I'm not a lawyer, but the guys at Powerline are, and they note that the Federal espionage laws are not written on the scheme that once the guy with the clearance tells you the secret, you're home free to tell the whole world. It is rarely enforced against the media. But it's still illegal:
Like John, I think that the administration's NSA surveillance program as described by the president, the vice president, the Attorney General, and General Hayden is legal. I don't think it's a close question, though I think reasonable people can disagree on that point. What is clearly illegal, however, in my view and the view of everyone involved in the Times story disclosing the existence of the NSA surveillance program, are the leaks that led to the story. The illegality of the leaks is precisely why the "nearly a dozen current and former government officials" who leaked the story to James Risen and Eric Lichtblau in connection with the original December 16 story demanded and received anonymity from the Times.
By the same token, however, and to the same extent, James Risen, Eric Lichtblau and everyone else at the Times involved in the publication of the NSA surveillance story have engaged in conduct violative of the federal espionage laws. Yet the Times has never even acknowledged its own legal jeopardy. John concludes with a point close to my heart:
[I]t is worth mentioning that Lichtblau and Liptak purport to sit in judgment on the legality of the administration's conduct, without ever noting the fact that Lichtblau and the Times itself unquestionably violated federal law by publishing leaks about the NSA program. In the world of the antique media, illegality requires no explanation if it is directed against the Bush administration.
powerlineblog.com
You really can't compare the "leak" of a Predator attack that was bascially announced to reporters (the only reason it wasn't formally announced, as far as I can see, was to spare Pakistani feelings and permit their formal diplomatic protests to be quiet ones) with the unveiling of a very large top secret NSA program. |
