Meet Tom Drake, the NSA Whistleblower Cheney Wanted to ‘Fry’

“Find and fry the leaker or leakers. Burn them. We have to make an example of them.”

Vice President Dick Cheney issued that edict after whistleblower Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the NSA, revealed the unconstitutional mass surveillance regime that had been instituted after 9/11, Drake himself said in a recent interview with The American Conservative.

The constant drumbeat of demands to reveal the names of whistleblowers who filed a complaint against President Trump gives Drake horrible “flashbacks,” he says. And while Republicans endlessly repeat that the American people have a “right to know” their identities, Drake doesn’t agree.

“The identity of the whistleblower is irrelevant,” he says. “The focus should be on the message, not the messenger. The information that was provided doesn’t require the whistleblower to come before Congress.” (Congress has been issuing subpoenas to first-hand witnesses to substantiate the complaint.)