NEW YORK -- In more than four years of office, President Barack Obama has frequently praised the idea of whistleblowing. He even signed the Whistleblo...

The Obama administration has been cruelly and unusually punishing in its use of the 1917 Espionage Act to stomp on governmental leakers, truth-tellers, and whistleblowers whose disclosures do not support the president's political ambitions.

What's worse: to be persecuted and indicted for trying to expose an act of wrongdoing -- or to be ignored for doing so?

WASHINGTON -- Hired in 2001 by the National Security Agency to help it catch up with the e-mail and cellphone revolution, Thomas A. Drake became convi...