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(CNN) — Yael Lee-Weiss shakes her head the moment the words “boycott” and “Beitar Jerusalem” are uttered in her direction.

With the football world’s attention on Israel as it hosts the European Under-21 Championship Finals, the country’s image and politics are both very much to the fore.

For a woman who spends each and every moment combating racism and discrimination, last February’s incident when Beitar fans burnt down the club’s administrative offices in protest at the signing of two Chechen Muslims still rankles.

Beitar, a club with fiercely right-wing fans, is infamous for its racist attitude towards Arab players, but the severity of the attack still caused surprise.

“It’s about education and showing these people that their views will not be tolerated,” she told CNN in Tel Aviv.

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“From a very young age, they have an open mind and they don’t have any inhibitions. Sometimes, they are coming from a background where they need this scheme.

“We just capture the power of football and the love that children and adults have for the sport, and we are trying to educate them and give them values. They are very curious about knowing each other. We are neighbors, Arabs and Jews. The kids are curious because they hear a lot of things but they haven’t always met an Arab or a Jew and seen things with their own eyes.

“They might not have spoken to people outside of their circle but when they get to know each other, they just speak in a non-formal way without any thoughts which we see elsewhere in society.”

Another example of integration is Israel’s national Under-21 team. While it failed to progress from the group stage of the international tournament — the final of which was to be contested by Spain and Italy on Tuesday — its impact off the field should not be underestimated.

A squad including five Israeli-Arab players, two Ethiopians and a Bedouin brought attention to how, in even the most volatile regions, sport can break through barriers.

Several Arab players have represented Israel in the past, with the likes of Rifaat Turk, Walid Badir, Zahi Armeli and — perhaps most famously due to his goal in a 2006 World Cup qualifier — Abbas Suan having all worn the blue shirt.

While Arab players do not sing the Israeli national anthem, essentially an ode to the Jewish homeland, they also refrain from speaking in their native tongue during training to avoid dividing the group.

Great honor

Israel’s hosting of the U21 tournament has been mired in controversy, with protests against the country’s treatment of Palestinians.

But while the politics are debated off the pitch and around the world, the players appear happy with the progress being made.

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“It’s a great honor for me to represent Israel,” Munas Dabbur, an Israeli Arab striker who plays for Maccabi Tel Aviv, told CNN.

“I always felt that I was proud to be invited to the team and I want it to continue.

“I think this tournament can be really important for football in Israel. It’s the first time we’ve had games like this in the country and there’s been a huge push. I hope that this will continue in the future.”

It is a sentiment echoed by his Jewish teammates.

Omri Altman, 19, plays his football in England with Premier League club Fulham and says the pictures he sees on television bear little resemblance to the country he calls “home.”

“My friends at Fulham think, ‘ Israel, oh, it’s very scary.’ They don’t want to come here to visit because they hear in the news about the things which happen here,” Altman said.

“But it’s different. You come here, it’s very quiet in most of the areas. So when teams come to play here, I hope the whole world will see that.

“I think it’s very important that the tournament has come to Israel.

“In our team, we’re all friends and everybody is the same. We are all people, it doesn’t matter where we come from and who we are. We come to play football and that’s the most important thing.”

Next generation

These words would have been noted by the next generation of talent, young hopefuls who have been watching an international football tournament in their own backyard for the very first time.

While Altman and Dabur were busy on the pitch, hundreds of young children were given free tickets to watch the games.

Some of those were from Mifalot. They hope that the example set by their nation’s young footballers can spread a message beyond the country’s borders.

While the U21 players were busy playing in modern stadiums, hundreds of others were running around fields, concrete courts and dirt tracks pretending to be an international footballer.

“I think that this project is great,” said Nasser, a Palestinian coordinator in Sussiya, in the West Bank.

“The activities and interaction greatly helped the kids get to know others who are different and to play together as one group.

“I hear the kids talking and they really enjoyed themselves.”

Moacyr Barbosa Nascimento’s life was forever changed after the 1950 World Cup. With Brazil needing just a draw against Uruguay in its final game to lift the trophy for the first time, the team lost 2-1 and he was blamed for the second goal. The goalkeeper’s perceived mistake haunted him. Twenty years later he overheard a woman in a supermarket say to her son, “There is the man who made Brazil cry.”

The Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro was the venue for the 1950 final, with 200,000 spectators packed into the purpose-built arena. The stadium has been redeveloped and a crowd of 78,000 people will watch the final of 2014 World Cup at the iconic ground.

All eyes will be on Neymar during both June’s Confederations Cup and next year’s World Cup. The attacker, who recently signed for Barcelona in a deal reportedly worth in excess of $80 million, is Brazil’s star player and must perform to his best if “La Selecao” are to satisfy an expectant public.

The Brazil team of 1970, which beat Italy 4-1 in the World Cup final in Mexico, is widely regarded as the greatest of all time. Pele, a three-time World Cup winner seen here leaping on his teammates, says Brazil must recover from the failure of 63 years ago.

Carlos Alberto, captain of the 1970 team, lifts the Jules Rimet trophy which Brazil was allowed to keep after becoming the first nation to win the World Cup three times. The former fullback thinks next year’s World Cup will come too soon for Brazil’s inexperienced team.

Luiz Felipe Scolari was the coach of the last Brazil team to lift the World Cup, in Japan and South Korea in 2002. The veteran has been reappointed in a bid to inject life into an ailing Brazil team. His results have so far left much to be desired: two wins, one defeat and four draws since November 2012.

England was Brazil’s first opponent at a refurbished Maracana earlier this month. A half-volley from midfielder Paulinho, pictured, rescued a 2-2 draw for the 2014 World Cup host.

Brazil’s most recent match, the last before the Confederations Cup starts, ended in a comfortable 3-0 defeat of France. A penalty from Lucas Moura, right, completed the scoring.

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Brazil’s most painful moment

Racism has long been a stain on football but a resurgence of incidents in recent years has prompted soccer’s authorities to launch a renewed bid to rid the game of discrimination for good. Here a Fenerbahce fan holds a banana towards Galatasaray’s Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba during a Turkish league match in May 2013.

The spark for a raft of racism reforms from the game’s power brokers came when AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng walked off in a match with Italian lower league side Pro Patria in January after their fans abused him with monkey noises. The game was abandoned and his protest made headline news the world over.

CNN’s Pedro Pinto stands on the spot where Boateng decided he’d had enough. He told the World Sport Presents Racism in Football documentary: “I decided to walk off the pitch because I said to myself, in this kind of environment, in this situation, I don’t want to play football anymore.”

Boateng’s AC Milan teammate Mario Balotelli has been the subject of racial abuse over a number of years. He and Boateng were abused by AS Roma fans during a match at the San Siro in May that was briefly suspended by the officials as a result. A public address announcement implored visiting supporters to stop their chants.

Balotelli has had to deal with racism throughout his career. As far back as 2009, when he played for Inter, he was racially abused by opposing Juventus fans. Here, Inter’s fans hold up banners in support of the striker.

Balotelli told Pedro Pinto he was prepared to walk off if he receives more racial abuse: “After what happened to me in (the Roma) game, I felt a little bit alone when I was home. I always said that if that happened in the stadium, like if nobody said anything, I don’t care. But this time I think I changed my mind a little bit, and if it is going to happen one more time, I’m going to leave the pitch because it’s so stupid.”

