Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, also known as Samuel Shamai Leibowitz, is an American lawyer and blogger who was convicted of leaking classified

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

information to another blogger.Former FBI Contract Linguist Pleads Guilty to Leaking Classified Information to Blogger
"

U.S. Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

. Thursday, December 17, 2009. Retrieved on June 5, 2013. 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. He was sentenced under the

Espionage Act The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law enacted on June 15, 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code (Wa ...

on May 24, 2010 to 20 months in prison. According to Leibowitz,

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.

'' The New York Times'' reported that Leibowitz leaked the documents to blogger Richard Silverstein, who writes a blog called

Tikun Olam ''Tikkun olam'' ( he, תִּיקּוּן עוֹלָם, , repair of the world) is a concept in Judaism, which refers to various forms of action intended to repair and improve the world. In classical rabbinic literature, the phrase referred to leg ...

, 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 Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the Surveillance, monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, ...

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. Leibowitz denied the ''New York Times'' report, and wrote that Silverstein "made up a story". On his blog, he wrote,

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.

Leibowitz's grandfather was Israeli intellectual

Yeshayahu Leibowitz Yeshayahu Leibowitz ( he, ישעיהו ליבוביץ; 29 January 1903 – 18 August 1994) was an Israeli Orthodox Jewish public intellectual and polymath. He was a professor of biochemistry, organic chemistry, and neurophysiology at the Hebrew ...

Publications

* Leibowitz, Shamai.
Blowback from the White House's vindictive war on whistleblowers
" '' The Guardian''. July 5, 2013.

References

External links

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