Joshua Schulte “betrayed this nation” and “violated his victims” when he handed the “full hacking capacity of the CIA” to WikiLeaks. The software engineer was outed as the “whistleblower” behind the devastating “Vault 7” release. Yet, some whistles are better left alone. Schulte knew before he ever signed up that he would be working for the dirty-tricks division. Apparently, ethics are only important to Schulte when it suits him.
The federal Espionage Act charges filed by New York prosecutors on Monday were tacked onto the kiddie porn charges Schulte was already facing. Schulte now faces charges of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, illegally gathering and transmitting national security information (and child images), and theft of government property.
Schulte poked a much bigger hornet’s nest than he bargained for when he approached Julian Assange.
“The source wishes to initiate a public debate about the security, creation, use, proliferation and democratic control of cyberweapons.”
The CIA leaker did start a debate, and the consensus is that sometimes nations do need advanced spying and hacking tools, just like nukes. As distasteful as the specialized weapons are to use, if America needs them for safety, they must be in operational condition. For them to work, it requires secrecy.