Boateng’s walk-off prompted the game’s governing body to act and FIFA president Sepp Blatter invited the midfielder to sit on a task force dedicated to tackling racism in football. A raft of reforms have now been passed that could see teams relegated or expelled from competitions.

The head of FIFA’s racism task force, Jeffrey Webb, told CNN the new measures could be “a defining moment in the fight against racism and discrimination.” He labeled the recent abuse of Balotelli and Galatasaray striker Didier Drogba as “ignorant” and “unbelievable.”

Blatter’s new-found vigor to tackle racism was at odds with his sentiments in a 2011 interview with CNN when he expressed his belief that there was no on-field racism in football and that players who think they have been abused should simply say “this is a game.” He later said his comments had been misinterpreted.

One of the most high-profile incidents in England saw Liverpool striker Luis Suarez banned for eight-matches for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in October 2011. Prior to the teams’ return fixture the following February, Suarez refused to shake Evra’s hand. Suarez subsequently apologized.

Former England captain John Terry was found not guilty in a criminal court of racially abusing rival footballer Anton Ferdinand but was banned for four-matches by the Football Association. He accepted the charge, a £220,000 fine and apologized, saying: “I accept that the language I used, regardless of the context, is not acceptable on the football field or indeed in any walk of life.”

The Serbian Football Association was hit with an $84,000 fine after a brawl between their under-21 team and England’s in the city of Krusevac in October 2012. England player Danny Rose (far right) said he had been subjected to monkey chants throughout the game. The Serbian FA insisted their fine was for the altercation.

Serbian fans are renowned for creating an intimidating atmosphere, as CNN discovered at the Belgrade derby in May. Despite previous incidents, there was no hint of racism in the match, though the Serbian Football Association’s technical director Savo Milosevic did reveal they have no program in place to tackle racism.

European football’s governing body, UEFA also passed new laws on racism. They introduced a minimum 10-match ban for racist abuse by players or officials and escalating measures for clubs including fines and stadium closures for repeat offenders.

Various initiatives across Europe’s leagues help to try and combat racism and offer opportunities to those communities that are under represented at the top of the game. The Asian Stars event, recently held at Chelsea’s training ground, aims to encourage participation among aspiring Asian players at all levels of football.

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Racism in football

Germany captain Lewis Holtby wears a specially made training shirt with the Israeli flag and the words “Feeling at home” embroidered on the front to thank the host fans for making the team welcome at the European Under-21 Championship.

Holtby and teammate Toni Jantschke lay a wreath during the visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum before March’s friendly game against Israel.

Germany striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga told CNN that his visit to the museum in Jerusalem was “extremely moving.”

The players take a moment to pause and reflect while surrounded by photos of those who were murdered in the Holocaust.

Head coach Rainer Adrion was particularly moved by his visit, taking his time to walk around the exhibits.

DFB president Wolfgang Niersbach (center), vice-president Rolf Hocke (right) and the German ambassador in Israel, Andreas Michaelis, lay a wreath during last week’s visit of the German delegation at Yad Vashem.

Lasogga signs autographs for local children at the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village in Netanya.

Striker Peniel Mlapa hands out small German mascots to some of the children at the Youth Village.

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Remembering the Holocaust: Germany in Israel

Through the work of the NIF, the IFA began to punish clubs with fines for racist abuse.

Breakthrough

Suan was a founding member of the Kick Racism and Violence out of Football organization, and he says sport can be the vehicle which unites people in one of the world’s most troubled regions.

As one of the few Arab players to wear the Israeli soccer shirt at the time, Suan says he suffered abuse every time he touched the ball until a groundbreaking moment.

In the final minute of a qualifying game for the 2006 World Cup, Suan unleashed an astonishing effort which clinched a 1-1 draw against the Republic of Ireland, and etched his name into Israeli folklore.

That goal on March 27, 2005, represented a fundamental change for Suan. He says it was a day Israeli society finally began to realize the significance of Arab players.

“I am a Palestinian because I have a lot of brothers and cousins in the Arab countries,” he said. “And I am Israeli because I live here and don’t go out of my lands.

“I never felt discriminated against in anything that had to do with football. I didn’t let anyone do it to me. Everywhere I went, I felt not merely at home, but like the boss.

“I have a lot of Jewish friends and they are like brothers to me. But I do feel discriminated against when it comes to infrastructure and development in the Arab sector.

“But when my children have a sports lesson in a courtyard without a pitch, that’s discrimination. It makes my blood boil. It’s unacceptable that in a city like Sakhnin, there is not one tennis or basketball court worthy of the name.”

Suan’s case has been featured in two documentaries — “After the Cup: Sons of Sakhnin United” and “Divided Nation” — both of which focus on Arab citizens in Israel.

Now head of youth at Bnei Sakhnin, one of Israel’s top Arab football clubs, he lectures against racism and violence in the game, drawing on the experiences of his difficult road to the top.

“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing,” he added.

“I pursued my career to represent the community and to bring the two peoples closer together. I paid a great personal price, but I’m satisfied.”

The scheme has also embraced the Bedouin community, where the likes of Israel international Mohammad Ghadir and under-21 player Ahad Azzam learned their trade.

But in a society where female participation is frowned upon, there is one woman who refuses to be denied.

Female Maradona

Meet Miriam Abu-Ghanem — the one they call the “female Maradona” in her town of Tel Sheva in southern Israel.

“I came out of my mother’s stomach with a ball at my feet,” she said.

“Our girls don’t play sport because they think it’s shameful. We suffer from this. I come from a supportive home, without violence or repression, but many other women suffer at home.

“There are still families where the women don’t go out to learn at all, or who suffer in marriage.”

After establishing the first women’s football league in her town and becoming the first Bedouin player in the Be’er Sheva women’s league, injury prevented her from going further.

Instead, two bachelors degrees in physical education and special education, as well as a masters in educational management, have allowed her to become the first PE teacher in the Bedouin community.

“A woman doesn’t need to request equality from anyone and doesn’t need to receive the rights of a man, but the universal rights of human beings as human beings,” she added.

“I always believed in my own capabilities … I worked very hard. I refused to stand to the side and be the forlorn girl. Now here I am.”

It is stories such as these from Suan and Abu-Ghanem which gives hope that sport can unite people — even in the most troubled of times.

Back in Tel Aviv, sitting in her office surrounded by application forms from prospective members, Yael Lee-Weiss, the international development officer, sees a chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

“It gives me hope,” she said. “They are the future and I know we won’t make the biggest changes to our world and bring about peace in one day, but we do give those children a way out and something good to look for.

“The changes will take a few years but those children are growing up.”

(CNN) — Iran’s centrist president-elect expressed a willingness to open dialogue with the United States, which it hasn’t had diplomatic relations with in decades, but only if the United States recognizes Iran’s right to a nuclear program.

Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidency over the weekend, said in his first news conference Monday, however, that the Islamic republic has no intention of ending its uranium-enrichment program. The program is a major impetus for the international sanctions against Iran.

Calling relations between the U.S. and Iran an “old wound” and “complicated,” Rouhani said that before there are talks, the U.S. must first promise to never interfere with Iranian domestic affairs and scrap its “unilateral” and “bullying policies.”

“Wisdom tells us both countries, both nations need to think more about the future and try to sit down and find solutions to past issues and rectify things,” he said. “The rights of the Iranian nation, including nuclear rights, need to be recognized.”

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“We are prepared to see tensions alleviated,” he added, noting that any talks “should be based on mutual respect and interest and equal footing.”

In opening his news conference, Rouhani, 65, said repairing Iran’s economy and engaging in more dialogue — both at home and abroad — will be his administration’s top priorities.

Dialogue and the economy are related, as Iran faces sharp international sanctions over its nuclear program, but Rouhani said he foresees a “fresh opportunity for interaction at the global level.”

Mutual trust and transparency are key to the international community lifting sanctions, which he called “brutal, and the people of Iran have done nothing wrong to deserve sanctions.”

“Making use of the lever of sanctions, this is not the right time for that. … Even in the West, they are facing economic problems and dilemmas, and they themselves know the sanctions are to the detriment of the West,” Rouhani said, adding that Israel was the only country benefiting from them. “We can make it clear to the whole world that the measures and activities of the Islamic republic are totally within international regulations and mechanisms.”

Rouhani did not elaborate on how he would make the country’s nuclear program more transparent, but he insisted that the Iranian nuclear program was lawful. He also voiced opposition to international “meddling” in domestic affairs.

While Rouhani encouraged Iran to act with “unity and solidarity” as it transitions to his promised moderate rule in coming weeks, he said his primary goals will be “acting in line with salvaging the country’s economy, reviving morality and constructive interaction with the world.”

He said he could not yet provide time lines but said he would first like to ensure that Iranians had basic commodities before his government pursues “the tranquility and stability of the economy.”

This will require embracing “moderation and justice, and not extremism and egoism,” he said. “Electoral promises, I will not forget them, so I beseech the almighty God to give me the opportunity to materialize all those promises.”

Rouhani said he would convene groups to discuss the best ways to improve the country’s social, cultural and economic affairs. “As far as practice, that job will be delegated to the people themselves,” he said.

After his victory was announced over the weekend, Rouhani spoke of reforms without threatening Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the country’s institutions — of which he is a product. The former national security council chief promised greater personal freedoms and said he would free political prisoners and jailed journalists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already cautioned the world against easing such sanctions in the face of Rouhani’s promises.

“Regarding the results of the elections in Iran, let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishes and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said at a weekly Cabinet meeting.

The prime minister also said Iran’s supreme leader “disqualified candidates who did not fit his extremist outlook.”

In his campaigning, Rouhani pledged to improve the economy and unemployment. As a former nuclear negotiator, he said, he would reduce the high tension between Iran and the outside world by addressing the sanctions.

In a message through the semiofficial Fars News Agency, Rouhani said the win “is the victory of wisdom, moderation, growth and awareness, the victory of commitment and religiosity over extremism and ill tempers.”

Reaction from the West — including that of Britain, the United States and United Nations — revolved around calls for Rouhani to keep his promises to steer Iran in a new direction.

The United States “remains ready to engage the Iranian government directly in order to reach a diplomatic solution that will fully address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,” the White House said.

While the White House respected the vote, it said the election occurred “against the backdrop of a lack of transparency, censorship of the media, Internet, and text messages, and an intimidating security environment that limited freedom of expression and assembly.”

Rouhani succeeds outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was term-limited and could not run in the election.

But Rouhani won’t be Iran’s most powerful man. That distinction belongs to Khamenei, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. He’s got plenty of backing, from conservative citizens to loyalist militia groups to, most notably, the Revolutionary Guard.

On his website, the supreme leader said Rouhani is the president of all Iranians and told supporters of various candidates to set aside their differences and unify.

Rouhani has all-round credentials in Iran’s institutions, including as a senior cleric and former commander of Iranian air defenses, and he is an intellectual with three law degrees, including from a university in Scotland.

He has a reputation for shunning extreme positions and bridging differences.

While he has represented Khamenei on Iran’s security council since 1989, he has avoided being perceived as a pushover and has taken exception with the supreme leader on being too rigid toward the international community, according to an Iranian scholar at Stanford University. He has also accused state-run media of censorship and publishing lies.

Prior to Rouhani’s election, Iran’s Guardian Council, an unelected body made up of six clerics and six lawyers operating under the oversight of the supreme leader, drew up the restricted list of candidates from the 680 who initially registered.

Eight candidates were approved, two of whom subsequently dropped out. The final six contenders didn’t include any women. Nor did they include Ahmadinejad’s aide and protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was among those excluded by the Guardian Council.

CNN’s Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Michael Martinez, Holly Yan, Michael Schwartz, Laura Smith-Spark, Reza Sayah, Azadeh Ansari and Sara Mazloumsaki contributed to this report.

Damascus, Syria (CNN) — In this government stronghold city, Syrians moved with an air of confidence Friday, defiantly dismissive of how the United States will raise the stakes of the country’s bloody two-year civil war by stepping up support to the rebels.

Enjoying a day off on the Muslim calendar, locals expressed little fear on a busy morning stocking up on bread and juice in a shopping district.

If the outside world was excited about a U.S. retaliatory plan for the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons against rebels, the families in the capital’s old Mezzah neighborhood struck a tone in utter contrast.

“America is inventing stories about chemical weapons,” one man told CNN’s Fred Pleitgen. “The Syrian government never used chemical weapons. The rebels have used them, not the government. So they are inventing stories because our army is winning.”

Another man, also shopping for household staples, said the U.S. action won’t make a difference. The government will prevail in the civil war, he asserted.

“What are they going to do? Air strikes on special military areas? They can do that, but we Syrians have proven we can manage and are patient, and we will win,” he told CNN.

On Thursday evening, the Obama administration said the Syrian government crossed a “red line” by using chemical weapons, and the White House pledged to increase the “scale and scope” of its support for the opposition, stopping short of saying it will arm the rebels.

The Syrian government accused Washington of releasing “a statement full of lies regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria,” according to a statement on state TV.

Like the civilians they were protecting, soldiers expressed similar confidence at a checkpoint outside the opposition-held neighborhood of Jobar.

The forces seemed easygoing and stated that morale was so high that they believed the government will take back Jobar. Jobar bears much scarring from fighting, unlike downtown Damascus, which has been untouched by warfare.

In fact, the soldiers believed the government was winning the conflict, they said.

The mood in the capital has changed significantly since two months ago, when car bombs and an Israeli air strike dampened the optimism of pro-government residents.

But the government is now viewed as having gained ground against the rebels by using a new strategy of focusing firepower to key battles in Aleppo and Qusayr, which the regime recaptured this month.

The civil war, however, has taken a toll on the Damascus landscape. The outskirts are pockmarked with the destruction of artillery, but a few blocks away, other communities are unscathed, as if a war wasn’t happening.

CNN’s Frederick Pleitgen reported from Damascus, and Michael Martinez wrote this report from Los Angeles.

(CNN) — Britain’s electronic intelligence agency monitored delegates’ phones and tried to capture their passwords during an economic summit held there in 2009, the Guardian newspaper reported Sunday.

The targets included British allies such as Turkey and South Africa, the newspaper reported. The Guardian cited documents provided by Edward Snowden, the American computer analyst now spilling secrets of the U.S. intelligence community.

