozen, writing for Politico, speculates that the documents Leibowitz leaked might have been related to the NSA’s surveillance of U.S. citizens, and points to this New York Times story from April 2009.

Threat Level thinks it’s more likely Leibowitz was behind the leaked news that Representative Jane Harman had allegedly been caught on an NSA wiretap engaging in a quid-pro-quo conversation with an Israeli agent. That information was published in April by Jeff Stein, a writer for Congressional Quarterly, on his SpyTalk blog, which was mirrored at CQ Homeland Security. Stein told Threat Level he never comments on sources.

Leibowitz’s attorney, Cary Feldman, was unavailable for comment. A representative for the U.S. attorney’s office in Maryland said there’s no public information on the identity of the blogger who received the information.

The translator’s plea agreement with prosecutors stipulates a sentence of 20 months in prison, and allows him to withdraw his guilty plea if his sentencing judge hands him a longer term.

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