Former CIA contractor sued for leaking classified info in his 'Patriot Lost' book

Tuesday, August 07, 2012 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: patriots, book, secrets

(NaturalNews) A former CIA contractor is being sued by the federal government for publishing an online book "containing intelligence-related information" without the agency's prior consent, in violation of his agreement, the government claims in court documents.

Jonathan Scherck's self-published title, "Patriot Lost," makes a number of claims, including one that said China provided nuclear weapons to Saudi Arabia during George W. Bush's presidency.

"As I will lay out in much greater detail, I believe the People's Republic of China delivered a turn-key nuclear ballistic missile system to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over the course of several years beginning no later than December 2003," Scherck writes, according to published accounts. "This illicit transfer, a flagrant violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, occurred while Dick Cheney was managing both the intelligence and foreign policy portfolios of the George W. Bush administration."

Destined to question, expose authority?

An online description of Scherk, posted at Amazon.com, says:

Author Jonathan Scherck starts by providing a quick background of himself to answer the question: who is this American Gen-Xer making such a startling assertion? Not unlike many of his generation, he was a U.S. military brat. He was a kid living just outside Washington, DC when Ronald Reagan was president and Oliver Stone was making controversial films about Wall Street greed and the tragic legacy of Vietnam. After graduating from college, Scherck embarked on a twisting path that would take him through four years of service in the U.S. Navy, a brief stint as a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley and, ultimately, to America's Central Intelligence Agency where he faced an intractable issue involving oil, nuclear weapons and one of America's most unseemly foreign partners-the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In addition to lambasting Bush II, the book also contains a harsh indictment of his father as president, George H. W. Bush.

In the government's complaint, federal prosecutors said Scherck violated the provisions of privacy agreements he signed with the CIA in 2004 and 2007. The complaint says he also agreed to allow the agency to review any materials he planned to publish, which included works of fiction, that mention intelligence activities - agreements which are generally standard requirements for anyone working for or with the nation's foremost intelligence agency.

The government maintains that Scherck submitted his manuscript to the CIA for review in 2010, but the agency did not approve it. Scherck, the complaint says, went on to publish the book online anyway a few months later.

Read things, heard things, saw things...

"In his contractor position with the CIA, defendant Scherck was granted regular access to classified information, including information regarding intelligence sources and methods," the government's complaint said. "In granting defendant Scherck access to such information, the CIA relied on the expectation that defendant Scherck would respect the rights and obligations created by the secrecy agreements and his fiduciary duties, including the pre-publication review requirement."

In "Patriot Lost," Scherck claimed that he worked as a collection management officer at the CIA from mid-January 2005 to April 3, 2007.

"I was one of only a few individuals in Washington with access to what was being said overseas at the time about Saudi Arabia's procurement of a new ballistic missile system from China," the book says. "I read things, I heard things, I saw things. Admittedly, I did not see all - but I saw enough."

The government maintains specifically that Scherck violated is fiduciary duty - his position of trust - to the CIA. The suit seeks all of the proceeds from the book, as well as a court injunction preventing further distribution.

The suit was filed in federal district court in Alexandria, Va., July 11.

Sources:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/16/48403.htm

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/16/CIABook.pdf