The latest report was published on the eve of another economic summit hosted by the British government — the Group of Eight economic summit in Northern Ireland. According to the newspaper, the documents show that the British signals intelligence agency GCHQ used “ground-breaking intelligence capabilities” to intercept calls made by members of the larger G-20 conference delegations at meetings in London.

Former intelligence worker Edward Snowden, 29, revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the NSA to track cell phone calls and monitor the e-mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans. He says he just wanted the public to know what the government was doing. “Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded,” he said. While he has not been charged, the FBI is conducting an investigation into the leaks.

Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers in 1971. The top-secret documents revealed that senior American leaders, including three presidents, knew the Vietnam War was an unwinnable, tragic quagmire. Further, they showed that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the war. Ellsberg surrendered to authorities and was charged as a spy. During his trial, the court learned that President Richard Nixon’s administration had embarked on a campaign to discredit Ellsberg, illegally wiretapping him and breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. All charges against him were dropped. Since then he has lived a relatively quiet life as a respected author and lecturer.

Starting in 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service studied untreated syphilis in black men who thought they were getting free health care. The patients weren’t told of their affliction or sufficiently treated. Peter Buxtun, who worked for the Public Health Service, relayed information about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment to a reporter in 1972, which halted the 40-year study. His testimony at congressional hearings led to an overhaul of the Health, Education and Welfare rules concerning work with human subjects. A class-action lawsuit was settled out-of-court for $10 million, with the U.S. government promising free medical care to survivors and their families. Here, participants talk with a study coordinator.

In 2005, retired deputy FBI director Mark Felt revealed himself to be the whistle-blower “Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal. He anonymously assisted Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with many of their stories about the Nixon administration’s cover-up after the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The stories sparked a congressional investigation that eventually led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. Felt was convicted on unrelated conspiracy charges in 1980 and eventually pardoned by President Ronald Reagan before slipping into obscurity for the next quarter-century. He died in 2008 at age 95.

Mordechai Vanunu, who worked as a technician at Israel’s nuclear research facility, leaked information to a British newspaper and led nuclear arms analysts to conclude that Israel possessed a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its weapons program. An Israeli court convicted Vanunu in 1986 after Israeli intelligence agents captured him in Italy. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Since his release in 2004, he has been arrested on a number of occasions for violating terms of his parole.

President Ronald Reagan addresses the media in 1987, months after the disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair. A secret operation carried out by an American military officer used proceeds from weapons sales to Iran to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua and attempted to secure the release of U.S. hostages held by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mehdi Hashemi, an officer of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, leaked evidence of the deal to a Lebanese newspaper in 1986. Reagan’s closest aides maintain he did not fully know, and only reluctantly came to accept, the circumstances of the operation.

Tobacco industry executive Jeffrey Wigand issued a memo to his company in 1992 about his concerns regarding tobacco additives. He was fired in March 1993 and subsequently contacted by “60 Minutes” and persuaded to tell his story on CBS. He claimed that Brown Williamson knowingly used additives that were carcinogenic and addictive and spent millions covering it up. He also testified in a landmark case in Mississippi that resulted in a $246 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. Wigand has received public recognition for his actions and continues to crusade against Big Tobacco. He was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 1999 film “The Insider.”

For 10 years, Frederic Whitehurst complained mostly in vain about practices at the FBI’s world-renowned crime lab, where he worked. His efforts eventually led to a 1997 investigation that found lab agents produced inaccurate and scientifically flawed testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. The Justice Department recommended major reforms but also criticized Whitehurst for “overstated and incendiary” allegations. He also faced disciplinary action for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into how some of his allegations were leaked to a magazine. After a yearlong paid suspension he left the bureau in 1998 with a settlement worth more than $1.16 million.

FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley accused the bureau of hindering efforts to investigate a suspected terrorist that could have disrupted plans for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. In 2002 she fired off a 13-page letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and flew to Washington to hand-deliver copies to two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and meet with committee staffers. The letter accused the bureau of deliberately undermining requests to look into Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States of playing a role in the attacks. She testified in front of Congress and the 9/11 Commission about the FBI’s mishandling of information. Rowley was selected as one of Time magazine’s People of the Year in 2002, along with whistle-blowers Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom.

Sherron Watkins, a former vice president at Enron, sent an anonymous letter to founder Kenneth Lay in 2001 warning him the company had accounting irregularities. The memo eventually reached the public and she later testified before Congress about her concerns and the company’s wrongdoings. More than 4,000 Enron employees lost their jobs, and many also lost their life savings, when the energy giant declared bankruptcy in 2001. Investors lost billions of dollars. An investigation in 2002 found that Enron executives reaped millions of dollars from off-the-books partnerships and violated basic rules of accounting and ethics. Many were sentenced to prison for their roles in the Enron scandal.

Cynthia Cooper and her team of auditors uncovered massive fraud at WorldCom in 2002. They found that the long-distance telephone provider had used $3.8 billion in questionable accounting entries to inflate earnings over the past five quarters. By the end of 2003, the total fraud was estimated to be $11 billion. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and five executives ended up in prison. Cooper started her own consulting firm and told her story in the book “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.”

In 2003, federal air marshal Robert MacLean anonymously tipped off an MSNBC reporter that because of budget concerns, the TSA was temporarily suspending missions that would require marshals to stay in hotels just days after they were briefed about a new “potential plot” to hijack U.S. airliners. The news caused an immediate uproar on Capitol Hill and the TSA retreated, withdrawing the scheduling cuts before they went into effect. MacLean was later investigated and fired for the unauthorized disclosure of “sensitive security information.”

Joe Darby is the whistle-blower behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq. He says he asked Army Reserve Spc. Charles Graner Jr. for photos from their travels so he could share them with family. Instead, he was given photos of prisoner abuse. Darby eventually alerted the U.S. military command, triggering an investigation and global outrage when the scandal came to light in 2004. Graner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the abuse. He was released in 2011 after serving 6½ years of his sentence. The military and members of Darby’s own family ostracized him, calling him a traitor. Eventually he and his wife had to enter protective custody.

The New York Times reported in 2005 that in the months after the September 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush authorized the U.S. National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a court warrant on people in the United States, including American citizens, suspected of communicating with al Qaeda members overseas. The Bush administration staunchly defended the controversial surveillance program. Russ Tice, an NSA insider, came forward as one of the anonymous sources used by the Times. He said he was concerned about alleged abuses and a lack of oversight. Here, President Bush participates in a conversation about the Patriot Act in Buffalo, New York, in April 2004.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused in the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history. His court-martial began on June 3. He has pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 charges against him and could face up to two decades in jail. He has pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge – that of aiding U.S. enemies, which carries the potential for a life sentence. At a February proceeding, Manning read a statement detailing why and how he sent classified material in 2010 to WikiLeaks, a group that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information.

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Notable leakers and whistleblowers

NSA whistleblower: Hero or traitor?

Rep.: NSA isn’t listening to your calls

Hong Kong rallies to support NSA leaker

Analysts received round-the-clock summaries of calls that were being made, and GCHQ set up Internet cafes for delegates in hopes of intercepting e-mails and capturing keystrokes, the Guardian reported. One briefing slide explained that would give intelligence agencies the ability to read delegates’ e-mails “before/as they do,” providing “sustained intelligence options against them even after conference has finished.”

