Thomas Andrews Drake

Thomas Drake ( Thomas Andrews "Tom" Drake, born April 22, 1957 in Louisiana, USA) is an American former employee of the National Security Agency ( NSA). He worked there as an expert in software testing and as a " whistleblower " published internal information about the project TrailBlazer for comprehensive global monitoring. In 2010, he was therefore accused of being a spy, he was threatened with a life sentence. The indictment did not last was on trial, he was sentenced to one year probation solely because of "misuse of a computer system ." In 2011 he was awarded the Ridenhour Truth - Telling The Prize. In June, 2013, after the publication of Edward Snowden about the wiretapping program PRISM, Drake's former statements were again on the topic in the media.

Life

Drake, who is fluent in German, served 1979-1989 in the U.S. Air Force. According to information from the Washington Post, he also worked as an analyst for the CIA. Until August 2001, he worked at various companies on behalf of the NSA. The main tasks were in the evaluation of software and quality assurance. He then moved to the Signals Intelligence Directorate of the NSA in Fort George G. Meade, Maryland. In subsequent years, Drake has held various positions within the NSA. He had the level of secrecy Top Secret. During the investigation of the Congress to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 Drake testified about errors of the NSA. From 2006 he worked as a professor at the National Defense University ( NDU ). Two years later he had to leave the NDU and announced at NSA. His next appointment at Strayer University, he had to leave because of the accusation; He later found in an Apple store work.

Whistleblowing

The NSA tried to obtain new tools for eavesdropping from the late 1990s. In addition to various other means software should be used. Some of the participants favored the project TrailBlazer, while others preferred thin thread. The latter program combines data from different sources together and provides links between people in real time dar. thin thread tried to protect the privacy of Americans. The project TrailBlazer tried also in data mining. However, it did not have ways of protecting privacy. Thus, it violated the opinion of Drake and other employees against the fourth Amendment. In addition, the cost was extremely high. When the project Trailblazer was discontinued in 2006, a total cost of 1.2 billion U.S. dollars had accumulated. Michael V. Hayden finally gave Trailblazer preference. Thereupon, Drake complained to his superiors, the inspector general of the NSA and the Department of Defense. Drake came further with Diane S. Roark, a staff member of the House Intelligence Committee of the Congress for the Republican Party in contact. In September 2002, Roark filed together with the three other NSA employees a report with the Inspector General of the Department of Defense. Drake was an important source for this report. Two years later, the inspector confirmed these assessments and found serious errors on the part of the NSA.

In 2005, Drake contacted the Baltimore Sun. According to him, he made ​​a point not to disclose under confidentiality documents. The newspaper wrote in the sequence several articles on waste and mismanagement at the NSA. There were in the New York Times articles about the NSA.

The FBI took in 2007 before a house search at Drake and other former employees. The investigators wanted to know who is behind the article in the New York Times. When Drake five documents were found that must be evaluated as secret or higher. One of the documents had at the time no classification and was subsequently classified as secret. In another classification was later removed. Drake was indicted for that. If convicted, he expected a prison sentence of 35 years. However, the main charges were before the trial in June 2011 dropped, and Drake was only found guilty of having used a computer system used for other purposes. The prison sentence of one year was suspended on probation.

In December 2012, he held together with the NSA Whistleblower William Binney a talk at the 29th Chaos Communication Congress of the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg.

After the disclosure of the NSA program PRISM by Edward Snowden Drake said that Snowden saw what he had seen [ Drake ] itself, and that of Snowden Laid-Open only the " tip of the iceberg " is. In July 2013, he mentioned in an interview with Stern magazine a program called ragtime, which served " among other things, the levy of government communications by the NSA ."

Awards

• 2011: Sam Adams Award

Publications

• Measuring Software Quality: A Case Study. In: Computer. Volume 29, Issue 11, November 1996 DOI: 10.1109/2.544241, pp. 78-87 (PDF, 263 KB)
• Why are we Subverting the Constitution in the name of security? In: The Washington Post. August 26, 2011