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Ex-CIA officer convicted for leaking classified information to press

Xinhua, January 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

A U.S. federal jury on Monday convicted a former CIA officer for revealing highly classified information to The New York Times about a U.S. operation designed to sabotage Iran's nuclear program.

Jeffrey Sterling, 47, who was fired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2002, was found guilty of nine counts, including six counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and one count of obstruction of justice.

The prosecutors said Sterling revealed the Iran secrets to media because he was angry about his dismissal. Sterling now faces the possibility of dozens of years in prison and will be sentenced on April 24.

The conviction of Sterling is seen by the Department of Justice as a major triumph against the unauthorized leaks by government employees.

"This is a just and appropriate outcome," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement, adding that the prosecutors will toughen their grips on leaks of national secrets as the disclosures placed lives at risk and constituted an egregious breach of the public trust by someone who had sworn to uphold it.

The case emerged in 2006, when James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter from The New York Times, disclosed the secret CIA operation against Iran, in which a former Russia scientist provided Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear component schematics.

Federal prosecutors had gone all the way to the Supreme Court in an effort to force Risen to testify against Sterling. Risen lost his case in the courts but vowed to go to jail rather than reveal his sources.

In the end, the Department of Justice decided not to prosecute the reporter and turned to other evidence including a testimony from former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to convict Sterling.

Federal authorities are still contriving charges against several high-profile individuals in other probes, including former CIA Director David Petraeus and retired Marine Gen. James Cartwright, U.S. media reported. Endi