The Sam Adams Award is given annually since 2002 to an
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It can be described as t ...
professional who has taken a stand for
integrity
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values.
In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and Honesty, truthfulness or of one's actions. Integr ...
and ethics. The award is granted by the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, a group of retired
CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
officers. It is named after
Samuel A. Adams, a CIA
whistleblower
Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...
during the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, and takes the physical form of a "corner-brightener candlestick".
Ray McGovern
Raymond McGovern (born August 25, 1939) is an American political Activism, activist and former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer. McGovern was a CIA analyst from 1963 to 1990, and in the 1980s chaired National Intelligence Estimates and pa ...
established the Sam Adams Associates "to reward intelligence officials who demonstrated a commitment to truth and integrity, no matter the consequences."
The 2012, 2013, and 2014 awards were presented at the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford, England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest unive ...
.
Recipients
* 2002: FBI agent and whistleblower
Coleen Rowley
Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) is an American former FBI special agent and whistleblower. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two- ...
* 2003:
Katharine Gun, former British intelligence (GCHQ) translator; leaked top-secret information showing illegal US activities during the push for war in Iraq.
* 2004:
Sibel Edmonds, former FBI translator; fired after accusing FBI officials of ignoring intelligence pointing to al-Qaeda attacks against the US.
* 2005:
Craig Murray, 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
Samuel Provance is a former United States Army, U.S. Army military intelligence Sergeant#United States, sergeant, known for disobeying an order from his commanders in the 302nd Military Intelligence Battalion by discussing with the media his expe ...
, former
U.S. Army military intelligence sergeant; spoke out about abuses at the
Abu Ghraib Prison
Abu Ghraib prison (, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1960s and served as a maximum-security prison. From the 1970s, the prison was used by Saddam Hus ...
.
* 2007:
Andrew Wilkie
Andrew Damien Wilkie (born 8 November 1961) is an Australian politician and independent federal member for Division of Clark, Clark (previously Division of Denison, Denison). Before entering politics Wilkie was an infantry officer in the Austr ...
, retired Australian intelligence official; claimed intelligence was being exaggerated to justify Australian support for the US invasion of Iraq.
* 2008:
Frank Grevil, Danish whistleblower; leaked classified information showing no clear evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
* 2009:
Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell and Iraq War critic.
* 2010:
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. He came to international attention in 2010 after WikiLeaks published a series of News leak, leaks from Chels ...
, editor-in-chief and founder of
WikiLeaks
WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...
.
* 2011:
Thomas Andrews Drake
Thomas Andrews Drake (born 1957) is a former senior executive of the National Security Agency (NSA), a decorated United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran, and a whistleblower. In 2010, the government alleged that Drake mishandled do ...
, former senior executive of the U.S.
National Security Agency
The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
(NSA);
Jesselyn Radack, former ethics adviser to the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equi ...
.
* 2012:
Thomas Fingar, former chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
* 2013:
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.
Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...
, leaked NSA material showing
mass surveillance
Mass surveillance is the intricate surveillance of an entire or a substantial fraction of a population in order to monitor that group of citizens. The surveillance is often carried out by Local government, local and federal governments or intell ...
by the agency, sparking heated debate.
* 2014:
Chelsea Manning
Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is an American activist and whistleblower. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage ...
, 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.
* 2016:
John Kiriakou, former CIA analyst and case officer who publicly confirmed the employment of
waterboarding
Waterboarding is a form of torture in which water is poured over a cloth covering the face and breathing passages of an immobilized captive, causing the person to experience the sensation of drowning. In the most common method of waterboard ...
against detainees and characterized the practice as torture.
* 2017:
Seymour Hersh
Seymour Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is an American investigative journalist and political writer. He gained recognition in 1969 for exposing the My Lai massacre and its cover-up during the Vietnam War, for which he received the 1970 Pulitzer ...
, 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.
* 2018:
Karen Kwiatkowski,
U.S. Air Force officer who became a whistleblower, leaking material behind the film
''Shock and Awe''.
* 2019:
Jeffrey Sterling, CIA whistleblower.
* 2020:
Annie Machon,
MI5
MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
whistleblower.
* 2021:
Daniel Hale, U.S. Air Force
enlisted airman who became an
intelligence analyst
Intelligence analysis is the application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context. The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of delibera ...
for the NSA in
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
and later exposed the
consequences of drone strikes.
* 2022:
Daniel Ellsberg
Daniel Ellsberg (April 7, 1931June 16, 2023) was an American political activist, economist, and United States military analyst. While employed by the RAND Corporation, he precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released th ...
, former U.S. military analyst who released the ''
Pentagon Papers
The ''Pentagon Papers'', officially titled ''Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force'', is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States in the Vietnam War, United States' political and militar ...
'', showing that the public had been misled about the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, to a number of newspapers in 1971.
* 2024:
Aaron Bushnell
On February 25, 2024, Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old serviceman of the United States Air Force, died after self-immolation, setting himself on fire outside the front gate of the Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C., Embassy of Israel in Washingto ...
, senior airman in the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
who engaged in a fatal act of
self-immolation
Self-immolation is the act of setting oneself on fire. It is mostly done for political or religious reasons, often as a form of protest or in acts of martyrdom, and known for its disturbing and violent nature.
Etymology
The English word ' ...
in protest against
United States support for Israel in the Gaza war on February 25, 2024 (posthumously awarded).
References
Sources
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External links
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{{Laureates of the Sam Adams Award
2002 establishments in the United States
Articles containing video clips
Awards established in 2002
Espionage scandals and incidents
Intelligence and espionage-related awards and decorations
Whistleblowing in the United States