Some did it for the money, some did it for idealism, others didn’t do it at all. Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed himself Monday as the leaker of details of U.S. government surveillance programs to The Guardian. The U.S. has seen a number of high profile leak scandals including the Pentagon Papers during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Click through to see more high-profile intelligence leaking cases.

Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers in 1971. The top-secret documents revealed that senior American leaders, including three presidents, knew the Vietnam War was an unwinnable, tragic quagmire. Further, they showed that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the war. Ellsberg surrendered to authorities and was charged as a spy. During his trial, the court learned that President Richard Nixon’s administration had embarked on a campaign to discredit Ellsberg, illegally wiretapping him and breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. All charges against him were dropped. Since then he has lived a relatively quiet life as a respected author and lecturer.

Jonathan Pollard is a divisive figure in U.S.-Israel relations. The former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst was caught spying for Israel in 1985 and was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly called for President Barack Obama to release Pollard after Pollard’s wife appealed to Netanyahu.

Pfc. Bradley Manning is an Army intelligence specialist who is charged with passing along classified material to WikiLeaks, a group that facilitates anonymous leaking of secret information. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him and could face 20 years in prison. But he pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge, aiding U.S. enemies, which carries a potential life sentence.

Wen Ho Lee was a scientist at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico who was charged with 59 counts of downloading classified information onto computer tapes and passing it to China. Lee eventually agreed to plead guilty to a since count of mishandling classified information after prosecutors deemed their case to be too weak. He was released after nine months in solitary confinement. Lee later received a $1.6 million in separate settlements with the government and five news agencies after he sued them, accusing the government of leaking damaging information about him to the media.

Members of the Bush administration were accused retaliating against Valerie Plame, pictured, by blowing her cover in 2003 as a U.S. intelligence operative, after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, wrote a series of New York Times op-eds questioning the basis of certain facts the administration used to make the argument to go to war in Iraq.

In 2007, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted on charges related to the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the case. His 30-month sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush. Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he had no idea who leaked the information.

Aldrich Ames, a 31-year CIA employee, pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 1994 and was sentenced to life in prison. Ames was a CIA case worker who specialized in Soviet intelligence services and had been passing classified information to the KGB since 1985. U.S. intelligence officials believe that information passed along by Ames led to the arrest and execution of Russian officials they had recruited to spy for them.

Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 2001 in return for the government not seeking the death penalty. Hanssen began spying for the Soviet Union in 1979, three years after going to work for the FBI and prosecutors said he collected $1.4 million for the information he turned over to the Cold War enemy. In 1981, Hanssen’s wife caught him with classified documents and convinced him to stop spying, but he started passing secrets to the Soviets again four years later. In 1991, he broke off relations with the KGB, but resumed his espionage career in 1999, this time with the Russian Intelligence Service. He was arrested after making a drop in a Virginia park in 2001.

John Walker ran a father and son spy ring, passing classified material to the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985. Walker was a Navy communication specialist with financial difficulties when he walked into the Soviet Embassy and sold a piece of cyphering equipment. Navy and Defense officials said that Walker enabled the Soviet Union to unscramble military communications and pinpoint the location of U.S. submarines at all times. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors promised leniency for Walker’s son Michael Walker, a former Navy seaman.

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Sharing secrets: U.S. intelligence leaks

Guardian columnist defends role

Declassified: Behind security clearance

Facebook admits role in NSA surveillance

Retired Gen. Michael Hayden, a former NSA director, told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS that what the agency collects are “essentially billing records” that detail the time, duration and number of a phone call. The records are added to a database that agents can query in cases involving a terror investigation overseas, and agents can’t eavesdrop on Americans’ calls without an order from a secret court that handles intelligence matters, he said.

If a phone number related to that investigation has links to a domestic phone number, “We’ve got to go back to the court,” he said.

But critics such as Sen. Mark Udall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had raised questions about the scale of the program even before Snowden’s leak. Udall told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the program is making Americans any safer, “and I think it’s ultimately, perhaps, a violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I think we owe it to the American people to have a fulsome debate in the open about the extent of these programs,” said Udall, D-Colorado. “You have a law that’s been interpreted secretly by a secret court that then issues secret orders to generate a secret program. I just don’t think this is an American approach to a world in which we have great threats.”

(CNN) — Iran’s centrist president-elect expressed a willingness to open dialogue with the United States, which it hasn’t had diplomatic relations with in decades, but only if the United States recognizes Iran’s right to a nuclear program.

Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidency over the weekend, said in his first news conference Monday, however, that the Islamic republic has no intention of ending its uranium-enrichment program. The program is a major impetus for the international sanctions against Iran.

Calling relations between the U.S. and Iran an “old wound” and “complicated,” Rouhani said that before there are talks, the U.S. must first promise to never interfere with Iranian domestic affairs and scrap its “unilateral” and “bullying policies.”

“Wisdom tells us both countries, both nations need to think more about the future and try to sit down and find solutions to past issues and rectify things,” he said. “The rights of the Iranian nation, including nuclear rights, need to be recognized.”

Is Iran’s new president a reformist?

Iran pins hope for change on Rouhani

Iran declares new president

Impact of sanctions on Iranians

“We are prepared to see tensions alleviated,” he added, noting that any talks “should be based on mutual respect and interest and equal footing.”

In opening his news conference, Rouhani, 65, said repairing Iran’s economy and engaging in more dialogue — both at home and abroad — will be his administration’s top priorities.

Dialogue and the economy are related, as Iran faces sharp international sanctions over its nuclear program, but Rouhani said he foresees a “fresh opportunity for interaction at the global level.”

Mutual trust and transparency are key to the international community lifting sanctions, which he called “brutal, and the people of Iran have done nothing wrong to deserve sanctions.”

“Making use of the lever of sanctions, this is not the right time for that. … Even in the West, they are facing economic problems and dilemmas, and they themselves know the sanctions are to the detriment of the West,” Rouhani said, adding that Israel was the only country benefiting from them. “We can make it clear to the whole world that the measures and activities of the Islamic republic are totally within international regulations and mechanisms.”

Rouhani did not elaborate on how he would make the country’s nuclear program more transparent, but he insisted that the Iranian nuclear program was lawful. He also voiced opposition to international “meddling” in domestic affairs.

While Rouhani encouraged Iran to act with “unity and solidarity” as it transitions to his promised moderate rule in coming weeks, he said his primary goals will be “acting in line with salvaging the country’s economy, reviving morality and constructive interaction with the world.”

He said he could not yet provide time lines but said he would first like to ensure that Iranians had basic commodities before his government pursues “the tranquility and stability of the economy.”

This will require embracing “moderation and justice, and not extremism and egoism,” he said. “Electoral promises, I will not forget them, so I beseech the almighty God to give me the opportunity to materialize all those promises.”

Rouhani said he would convene groups to discuss the best ways to improve the country’s social, cultural and economic affairs. “As far as practice, that job will be delegated to the people themselves,” he said.

After his victory was announced over the weekend, Rouhani spoke of reforms without threatening Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the country’s institutions — of which he is a product. The former national security council chief promised greater personal freedoms and said he would free political prisoners and jailed journalists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already cautioned the world against easing such sanctions in the face of Rouhani’s promises.

