Thomas Drake is former senior executive of the U.S. National Security Agency, a National Security Agency whistleblower, United States Air Force and United States Navy veteran. In 2010 the government alleged that Drake mishandled documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. Drake's defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project & the unconstitutional methods of the NSA after the events on 9/11/2001. He is the 2011 recipient of the Ridenhour Prize for Truth-Telling and co-recipient of the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (SAAII) award.