Know all ye by these presents that Annie Machon is hereby honored with the traditional Sam Adams Corner-Brightener Candlestick Holder, in symbolic recognition of her courage in shining light into dark places.
“If you see something, say something.” Long before that saying came into vogue, Annie Machon took its essence to heart.
MI5, the British domestic intelligence agency, recognized how bright, enterprising, and unflappable Annie was and recruited her as soon as she completed her studies at Cambridge.
The good old boys in MI5 apparently thought she would have a malleable conscience, as well — such that she would have no qualms about secret monitoring of the very government officials overseeing MI5 itself, for example.
Annie would not be quiet about this secret abuse. Her partner, David Shayler, an MI5 colleague and — like Annie — a person of integrity and respect for law, became aware of an MI6 plan to assassinate Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
They decided to blow the whistle and fled to France. (Many years later, a woman of high station but more flexible integrity openly gloated over Gaddafi’s brutal assassination.)
After three years on the lam, hiding mostly in France, they returned to the UK, where Annie was arrested (but never charged with a crime). The powers-that-be, however, chose to make an example of Shayler (not unlike what they are now doing to Julian Assange).
Shayler’s whistleblowing case dragged on for seven years, during which he did a brief stint in the infamous high-security prison where Julian Assange still rots (having been denied bail, yet again). A strong mitigation plea by Annie helped reduce Shayler’s remaining prison time. All in all, though, what he was forced to endure took a hard toll on him.
More broadly, the issues that surfaced around whistleblowing at the time remain largely the same two decades later. Annie Machon has been a very prominent and strong supporter of Julian. She has also been a much admired mentor to less experienced women and men as they seek to become better informed on issues of integrity and courage, and take Annie up on her offer to “help them meet interesting people”, as she puts it.
We would be remiss today were we not to call to mind the courageous example of our first two awardees, Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Katharine Gun (GCHQ), who took great risks in exposing malfeasance and in trying to head off the attack on Iraq. And, as Julian Assange did when he won this award, we again honor his treasured source, Chelsea Manning, for her continuing courage and scarcely believable integrity.
Ed Snowden, our Sam Adams awardee in 2013, noted that we tend to ignore some degree of evil in our daily life, but, as Ed put it, “We also have a breaking point and when people find that, they act.”
Annie is still acting, as one can see as this World Ethical Data Forum unfolds.
Presented this 17th day of March at the World Ethical Data Forum by admirers of the example set by the late CIA analyst, Sam Adams.
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PRESS RELEASE: Sam Adams Award to Thomas Fingar
Former U.S. Intelligence Analysis Chief to Receive Award at Oxford
Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence is pleased to announce the selection of Thomas Fingar for its annual award for integrity in intelligence. Dr. Fingar served from 2005 to 2008 as Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis and as chairman of the National Intelligence Council – the office that produces National Intelligence Estimates.
Dr. Fingar oversaw the landmark 2007 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran, which concluded with “high confidence” that Iran had halted its nuclear weapon design and weaponization work in 2003. The NIE was issued with the unanimous approval of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Its key judgments have been revalidated every year since by the Director of National Intelligence.
In keeping with the ethos of intelligence analysis, the Estimate was aimed solely at arriving at the truth about Iran’s nuclear program. It began with a bottom-up assessment of existing evidence but benefited also from intelligence acquired and analyzed in 2007.
The Estimate’s findings were a marked departure from earlier assessments of Iran’s nuclear program. Thus, the White House instructed the drafters to create an unclassified version of the key judgments for publication. Public reaction, plus strong opposition by senior military officers to war on Iran, played a key role in thwarting plans by the Bush/Cheney administration to launch war in 2008.
In his memoir “Decision Points,” former President Bush acknowledged that the “eye-popping” findings of the 2007 NIE stayed his hand: “How could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?”
Sam Adams Associates will present the award to Dr. Fingar on January 23rd at the Oxford Union, Oxford University, where he will teach a course on global trends and transnational issues as part of Stanford University’s Bing Overseas Studies Program – a course open to Oxford students, as well. He will also give guest lectures and public talks while at Oxford (January-March).
At Stanford, Dr. Fingar is the inaugural Oksenberg-Rohlen Distinguished Fellow in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Before taking the helm at the National Intelligence Council in 2005, Dr. Fingar served as Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2004–2005), its principal deputy (2001–2003), and head of analysis (1994–2000).
Thomas Fingar holds a PhD in political science from Stanford. His most recent book is Reducing Uncertainty: Intelligence Analysis and National Security (Stanford University Press, 2011).