If that person was uncleared, then they can disseminate those photos even if they are classified. They could be stamped TS/SCI/NOFORN/LIMDIS/EYES ONLY and an uncleared person can disseminate those photos at their own pleasure without any possibility of prosecution.
Let me introduce you to TITLE 18. PART I. CHAPTER 37. Sec. 793.
www4.law.cornell.edu
(e)
Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;.......
(f)
.......(2)
having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer -
(and the penalty is...)
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
Another Duck: In the world of classified information, ignorance is an excuse for the law. If those photos were not marked and the person were cleared but had no access to any classification guidance that would indicate they were classified, their is no legally prosecutable crime.
That's BS.. Those photos don't have to be marked. The media they are contained on (CD disks) would have to be labeled with their classification. To NOT do so is a security violation in itself worthy of investigation.
And as I've just show you with the previous USC statute, unauthorized dissemination can net you 10 years in the slammer.. Regardless of whether you were cleared or non-cleared to possess that information.
Furthermore, it's theft of government property, which I believe is also up to 10 years.
But one thing you cannot avoid acknowledging with any credibility, is the fact that THE ENTIRE TAGUBA REPORT IS CLASSIFIED AT THE LEVEL OF THE HIGHEST CLASSIFIED PORTION, in this case Secret/NoForn.
I could care less about the "U" portions.. They are STILL CONTAINED IN A CLASSIFIED REPORT and THEY CANNOT BE DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT BEING OFFICIALLY DECLASSIFIED.
You can question the merit of having classified those photos.. But you cannot deny that they were part of the full report, and thus, were classified at the level of the entire report.
My only regret is that I wish you represented a real flock of ducks..
Because my freezer would be full by now... ;0)
Hawk |
