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Thomas Andrews Drake

Thomas Andrews Drake
Thomas drake 1783.JPG
Born (1957-04-22) April 22, 1957 (age 59)
Louisiana, United States
Occupation Former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA)
Nationality American
Education B.A.
M.A.
M.P.A.
Alma mater University of Maryland
University of Arizona
Walden University
Notable awards Military
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal
Air Force Commendation Medal
Civilian
Ridenhour prize
Sam Adams Award

Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) is a former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, and a whistleblower. In 2010 the government alleged that Drake mishandled documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project. He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) award.

On June 9, 2011, all 10 original charges against him were dropped. Drake rejected several deals because he refused to "plea bargain with the truth". He eventually pleaded to one misdemeanor count for exceeding authorized use of a computer;Jesselyn Radack of the Government Accountability Project, who helped represent him, called it an act of "civil disobedience."

Drake's father was a World War II veteran and his mother a secretary for Pearl S. Buck. He entered the U.S. Air Force in 1979, becoming an Airborne Voice Processing Specialist, with a fluency in German, and went on ELINT (electronic intelligence) missions. It was in that capacity that he encountered the surveillance state of East Germany and the Stasi, which informed his worldview and to which he compares developments in the United States since the September 11 attacks. Drake left the Air Force in 1989. He was also in the U.S. Navy, where he analyzed intelligence for the National Military Joint Intelligence Center. According to the Washington Post, he also at one time worked with the CIA. In 1989 Drake began work as an NSA contractor, evaluating software. As a contractor, he worked on projects like JACKPOT and LIBRARIAN, becoming an expert in the quality-testing of software and working on a system for measuring the quality of computer code at the NSA. Drake also continued his academic studies.


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