Jury rules: leaker convicted.

• Author: Slade, Stephanie
• Position: Citings - Jeffrey Sterling's leakage of 'Operation Merlin' - Brief article

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling has been convicted of leaking secret details of "Operation Merlin," a mission by the agency to frustrate Iran's nuclear ambitions. The U.S. District Court verdict came in January, nearly a decade after New York Times journalist James Risen reported on the operation, which he saw as botched, in his 2006 book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.

For years, the government tried to force Risen to disclose the source of his information. In 2013 an appeals court ruled he would have to testify in the trial against Sterling. But Risen made it clear that he would not talk, even if it meant going to jail for contempt of...