Nigel Parry / CPI for Newsweek The Fed Who Blew the Whistle -- Newsweek
Is he a hero or a criminal?
Thomas M. Tamm was entrusted with some of the government's most important secrets. He had a Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, a level above Top Secret. Government agents had probed Tamm's background, his friends and associates, and determined him trustworthy.
It's easy to see why: he comes from a family of high-ranking FBI officials. During his childhood, he played under the desk of J. Edgar Hoover, and as an adult, he enjoyed a long and successful career as a prosecutor. Now gray-haired, 56 and fighting a paunch, Tamm prides himself on his personal rectitude. He has what his 23-year-old son, Terry, calls a "passion for justice." For that reason, there was one secret he says he felt duty-bound to reveal.
Read more ....
My Comment: The problem I have with Mr. Yamm after reading this excellent Newsweek article .... is that I have the impression that even though he disagreed with his superiors, was critical of the Bush Administration's war against terror, and was an opponent of many anti-terror programs .... he made the conscious decision to violate his oath and to disclose secrets that were entrusted to him.
In short .... instead of going to one of the many Congressional oversight committees that exist (I am not impressed with his excuse that the people he approached were reluctant to know more), he made the conscious decision to keep his job and to use the information that was entrusted with him in feeding the media with information on a constant basis. He wanted his job and the paycheck and respect that it produced .... and he wanted to (secretly) embarrass and bring discomfort to those that he disagreed with. He wanted the best of both worlds.
Washington does not work like this. Government is run by elected officials who must do one of two things. Write legislation, and to provide oversight. No one elected Mr. Tamm to be judge, jury, and executioner on security intelligence issues that he deemed were too important to not rest with the public officials that we trust to do what is in the best interests of the American people. Instead, this information should rest with the main stream media so that everyone could then digest and comment on .... but (of course) in the process destroying intelligence assets and probably risking lives.
For what he has done he must now confront U.S. Law and all of its implications. The media that he had used in giving this information are now absent. He has little if any support from any of the political parties (because they know that what he did was wrong), and his only allies .... and I use this term loosely .... are some liberal bloggers and civil liberty groups.
His life is now ruined. He will probably always be in debt, and there is a very good chance that he will now go to jail. The only people who have benefitted from this entire espisode are a few Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, and the terrorists who now know how American Intelligence works.
What makes me mad about his actions is that there were so many other available outlets for him to pursue his cause .... and if he had pursued it I am sure that he would have probably been very successful at stopping what he felt was clearly wrong. But instead he felt that he knew better .... and now he must live with the consequences that I am sure he never expected, but which he must now live with for the rest of his life.