Official sentenced to 20 months for leaking secrets
The Obama administration is pretty serious about leaks to the press:
The Obama administration’s crackdown on leaks to the press has snared a high-profile conviction of an FBI linguist, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to giving classified information to a blogger.The sentence for Shamai Leibowitz is likely to become the longest ever served by a government employee accused of passing national security secrets to a member of the media. His case represents only the third known conviction in U.S. history for a government official or contractor providing classified information to the press.
And it reflects a surprising development: President Barack Obama’s Justice Department has taken a hard line against leakers, and Obama himself has expressed anger about disclosures of national security deliberations in the press.
It’s an interesting move — but refreshing to see that they aren’t going after journalists and bloggers. It’s hard to argue that Leibowitz should be spared prosecution — after all, he promised not to release classified information when he took his job.
Of course, sometimes the only way to get important information to the public is by publishing leaked information. Take, for instance, today’s New York Times article about the escalation of clandestine military operations. Should this classified information have been leaked to the press so that the U.S. public can weigh its government’s actions?
I think I like the way it’s handled right now. The Department of Justice ignores the vast majority of leaks. But, in certain cases — perhaps when the public good doesn’t outweigh the need for secrecy — the DOJ does file charges. And, even then, the courts ultimately make the decision about whether the leak should lead to a conviction.
Unadulterated freedom to publish leaks from anonymous sources doesn’t produce a net benefit for any society.
