Ex-CIA officer charged

WASHINGTON – A former CIA officer was charged Monday with disclosing classified information to journalists, the latest prosecution in an Obama administration crackdown on national security leaks.

If convicted, John Kiriakou could face decades in prison. He is accused of providing secrets, including the name and activities of one of his undercover colleagues, to unidentified reporters, according to a federal criminal complaint. One of the journalists is alleged to have turned over the name of the covert CIA officer to attorneys representing a Guantanamo Bay prisoner.

Separately, Kiriakou allegedly gave another reporter – whom the complaint makes clear is Scott Shane of the New York Times – information used in a 2008 story that identified CIA analyst Deuce Martinez as a key figure in the interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, an al-Qaida logistics chief who was subjected to the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding. Martinez was not working undercover, but his role was classified.

At a hearing in Alexandria, Va., on Monday, a federal judge ordered Kiriakou released on a $250,000 unsecured bond.