Ex-airman: Guilt over drone strikes prompted to leak secrets

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former Air Force intelligence analyst says his guilt over participating in lethal drone strikes in Afghanistan led him to leak government secrets about the drone program to a reporter.

Daniel Hale of Nashville, Tennessee, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, after pleading guilty to violating the Espionage Act for leaking top-secret documents.

In court papers filed Thursday, Hale’s lawyers asked that he receive a 12- to 18-month sentence.

Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of more than five years.

In a handwritten letter, Hale described his role in targeting enemy combatants and his remorse that civilians were killed in the process.