Matthew Diaz - The man who told the truth

From: 2008 recipient of the Ridenhour Truth-Telling Prize

 

So, late one night in January 2005, he logged onto a secure internal database, bringing up prisoners' names a hundred at a time. For two weeks, contemplating the risks to his career, he kept the list of 551 names and corresponding serial numbers locked in his office safe. On January 14, the night of his farewell party, he enclosed the documents in a Valentine's Day card and mailed it to a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Diaz hoped that his actions would help lawyers file habeas corpus petitions on the prisoners' behalf. But after consulting with a judge, the attorney to whom Diaz mailed the list was instructed to turn it over to a federal agent. The card was traced to him, and he faced up to 24 years in prison (if convicted of all charges) for wrongful and dishonorable transmission of classified documents. In May 2007, a jury of military officers convicted him on four of five charges, sentenced him to six months' confinement and stripped him of his pension. The Navy subsequently decertified him as a JAG officer. Currently, he is on active duty without pay; his case is on appeal and should be heard later this year. Diaz's license to practice law has also been temporarily suspended. The prisoners' names were finally released—not when he sent the anonymous card, but 14 months later—due to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press.