“Regarding the results of the elections in Iran, let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishes and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said at a weekly Cabinet meeting.

The prime minister also said Iran’s supreme leader “disqualified candidates who did not fit his extremist outlook.”

In his campaigning, Rouhani pledged to improve the economy and unemployment. As a former nuclear negotiator, he said, he would reduce the high tension between Iran and the outside world by addressing the sanctions.

In a message through the semiofficial Fars News Agency, Rouhani said the win “is the victory of wisdom, moderation, growth and awareness, the victory of commitment and religiosity over extremism and ill tempers.”

Reaction from the West — including that of Britain, the United States and United Nations — revolved around calls for Rouhani to keep his promises to steer Iran in a new direction.

The United States “remains ready to engage the Iranian government directly in order to reach a diplomatic solution that will fully address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,” the White House said.

While the White House respected the vote, it said the election occurred “against the backdrop of a lack of transparency, censorship of the media, Internet, and text messages, and an intimidating security environment that limited freedom of expression and assembly.”

Rouhani succeeds outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was term-limited and could not run in the election.

But Rouhani won’t be Iran’s most powerful man. That distinction belongs to Khamenei, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. He’s got plenty of backing, from conservative citizens to loyalist militia groups to, most notably, the Revolutionary Guard.

On his website, the supreme leader said Rouhani is the president of all Iranians and told supporters of various candidates to set aside their differences and unify.

Rouhani has all-round credentials in Iran’s institutions, including as a senior cleric and former commander of Iranian air defenses, and he is an intellectual with three law degrees, including from a university in Scotland.

He has a reputation for shunning extreme positions and bridging differences.

While he has represented Khamenei on Iran’s security council since 1989, he has avoided being perceived as a pushover and has taken exception with the supreme leader on being too rigid toward the international community, according to an Iranian scholar at Stanford University. He has also accused state-run media of censorship and publishing lies.

Prior to Rouhani’s election, Iran’s Guardian Council, an unelected body made up of six clerics and six lawyers operating under the oversight of the supreme leader, drew up the restricted list of candidates from the 680 who initially registered.

Eight candidates were approved, two of whom subsequently dropped out. The final six contenders didn’t include any women. Nor did they include Ahmadinejad’s aide and protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was among those excluded by the Guardian Council.

CNN’s Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Michael Martinez, Holly Yan, Michael Schwartz, Laura Smith-Spark, Reza Sayah, Azadeh Ansari and Sara Mazloumsaki contributed to this report.

Iran’s new president

Impact of sanctions on Iranians

Female voters hopeful as Iran votes

(CNN) — Iran’s centrist president-elect expressed a willingness to open dialogue with the United States, which it hasn’t had diplomatic relations with in decades, but only if the U.S. recognizes Iran’s right to a nuclear program.

The Islamic republic has no intention, however, of ending uranium enrichment, Hassan Rouhani, who won the presidency over the weekend, said in his first news conference Monday. The country’s nuclear enrichment program is a major impetus for the international sanctions against Iran.

Calling relations between the U.S. and Iran an “old wound” and “complicated,” Rouhani said that before there are talks, the U.S. must first promise to never interfere with Iranian domestic affairs and scrap its “unilateral” and “bullying policies.”

“Wisdom tells us both countries, both nations need to think more about the future and try to sit down and find solutions to past issues and rectify things,” he said. “The rights of the Iranian nation, including nuclear rights, need to be recognized.”

Is Iran’s new president a reformist?

Iran pins hope for change on Rouhani

Iran declares new president

Impact of sanctions on Iranians

“We are prepared to see tensions alleviated,” he added, noting that any talks “should be based on mutual respect and interest and equal footing.”

In opening his news conference, Rouhani, 65, said repairing Iran’s economy and engaging in more dialogue — both at home and abroad — will be his administration’s top priorities.

Dialogue and the economy are related, as Iran faces sharp international sanctions over its nuclear program, but Rouhani said he foresees a “fresh opportunity for interaction at the global level.”

Mutual trust and transparency are key to the international community lifting sanctions, which he called “brutal, and the people of Iran have done nothing wrong to deserve sanctions.”

“Making use of the lever of sanctions, this is not the right time for that. … Even in the West, they are facing economic problems and dilemmas, and they themselves know the sanctions are to the detriment of the West,” Rouhani said, adding that Israel was the only country benefiting from them. “We can make it clear to the whole world that the measures and activities of the Islamic republic are totally within international regulations and mechanisms.”

Rouhani did not elaborate on how he would make the country’s nuclear program more transparent, but he insisted that the Iranian nuclear program was lawful. He also voiced opposition to international “meddling” in domestic affairs.

While Rouhani encouraged Iran to act with “unity and solidarity” as it transitions to his promised moderate rule in coming weeks, he said his primary goals will be “acting in line with salvaging the country’s economy, reviving morality and constructive interaction with the world.”

He said he could not yet provide time lines but said he would first like to ensure that Iranians had basic commodities before his government pursues “the tranquility and stability of the economy.”

This will require embracing “moderation and justice, and not extremism and egoism,” he said. “Electoral promises, I will not forget them, so I beseech the almighty God to give me the opportunity to materialize all those promises.”

Rouhani said he would convene groups to discuss the best ways to improve the country’s social, cultural and economic affairs. “As far as practice, that job will be delegated to the people themselves,” he said.

After his victory was announced over the weekend, Rouhani spoke of reforms without threatening Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, or the country’s institutions — of which he is a product. The former national security council chief promised greater personal freedoms and said he would free political prisoners and jailed journalists.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already cautioned the world against easing such sanctions in the face of Rouhani’s promises.

“Regarding the results of the elections in Iran, let us not delude ourselves. The international community must not become caught up in wishes and be tempted to relax the pressure on Iran to stop its nuclear program,” Netanyahu said at a weekly Cabinet meeting.

The prime minister also said Iran’s supreme leader “disqualified candidates who did not fit his extremist outlook.”

In his campaigning, Rouhani pledged to improve the economy and unemployment. As a former nuclear negotiator, he said, he would reduce the high tension between Iran and the outside world by addressing the sanctions.

In a message through the semiofficial Fars News Agency, Rouhani said the win “is the victory of wisdom, moderation, growth and awareness, the victory of commitment and religiosity over extremism and ill tempers.”

Reaction from the West — including that of Britain, the United States and United Nations — revolved around calls for Rouhani to keep his promises to steer Iran in a new direction.

The United States “remains ready to engage the Iranian government directly in order to reach a diplomatic solution that will fully address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s nuclear program,” the White House said.

While the White House respected the vote, it said the election occurred “against the backdrop of a lack of transparency, censorship of the media, Internet, and text messages, and an intimidating security environment that limited freedom of expression and assembly.”

Rouhani succeeds outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was term-limited and could not run in the election.

But Rouhani won’t be Iran’s most powerful man. That distinction belongs to Khamenei, who has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989. He’s got plenty of backing, from conservative citizens to loyalist militia groups to, most notably, the Revolutionary Guard.

On his website, the supreme leader said Rouhani is the president of all Iranians and told supporters of various candidates to set aside their differences and unify.

Rouhani has all-round credentials in Iran’s institutions, including as a senior cleric and former commander of Iranian air defenses, and he is an intellectual with three law degrees, including from a university in Scotland.

