JAG Lawyer Sentenced for Revealing Secrets

(Norfolk, Virginia) U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, 41, a former staff judge advocate at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was convicted at court-martial Thursday of communicating secret information that could be used to injure the United States. It's no surprise that leftists are calling Diaz a hero.

Diaz leaked detainees' names, nationalities, the interrogators assigned to them and intelligence sources and methods to a human rights lawyer. The information was sent in an unsigned Valentine's Day card to Barbara Olshansky of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR).

Navy Times:

After deliberating for three and a half hours, the jury sentenced Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz to six months' confinement and dismissal from the Navy.

Jurors asked in their recommendation to the convening authority, Rear Adm. Fredric Ruehe, that Diaz's pay not be forfeited during his six-month confinement. Diaz has several dependents, including an ex-wife, a wife, a daughter, his mother and his father, who is on death row in California.

Although it appears that Diaz will collect his $6,834 monthly salary while in the brig, it hasn't been disclosed whether he will receive his pension for having 20 years in the military. Dismissal from service after a conviction for espionage likely negates future benefits. It's also not clear how a death row inmate can be considered a dependent.

As Diaz was being shuffled off to the brig, he said he was happy with the outcome of the court-martial and, "I should have done better. It was extremely irrational for me to do what I did." Not only irrational, counselor, but criminal. Also, for the future, Mr. Diaz, expect people to be quite reluctant to entrust you with sensitive information.

Companion post at The Jawa Report.