Sam Adams Award

Annual award for intelligence professionals

The Sam Adams Award is given annually since 2002 to an intelligence professional who has taken a stand for integrity and ethics. The Award is granted by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired CIA officers. It is named after Samuel A. Adams, a CIA whistleblower during the Vietnam War, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".[1][unreliable source?]

Ray McGovern established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."[2]

The 2012, 2013,[3] and 2014 awards were presented at the Oxford Union.[2]

Edward Snowden receiving the Sam Adams Award in October 2013.

Recipients

  • 2002: FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley[4]
  • 2003: Katharine Gun, former British intelligence (GCHQ) translator; leaked top-secret information showing illegal US activities during the push for war in Iraq.[5]
  • 2004: Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator; fired after accusing FBI officials of ignoring intelligence pointing to al-Qaeda attacks against the US.[citation needed]
  • 2005: Craig Murray,[6] former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who blew the whistle on UK complicity in the Uzbek government's use of torture and involvement in extraordinary rendition.
  • 2006: Samuel Provance, former U.S. Army military intelligence sergeant; spoke out about abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison.[7]
  • 2007: Andrew Wilkie, retired Australian intelligence official; claimed intelligence was being exaggerated to justify Australian support for the US invasion of Iraq.[citation needed]
  • 2008: Frank Grevil, Danish whistleblower; leaked classified information showing no clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.[8]
  • 2009: Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq War critic.[6]
  • 2010: Julian Assange, editor-in-chief and founder of WikiLeaks.[9][10]
  • 2011: Thomas Andrews Drake, former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA); Jesselyn Radack, former ethics adviser to the U.S. Department of Justice.[11]
  • 2012: Thomas Fingar, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council.[1]
  • 2013: Edward Snowden, leaked NSA material showing mass surveillance by the agency, sparking heated debate.[12][13]
  • 2014: Chelsea Manning,[14] U.S. Army soldier convicted in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses.
  • 2015: William Binney, former highly placed intelligence official with the NSA turned whistleblower.[15]
  • 2016: John Kiriakou,[citation needed] former CIA analyst and case officer who publicly confirmed the employment of waterboarding against detainees and characterized the practice as torture.
  • 2017: Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist who reported on the My Lai massacre, the Abu Ghraib scandal, and alleged misrepresentations of the 2013 Ghouta attack and the 2017 Khan Shaykhun attack.[16]
  • 2018: Karen Kwiatkowski, U.S. Air Force officer who became a whistleblower, leaking material behind the film Shock and Awe.[17]
  • 2019: Jeffrey Sterling, CIA whistleblower.[18]
  • 2020: Annie Machon, MI5 whistleblower.[19]
  • 2021: Daniel Hale, U.S. Air Force enlisted airman who became an intelligence analyst for the NSA in Afghanistan and later exposed the consequences of drone strikes.[20]
  • 2022: Daniel Ellsberg, former U.S. military analyst who released the Pentagon Papers, showing that the public had been misled about the Vietnam War, to a number of newspapers in 1971.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b McGovern archived.
  2. ^ a b Carlo 2014.
  3. ^ McGovern 2013. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2013 (help)
  4. ^ McGovern 2013b. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2013b (help)
  5. ^ McGovern 2013c. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2013c (help)
  6. ^ a b Rowley 2009.
  7. ^ Horton 2007.
  8. ^ DR 2009.
  9. ^ Oxford Union 2013.
  10. ^ McGovern 2010. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2010 (help)
  11. ^ McGovern 2011. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2011 (help)
  12. ^ GAP: Snowden Award 2013.
  13. ^ Haaretz 2013.
  14. ^ Nicks 2014.
  15. ^ Hannah Borno (January 23, 2015). "NSA whistleblower William Binney wins 2015 Sam Adams award". International Business Times. Retrieved August 31, 2015.
  16. ^ McGovern 2017. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2017 (help)
  17. ^ SAAII 2018.
  18. ^ McGovern 2020. sfn error: no target: CITEREFMcGovern2020 (help)
  19. ^ "MI-5 Whistleblower Annie Machon Wins 2021 Sam Adams Award; Prof. Stephen Cohen to be Honored". Consortiumnews. March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  20. ^ "Drone Warfare Whistleblower Daniel Hale Honored with Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence". Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. August 23, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2021.
  21. ^ "Daniel Ellsberg". Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. April 11, 2023. Retrieved May 1, 2023.

Sources

  • Carlo, Silkie (February 20, 2014). "Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden Criticize the "Decline" of US Democracy". Motherboard. Retrieved February 21, 2014.
  • "Former National Security Whistleblowers Meet in Moscow and Award Sam Adams Prize to Snowden". Government Accountability Project. October 10, 2013. Archived from the original on November 14, 2013.] Archived November 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine-->
  • "Former U.S. officials give NSA whistleblower Snowden award in Russia". Haaretz. Associated Press. October 10, 2013.
  • "Frank Grevil får whistleblower-pris" (in Danish). DR. January 26, 2009. Retrieved February 5, 2009.
  • Horton, Scott (September 21, 2007). "Sam Adams Award to Sam Provance". Harper's Magazine.
  • "Karen Kwiatkowski Receives 17th Sam Adams Award 2018". The Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. December 8, 2018.
  • McGovern, Ray. "Sam Adams Award". Archived from the original on January 16, 2014.
  • Nicks, Denver (February 19, 2014). "Snowden Congratulates Chelsea Manning". Time. Retrieved February 20, 2014.
  • Rowley, Coleen (October 19, 2009). "Colonel Larry Wilkerson to Receive 2009 Sam Adams Truthtelling Award". HuffPost.
  • "Sam Adams Awards including videolink with Julian Assange". Oxford Union. January 23, 2013. Archived from the original on April 21, 2014.] Archived April 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine-->

External links

  • Official website
  • v
  • t
  • e
Laureates of the Sam Adams Award