He has a reputation for shunning extreme positions and bridging differences.

While he has represented Khamenei on Iran’s security council since 1989, he has avoided being perceived as a pushover and has taken exception with the supreme leader on being too rigid toward the international community, according to an Iranian scholar at Stanford University. He has also accused state-run media of censorship and publishing lies.

Prior to Rouhani’s election, Iran’s Guardian Council, an unelected body made up of six clerics and six lawyers operating under the oversight of the supreme leader, drew up the restricted list of candidates from the 680 who initially registered.

Eight candidates were approved, two of whom subsequently dropped out. The final six contenders didn’t include any women. Nor did they include Ahmadinejad’s aide and protege Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was among those excluded by the Guardian Council.

CNN’s Shirzad Bozorgmehr, Michael Martinez, Holly Yan, Michael Schwartz, Laura Smith-Spark, Reza Sayah, Azadeh Ansari and Sara Mazloumsaki contributed to this report.

NSA whistleblower: Hero or traitor?

Hong Kong rallies to support NSA leaker

Guardian columnist defends role

Some did it for the money, some did it for idealism, others didn’t do it at all. Former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden revealed himself Monday as the leaker of details of U.S. government surveillance programs to The Guardian. The U.S. has seen a number of high profile leak scandals including the Pentagon Papers during the administration of President Richard Nixon. Click through to see more high-profile intelligence leaking cases.

Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers in 1971. The top-secret documents revealed that senior American leaders, including three presidents, knew the Vietnam War was an unwinnable, tragic quagmire. Further, they showed that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the war. Ellsberg surrendered to authorities and was charged as a spy. During his trial, the court learned that President Richard Nixon’s administration had embarked on a campaign to discredit Ellsberg, illegally wiretapping him and breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. All charges against him were dropped. Since then he has lived a relatively quiet life as a respected author and lecturer.

Jonathan Pollard is a divisive figure in U.S.-Israel relations. The former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst was caught spying for Israel in 1985 and was sentenced in 1987 to life imprisonment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly called for President Barack Obama to release Pollard after Pollard’s wife appealed to Netanyahu.

Pfc. Bradley Manning is an Army intelligence specialist who is charged with passing along classified material to WikiLeaks, a group that facilitates anonymous leaking of secret information. Manning pleaded guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him and could face 20 years in prison. But he pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge, aiding U.S. enemies, which carries a potential life sentence.

Wen Ho Lee was a scientist at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico who was charged with 59 counts of downloading classified information onto computer tapes and passing it to China. Lee eventually agreed to plead guilty to a since count of mishandling classified information after prosecutors deemed their case to be too weak. He was released after nine months in solitary confinement. Lee later received a $1.6 million in separate settlements with the government and five news agencies after he sued them, accusing the government of leaking damaging information about him to the media.

Members of the Bush administration were accused retaliating against Valerie Plame, pictured, by blowing her cover in 2003 as a U.S. intelligence operative, after her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, wrote a series of New York Times op-eds questioning the basis of certain facts the administration used to make the argument to go to war in Iraq.

In 2007, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, was convicted on charges related to the leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with the case. His 30-month sentence was commuted by President George W. Bush. Cheney told a special prosecutor in 2004 that he had no idea who leaked the information.

Aldrich Ames, a 31-year CIA employee, pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 1994 and was sentenced to life in prison. Ames was a CIA case worker who specialized in Soviet intelligence services and had been passing classified information to the KGB since 1985. U.S. intelligence officials believe that information passed along by Ames led to the arrest and execution of Russian officials they had recruited to spy for them.

Robert Hanssen pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 2001 in return for the government not seeking the death penalty. Hanssen began spying for the Soviet Union in 1979, three years after going to work for the FBI and prosecutors said he collected $1.4 million for the information he turned over to the Cold War enemy. In 1981, Hanssen’s wife caught him with classified documents and convinced him to stop spying, but he started passing secrets to the Soviets again four years later. In 1991, he broke off relations with the KGB, but resumed his espionage career in 1999, this time with the Russian Intelligence Service. He was arrested after making a drop in a Virginia park in 2001.

John Walker ran a father and son spy ring, passing classified material to the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985. Walker was a Navy communication specialist with financial difficulties when he walked into the Soviet Embassy and sold a piece of cyphering equipment. Navy and Defense officials said that Walker enabled the Soviet Union to unscramble military communications and pinpoint the location of U.S. submarines at all times. As part of his plea deal, prosecutors promised leniency for Walker’s son Michael Walker, a former Navy seaman.

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Sharing secrets: U.S. intelligence leaks

Over the weekend a three-page document on the NSA programs was released to congressional intelligence committees and states the plots were thwarted in the United States and more than 20 other countries.

Declassified: Behind security clearance

NSA fallout could be ‘harmful’

Former intelligence worker Edward Snowden, 29, revealed himself as the source of documents outlining a massive effort by the NSA to track cell phone calls and monitor the e-mail and Internet traffic of virtually all Americans. He says he just wanted the public to know what the government was doing. “Even if you’re not doing anything wrong, you’re being watched and recorded,” he said. While he has not been charged, the FBI is conducting an investigation into the leaks.

Military analyst Daniel Ellsberg leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers in 1971. The top-secret documents revealed that senior American leaders, including three presidents, knew the Vietnam War was an unwinnable, tragic quagmire. Further, they showed that the government had lied to Congress and the public about the progress of the war. Ellsberg surrendered to authorities and was charged as a spy. During his trial, the court learned that President Richard Nixon’s administration had embarked on a campaign to discredit Ellsberg, illegally wiretapping him and breaking into his psychiatrist’s office. All charges against him were dropped. Since then he has lived a relatively quiet life as a respected author and lecturer.

Starting in 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service studied untreated syphilis in black men who thought they were getting free health care. The patients weren’t told of their affliction or sufficiently treated. Peter Buxtun, who worked for the Public Health Service, relayed information about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment to a reporter in 1972, which halted the 40-year study. His testimony at congressional hearings led to an overhaul of the Health, Education and Welfare rules concerning work with human subjects. A class-action lawsuit was settled out-of-court for $10 million, with the U.S. government promising free medical care to survivors and their families. Here, participants talk with a study coordinator.

In 2005, retired deputy FBI director Mark Felt revealed himself to be the whistle-blower “Deep Throat” in the Watergate scandal. He anonymously assisted Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward with many of their stories about the Nixon administration’s cover-up after the June 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The stories sparked a congressional investigation that eventually led to President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. Felt was convicted on unrelated conspiracy charges in 1980 and eventually pardoned by President Ronald Reagan before slipping into obscurity for the next quarter-century. He died in 2008 at age 95.

Mordechai Vanunu, who worked as a technician at Israel’s nuclear research facility, leaked information to a British newspaper and led nuclear arms analysts to conclude that Israel possessed a stockpile of nuclear weapons. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its weapons program. An Israeli court convicted Vanunu in 1986 after Israeli intelligence agents captured him in Italy. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Since his release in 2004, he has been arrested on a number of occasions for violating terms of his parole.

