A former CIA officer is facing decades in prison after being charged Monday with disclosing classified information to journalists, the latest in an unprecedented Obama administration crackdown against national security leaks. 

John Kiriakou, who made news in 2007 when he became one of the first CIA operatives to speak publicly about water boarding, is accused of providing secrets, including the name and activities of one his undercover colleagues, to reporters. 

One reporter is alleged to have turned over the name of the covert CIA officer to lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, who were seeking to identify CIA employees involved in coercive interrogations, reported the Los Angeles Times Tuesday. 

The journalist and the defense lawyers were not charged. 

The case against Kiriakou marks the fifth time during the Obama administration that charges of violating the Espionage Act of 1917 have been brought against current or former government officials who allegedly leaked information to journalists a record unmatched in any previous administration, said Steven Aftergood, who follows the intelligence community for the Federation of American Scientists. 

A sixth defendant, Bradley Manning, has been charged under the act in connection with alleged disclosure of documents to the website Wikileaks.