Is Wikileaks breaking US law by receiving and releasing the cables and other classified material?
Good question. There are laws that penalize the release of classified information, but they’ve generally been applied to someone — such as a government official — entrusted with the information who then leaks it or gives it to an enemy — Aldrich Ames was a CIA officer who gave information to the Soviets, and Army soldier Bradley Manning is currently under arrest for claimed involvement in passing information to Wikileaks. Ames was charged under a part of the ” Espionage Act,” 18 U.S.C. 794, “Gathering or delivering defense information to aid foreign government.” Manning was charged under the Uniform Code of Military Justice; there’s a helpful summary of what provisions have been applied here. So what about Wikileaks? There are some provisions of the Espionage Act that might apply — 18 U.S.C. 793 is about “gathering, transmitting, or losing defense information,” and it criminalizes the act of “obtaining” a document “connected with the national defense” if done “for the purpose of obtain