President Ronald Reagan addresses the media in 1987, months after the disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair. A secret operation carried out by an American military officer used proceeds from weapons sales to Iran to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua and attempted to secure the release of U.S. hostages held by Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Mehdi Hashemi, an officer of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, leaked evidence of the deal to a Lebanese newspaper in 1986. Reagan’s closest aides maintain he did not fully know, and only reluctantly came to accept, the circumstances of the operation.

Tobacco industry executive Jeffrey Wigand issued a memo to his company in 1992 about his concerns regarding tobacco additives. He was fired in March 1993 and subsequently contacted by “60 Minutes” and persuaded to tell his story on CBS. He claimed that Brown Williamson knowingly used additives that were carcinogenic and addictive and spent millions covering it up. He also testified in a landmark case in Mississippi that resulted in a $246 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. Wigand has received public recognition for his actions and continues to crusade against Big Tobacco. He was portrayed by Russell Crowe in the 1999 film “The Insider.”

For 10 years, Frederic Whitehurst complained mostly in vain about practices at the FBI’s world-renowned crime lab, where he worked. His efforts eventually led to a 1997 investigation that found lab agents produced inaccurate and scientifically flawed testimony in major cases, including the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. The Justice Department recommended major reforms but also criticized Whitehurst for “overstated and incendiary” allegations. He also faced disciplinary action for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into how some of his allegations were leaked to a magazine. After a yearlong paid suspension he left the bureau in 1998 with a settlement worth more than $1.16 million.

FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley accused the bureau of hindering efforts to investigate a suspected terrorist that could have disrupted plans for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. In 2002 she fired off a 13-page letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller and flew to Washington to hand-deliver copies to two members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and meet with committee staffers. The letter accused the bureau of deliberately undermining requests to look into Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person convicted in the United States of playing a role in the attacks. She testified in front of Congress and the 9/11 Commission about the FBI’s mishandling of information. Rowley was selected as one of Time magazine’s People of the Year in 2002, along with whistle-blowers Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom.

Sherron Watkins, a former vice president at Enron, sent an anonymous letter to founder Kenneth Lay in 2001 warning him the company had accounting irregularities. The memo eventually reached the public and she later testified before Congress about her concerns and the company’s wrongdoings. More than 4,000 Enron employees lost their jobs, and many also lost their life savings, when the energy giant declared bankruptcy in 2001. Investors lost billions of dollars. An investigation in 2002 found that Enron executives reaped millions of dollars from off-the-books partnerships and violated basic rules of accounting and ethics. Many were sentenced to prison for their roles in the Enron scandal.

Cynthia Cooper and her team of auditors uncovered massive fraud at WorldCom in 2002. They found that the long-distance telephone provider had used $3.8 billion in questionable accounting entries to inflate earnings over the past five quarters. By the end of 2003, the total fraud was estimated to be $11 billion. The company filed for bankruptcy protection and five executives ended up in prison. Cooper started her own consulting firm and told her story in the book “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.”

In 2003, federal air marshal Robert MacLean anonymously tipped off an MSNBC reporter that because of budget concerns, the TSA was temporarily suspending missions that would require marshals to stay in hotels just days after they were briefed about a new “potential plot” to hijack U.S. airliners. The news caused an immediate uproar on Capitol Hill and the TSA retreated, withdrawing the scheduling cuts before they went into effect. MacLean was later investigated and fired for the unauthorized disclosure of “sensitive security information.”

Joe Darby is the whistle-blower behind the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq. He says he asked Army Reserve Spc. Charles Graner Jr. for photos from their travels so he could share them with family. Instead, he was given photos of prisoner abuse. Darby eventually alerted the U.S. military command, triggering an investigation and global outrage when the scandal came to light in 2004. Graner was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his part in the abuse. He was released in 2011 after serving 6½ years of his sentence. The military and members of Darby’s own family ostracized him, calling him a traitor. Eventually he and his wife had to enter protective custody.

The New York Times reported in 2005 that in the months after the September 11, 2001, attacks, President George W. Bush authorized the U.S. National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a court warrant on people in the United States, including American citizens, suspected of communicating with al Qaeda members overseas. The Bush administration staunchly defended the controversial surveillance program. Russ Tice, an NSA insider, came forward as one of the anonymous sources used by the Times. He said he was concerned about alleged abuses and a lack of oversight. Here, President Bush participates in a conversation about the Patriot Act in Buffalo, New York, in April 2004.

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is accused in the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history. His court-martial began on June 3. He has pleaded guilty to 10 of 22 charges against him and could face up to two decades in jail. He has pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge – that of aiding U.S. enemies, which carries the potential for a life sentence. At a February proceeding, Manning read a statement detailing why and how he sent classified material in 2010 to WikiLeaks, a group that facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information.

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Notable leakers and whistleblowers

Several hundred protesters took to Hong Kong’s streets on Saturday to support Edward Snowden, a week after the 29-year-old whistleblower behind the U.S. National Security Agency’s mass surveillance program revealed he was hiding out in the city.

The rain led protesters determined to show their support to prepare laminated placards and umbrellas painted with slogans.

Protesters and media gathered in Chater Garden in the city’s business district to kick off the three-hour protest.

“We’re rallying in order not to disappoint him and to ask Hong Kong to protect his well-being, not to extradite him, and to uphold Hong Kong law,” said blogger-activist and protest co-organizer Tom Grundy (L).

“The U.S is supposed to be the champion of democracy, but it’s been conducting blanket surveillance on a global scale. If the guy at the top has access to all our lines of communication, how is…anyone ever going to start a revolution?” said Claudio Mo, a member of the Hong Kong legislature.

Standing in Chater Garden in the city’s business district, Hong Kong legislator Albert Ho said the protest was a “march for justice.”

The protest brought together representatives from 27 civil rights, labor rights, and left-wing democratic groups, as well as many ordinary members of the public and media.

Organizers announced an overall turnout of 900 protesters, while police cited a peak turnout of 300.

Ruth Jopling brought her daughters, Amber, 8, and Jade, 3, to the protest, who held cut-out masks on sticks bearing Snowden’s image. “It’s not just about our generation, but the next generation as well,” Jopling said. Amber echoed her mother’s sentiment: “When I grow up, I can tell my children about this.”

“As Americans, it’s kind of disheartening to know (the surveillance program) is going on behind our backs and we don’t have a say in it,” said Adi Koul (R), a University of Texas student studying abroad in Hong Kong. “It’s empowering to see people who aren’t necessarily American fighting for something they feel is a universal human right.”

In a televised interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday on how Hong Kong would handle Snowden’s case, Leung repeatedly responded that he “does not comment on individual cases.” His stonewalling infuriated many Hong Kongers.

Protesters unfurl a banner en route to the U.S. consulate, where organizers presented an open letter addressed to ambassador Stephen Young.

George Orwell’s concept of “Big Brother” dominated much of the signage and discourse.

Hong Kong legislator “Long Hair” spoke to the crowd at the second rallying point outside the U.S. consulate.

Police at the Hong Kong government headquarters in Tamar blocked off most of the square with two circles of fences, forcing protesters into a narrow outer perimeter.

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Hong Kong rallies for Edward Snowden

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Michigan, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the NSA “is not listening to Americans’ phone calls” or monitoring their e-mails.

The NSA has repeatedly said that it collects only metadata, phone numbers and duration, of phone calls, but not the actual conversations taking place. If it needs to listen to a conversation, it must first obtain an order from the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court.