This a great article in Vice News By: Liz Fields

“What kind of retaliation would you expect to receive from the US government if you handed over state secrets to the media or public? Half a lifetime in prison? Being branded a traitor and charged with espionage? A fine and a slap on the wrist?

Any Tom, Dick, or Edward Snowden who leaks classified information on government activities might in the current climate under the Obama administration expect to receive either of the first two penalties — as famed whistleblowers, former soldier Chelsea Manning and ex-CIA analyst John Kiriakou, did, for example, when they were jailed for revealing classified information to, in Manning’s case, WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, and, in Kiriakou’s, to a freelance reporter.

The third seems like a less likely penalty, but it was essentially what former CIA director and retired general David Petraeus received in a Charlotte, North Carolina, court today after admitting to disclosing eight black books’ worth of classified information to his biographer and former lover Paula Broadwell and later lying to investigators about it.”

Read the full story on VICE News HERE.