William Binney (intelligence official)

William "Bill" Edward Binney (born September 1943) is a former intelligence official with the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and whistleblower. He retired on October 31, 2001, after more than 30 years with the agency, where he served as Technical Director for intelligence.

Binney co-developed ThinThread, a signals intelligence collection program with built-in privacy protections that was shelved in favor of the more expensive Trailblazer Project. In 2002, he and colleagues filed a complaint with the Department of Defense Inspector General alleging waste and mismanagement. The FBI raided his home in 2007; he was never charged. His treatment, along with that of other NSA whistleblowers, influenced Edward Snowden's decision to go public rather than use internal channels.

Binney was a critic of NSA surveillance practices during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations and testified before the German Bundestag's NSA commission in 2014. He received the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence (2015) and the Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage (2012).

In later years, Binney made disputed claims regarding the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak and the 2020 presidential election. He initially attributed the DNC leak to an insider rather than Russian hackers, but after re-examining the evidence with journalist Duncan Campbell, stated there was "no evidence to prove where the download/copy was done."

He is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. He has been a frequent guest on RT and Fox News and has been frequently cited on Breitbart News.