Shamai Leibowitz

{{Short description|American lawyer and blogger}} '''Shamai Kedem Leibowitz''', also known as '''Samuel Shamai Leibowitz''', is an American lawyer and blogger who was convicted of leaking classified FBI information to another blogger.<ref name=justice>"[https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1361.html Former FBI Contract Linguist Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Information to Blogger]." ([https://web.archive.org/web/20130713021111/http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1361.html Archive], [https://archive.today/20130706024935/http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/December/09-nsd-1361.html Archive #2]) U.S. Department of Justice. Thursday, December 17, 2009. Retrieved on June 5, 2013.</ref>

Leibowitz pleaded guilty on December 17, 2009, to knowingly and willfully disclosing five Secret level FBI documents in April 2009, to a blogger, who then published information derived from those documents on the blog.<ref name=justice/> He was sentenced under the Espionage Act on May 24, 2010, to 20 months in prison.<ref name=wapo1>{{cite news|url= https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/AR2010052403795.html|title= Former FBI employee sentenced for leaking classified papers |last= Glod |first= Maria |date= 25 May 2010 |newspaper= Washington Post |access-date = 13 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= https://cpj.org/x/5729 |title = The Obama Administration and the Press: Leak investigations and surveillance in post-9/11 America|last = Downie|first = Leonard Jr. |author-link = Leonard Downie Jr. |date = October 10, 2013 |newspaper = Committee to Protect Journalists|access-date = February 10, 2020}}</ref>

According to Leibowitz: <blockquote>During the course of my work, I came across wrongdoings that led me to conclude this is an abuse of power and a violation of the law. I reported these violations to my superiors at the FBI who did nothing about them. Thereafter, to my great regret, I disclosed the violations to a member of the media.<ref name=fas1>{{cite web|url = http://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2010/05/jail_leak/|title = Jail Sentence Imposed in Leak Case |last = Aftergood |first = Steven |date = 25 May 2010 |publisher = Federation of American Scientists |access-date = 13 March 2013 }}</ref></blockquote>

''The New York Times'' reported that Leibowitz leaked the documents to blogger Richard Silverstein, who writes a blog called Tikun Olam, which gives a left-wing perspective on Israel and Israeli-American relations. Silverstein told the ''New York Times'' that the documents were transcripts of F.B.I. wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and that Leibowitz leaked them because of concerns about Israel's aggressive efforts to influence Congress and public opinion, and fears that Israel might strike nuclear facilities in Iran.<ref name=nytimes1>{{cite web |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/06leak.html |title = Leak Offers Look at Efforts by U.S. to Spy on Israel |last = Shane |first = Scott |date = 5 September 2011 |work = The New York Times |access-date = 24 September 2013 }}</ref>

Leibowitz denied the ''New York Times'' report and wrote that Silverstein "made up a story".<ref>{{cite web|last1=Leibowitz|first1=Shamai|title=The Freedom to Ignore|url=http://www.shamaileibowitz.org/2012/06/freedom-to-act-and-freedom-to-ignore.html|access-date=16 August 2016}}</ref> On his blog, he wrote: <blockquote>Contrary to what blogger Richard Silverstein told the NYT, my job never entailed listening to wiretaps of embassies, and that whole story was manufactured by Silverstein to promote his blog and his anti-Israel agenda... Naturally, I cannot talk about my work at the FBI, but I can say that what really troubled me was the FBI's illegal practices, very similar to what Edward Snowden has reported about the NSA.<ref>{{cite web|title=Edward Snowden and the Crackdown that Backfired|url=http://pursuingjustice.blogspot.co.il/2013/06/edward-snowden-man-of-conscience.html|website=The LEIBOWITZ Blog|access-date=28 June 2015|date=June 24, 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

Leibowitz's grandfather was Israeli intellectual Yeshayahu Leibowitz.<ref>{{cite web|title=Why I Published US Intelligence Secrets About Israel's Anti-Iran Campaign|url=http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3499:why-i-published-us-intelligence-secrets-about-israels-antiiran-campaign|website=Truthout|access-date=29 July 2016}}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>

==Publications== * Leibowitz, Shamai. "[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/05/blowback-white-house-whistleblowers Blowback from the White House's vindictive war on whistleblowers]." ''The Guardian''. July 5, 2013.

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.shamaileibowitz.com/ Blog]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leibowitz, Shamai Kedem}} Category:American bloggers Category:American lawyers Category:Linguists from the United States Category:American whistleblowers Category:Living people Category:People convicted under the Espionage Act of 1917 Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century American Jews Category:American people of Israeli descent Category:Yeshivat Har Etzion alumni