Sixteen of the most well-known and impactful snitches in recent U.S. history
| Name & Organization | Year | Action | Consequences |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Ellsberg, U.S. Department of State | 197131536000000 | Released the Pentagon Papers and unveiled a series of public deceptions by the U.S. government regarding the Vietnam War. | Legal action taken in Supreme Court against the U.S. government’s action to hide classified information regarding the conduct of the war. |
| Perry Fellwock, National Security Agency | 197131536000000 | NSA analyst who disclosed the existence of the secret agency and its global surveillance activities. | The revelations triggered the work of the Church Commission and the establishment of rules against domestic interception of communications |
| Mark Felt, also known as “Deep Throat,” Federal Bureau of Investigation | 197263072000000 | Associate director of the FBI, he revealed the involvement of President Nixon in the Watergate scandal. | Under threat of impeachment, Nixon resigned as president |
| Frank Snepp, Central Intelligence Agency | 1977220924800000 | CIA analyst who revealed the poor degree of preparation of the U.S. military in anticipating the fall of Saigon. | Snepp was successfully prosecuted for violation of his non-disclosure agreement and stripped of all his retirement benefits and book royalties. |
| Frederick Whitehurst, Federal Bureau of Investigation | 1997852076800000 | Forensic analyst at the FBI who disclosed the obsolete laboratory techniques for explosive analysis. He exposed several issues with World Trade Center (1993) and Oklahoma City bombings (1995), undermining the investigations. | His revelations provoked an entire modernization of the explosive forensic laboratories in the United States. |
| Coleen Rowley, Federal Bureau of Investigation | 20021009843200000 | FBI special agent who denounced the lack of foresight of the Bureau and the mishandling of critical intelligence related to 9/11. | Rowley was named person of the year by Time magazine for her revelations. |
| William Binney, J. Kirke Wiebe and Edward Loomis, National Security Agency | 20021009843200000 | Three NSA officials who informed the House Select Intelligence Committee about the financial waste and illegal eavesdropping of the NSA in the program called Trailblazer | The Inspector General of the Department of Defense concluded that Trailblazer project was ineffective and too expensive. The program was discontinued. |
| Sibel Edmonds, Federal Bureau of Investigation | 20021009843200000 | FBI translator who accused colleagues of covering up illicit activity involving Turkish nationals, alleged serious security breaches and cover-ups and that intelligence had been deliberately suppressed, endangering national security. | She was fired by the FBI and founded the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition in 2004. |
| Joseph Wilson, U.S. government | 20031041379200000 | Former diplomat who denounced the exaggeration of the nuclear threat posed by the regime of Saddam Hussein. | The Bush administration allegedly retaliated for the disclosure by leaking the identity of Wilson’s wife (Valerie Plame), a CIA officer. |
| Samuel Provance, U.S. Army | 20041072915200000 | Former U.S. Army Intelligence sergeant who revealed the interrogation abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison. | The disclosure triggered a congressional investigation that led to the resignation of the Secretary of the Department of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. |
| Russ Tice, National Security Agency | 20051104537600000 | One of the First NSA intelligence officer to denounce the constitutional violation perpetrated by the agency throughout warrantless surveillance programs. | No immediate impact on NSA activities but he became the first of a series of whistleblower denouncing the surveillance program of the agency. |
| Thomas A. Drake, National Security Agency | 20051104537600000 | NSA analyst who denounced the illegal surveillance program Trailblazer, which was violating the 4th amendment. | Indicted in 2010 for his revelations, the U.S. government dropped all charge in exchange for a guilty plea to a misdemeanor. |
| John Kiriakou, Central Intelligence Agency | 20071167609600000 | CIA officer who disclosed publicly the existence of waterboarding techniques on detainees. | He was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment after giving to the media the name of a covert CIA operative who could corroborate his revelations about torture techniques. |
| Chelsea Manning, U.S. Army | 20101262304000000 | Army intelligence analyst who leaked publicly a large number of classified digital documents related to the Afghan and Iraqi wars. | Manning was convicted under the Espionage Act and convicted to 35 years of prison. The Obama administration commuted Manning’s sentence in 2017. |
| Edward Snowden, Booz Allen Hamilton | 20131356998400000 | Contractor analyst who disclosed top-secret documents about mass surveillance programs managed by the National Security Agency. | Snowden fled to Russia to avoid being arrested and charges by the U.S. government. The disclosure of mass surveillance document provoked a political and media storm leading to interruption of bulk collection of metadata by Congress. |
| Sally Yates, Acting Attorney General | 20171483228800000 | Warned the Trump White House that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had lied about his contacts with Russians, making him vulnerable to blackmail. | Yates was fired by Trump. |
