Hello again, I'm Warren Alney, talking today to Jeffrey Sterling. He's author of a book called

Unwanted Spy, the Persecution of an American Whistleblower. But that's not what the Obama

administration called him. Jeffrey Sterling served time in prison as a convicted leaker of classified

information.

His book begins by describing how Sterling grew up in segregated small-town Missouri.

He earned a law degree and spent almost 10 years in the CIA, but he was fired after suing

the agency for racial discrimination.

Now here's where it gets complicated. Sometime after he was

laid off, Sterling told Senate investigators how a CIA plot against Iran's nuclear program called

Operation Merlin had gone wrong. Then, four years after that, the Obama administration charged Sterling

with leaking that story to James Reisen of the New York Times. In his book, State of War,

Risen had revealed Operation Merlin. It's a complicated scenario. We'll go over the plot points

again as we talk.

But first, let me welcome Jeffrey Sterling.

Thanks for joining our program.

I thank you very much for having me on.

You did more than two years in federal prison.

You had a total sentence of 42 months, and you were still insisting you were innocent.

What were you convicted of?

I was convicted of violating the Espionaz

Act and the unauthorized disclosure of classified information. Specifically, what did that mean?

That means that they were charging me with speaking to a reporter, handing over classified information

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