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30 Jul, 2013

Former whistle-blowers struggling | The Japan Times

This is what life looks like for some after revealing government secrets — blowing the whistle on wrongdoing, according to those who did it; jeopardizing national security, according to the government.

Heroes or scofflaws, they had to get on with their lives — as Edward Snowden eventually will. The former NSA contractor, who leaked classified documents on U.S. surveillance programs, is now in Russia, with his fate in limbo. The Justice Department announced last week that it will not seek the death penalty in prosecuting him, but he is still charged with theft and espionage.

Say he makes it out of there. What next, beyond the pending charges? What happens to people who make public things that the government wanted to keep secret?

A look at the lives of a handful of those who did just that shows that they often wind up far from the stable government jobs they held. They can even wind up in the aisles of a craft store.

Read the rest: Former whistle-blowers struggling | The Japan Times.