A quiet hero, under siege

The FBI still has an agent working hard to put Thomas Tamm in prison for revealing the Bush Administration’s illegal wiretapping.

Hilzoy points to Mike Isikoff’s really heartbreaking story on Thomas Tamm, the government lawyer who blew the whistle on illegal wiretapping. While the Republican Congress and the Bush Administration have ensured that none of the people who broke the law will suffer for it, the FBI is still trying to get Tamm sent to prison for revealing it. Attorney General Eric Holder’s first official act should be to tell the FBI Director to reassign Agent Lawless (c’mon, could I make this up?) to some more useful activity.

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com