usatoday | When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret
details this month on the government's collection of Americans' phone
and Internet records, one select group of intelligence veterans breathed
a sigh of relief.
Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe belong to a select fraternity: the NSA officials who paved the way.
For
years, the three whistle-blowers had told anyone who would listen that
the NSA collects huge swaths of communications data from U.S. citizens.
They had spent decades in the top ranks of the agency, designing and
managing the very data-collection systems they say have been turned
against Americans. When they became convinced that fundamental
constitutional rights were being violated, they complained first to
their superiors, then to federal investigators, congressional oversight
committees and, finally, to the news media.
To the intelligence
community, the trio are villains who compromised what the government
classifies as some of its most secret, crucial and successful
initiatives. They have been investigated as criminals and forced to give
up careers, reputations and friendships built over a lifetime.
Today, they feel vindicated.
