Have the Feds Tracked Down the Terror Watchlist Guidance Leaker?

It looks like the FBI has a
suspect in mind that may be responsible for leaking information
about how the federal government organizes its watchlist of folks
it fears might be terrorists. Courtesy of Michael Isikoff of Yahoo!
News, a private federal contractor is
under investigation:

The FBI has identified an employee of a federal contracting firm
suspected of being the so-called second leaker who turned over
sensitive documents about the U.S. government’s terrorist watch
list to a journalist closely associated with ex-NSA contractor
Edward Snowden, according to law enforcement and
intelligence sources who have been briefed on the case.

The FBI recently executed a search of the suspect’s home, and
federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia have opened up a criminal
investigation into the matter, the sources said.

Read more
here, including debate over whether the Department of Justice
has the stomach to attempt to jail another leaker/whistleblower,
despite the bad publicity. (Prediction: Yes. Have you met the
Department of Justice?) There is a connection to Edward Snowden, as
Snowden’s leaks may have inspired the guy.

I wrote about the
leaking of these documents, which detail the circumstances by
which federal and local officials eyeball and prod you to determine
whether you plan to blow things up, back in July. To summarize the
big points of controversy that might inspire somebody to leak the
information: One, the standards for getting added to the watch list
are pretty low, requiring “reasonable suspicion” of possibly
engaging in any sort of crime that may involve damaging property;
two, there is profiling on the list on the basis of “categories of
people” and the possibility of elevating them to advanced
examination without any evidence any of them are actually plotting
anything; and three,  hundreds of thousands of people on the
watchlists have
no known ties to terrorist organizations.

Reason interviewed Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept
about the information on the watchlist earlier in the summer. Watch
below: