Pentagon Papers Case as applied to current leaks

vanity

[airedale]

As I was watching C-Span tonight I remembered something that I'd heard about the Pentagon Papers case. It had to do with the right to publish the Pentagon Papers (prior restraint). From what I remember was that the court ruled that the paper had the right to publish the material, but that didn't absolve them if they committed a crime in doing so. In the case of the recent CIA leaks as far as I can tell a crime was committed in giving the NY Times, Washington Post and other media outlets the info (violations of the 1917 espionage act among other things) in publishing the material the media outlets acted to actually transmit the information to the enemies of the United States. Aren't they acting as an accessory after the fact to violate the various laws that cover this kind of Top Secret Compartmentalized Information. I can't remember who I heard it from other than the source was fairly authoritative. I'd like to know if it's accurate or not. Also if accurate what the requirements would be to prosecute the reporters, editors and the media outlets if they indeed violated the law. Also could the leakers be subject to military tribunals rather than the regular courts?

The rest of the media would circle the wagons if they did prosecute them, but they could cut them a deal. Turn over the leakers in exchange for not being prosecuted.

[MNJohnnie]

Going to be hard to circle the wagons around 1st Amendment Privilege when the Failed Media all jettisoned the 1st Amendment in their drooling anticipation of "getting Bush" with the Plame-Wlison CIA Leak smear job.

[peyton randolph]

The rest of the media would circle the wagons if they did prosecute them, but they could cut them a deal. Turn over the leakers in exchange for not being prosecuted.

Designate them as enemy combatants.

Ship them to Gitmo.

[freema]

I can hear Rove laughing.

[Mo1]

Aren't they acting as an accessory after the fact to violate the various laws that cover this kind of Top Secret Compartmentalized Information.

I would think so

[freema]

"Aren't they acting as an accessory after the fact to violate the various laws that cover this kind of Top Secret Compartmentalized Information."

I would not call them 'accessory after the fact'... I expect the investigation IMHO to reveal if they were complicit or if the RATIMES stands alone in their actions.

[MJY1288]

The NYT's was warned about the damage this story would be to our National security and leaking such information is against the law, yet they did it anyway. IMHO the NYT's reporter James Risen, and everyone who signed off on the release of this story should face justice for knowingly leaking classified information that has done irreversible damage to our efforts to monitor all incoming and outgoing transmissions to known terrorists who want to kill each and every one of us.

Monitoring signal intelligence is not WIRE TAPPING, it's policing what comes in and goes out of this country via email, Cell phone, Land line and Satellite communications. Any President who failed to issue an Executive Order of this kind after 9/11 would and should be considered derelict of the duties he was sworn to uphold.

The Democrats have adopted a dog that will not hunt on this issue. The more they complain about what Bush has done to protect us all, the more they lose support from those who witnessed what happened on 9/11 and how we must do whatever it takes to make sure we are able to expose anyone among us who might be plotting another attack.

If the Democrats keep this crap up, they will alienate themselves into a place where people like Neville Chamberlain calls home, and they will suffer a similar place in the history of freedom's march. IMHO they are already there, and the only reason why it is on the front pages of our dying print press, is because they are in denial.

The MSM refuses to acknowledge that they no longer hold all the keys to the News we consume on a daily basis, and each and every day, more and more people are turning them off... Hence... The Democrats are left exposed for the Socialists they are

[MJY1288]

Ping to post #7

[Mo1]

If the Democrats keep this crap up, they will alienate themselves into a place where people like Neville Chamberlain calls home, and they will suffer a similar place in the history of freedom's march.

They will keep it up ... because they don't even know how to buy a clue

Great Post on #7!

[MJY1288]

It is amazing that very few news outlets (including FOX) have not pointed out that what the NSA was doing was not WIRE TAPPING. Signal Intelligence has absolutely nothing to do with hard wiring someones phone line. Signal Intelligence has always been considered absolutely no infringement of privacy. Anyone who makes a cell phone call, or an email transmission, or even a satellite transmission has no guarantee of privacy, because those kinds of transmissions are conducted across air waives that guarantees no such kind of privacy, and the agreement they signed spells that our specifically

[airedale]

I just finished reading the various SCOTUS opinions. A lot of them even while upholding the Times right to publish they go on to say that this doesn't say that criminal penalties can be imposed and in one case up to and including the death penalty. Others say that this was all so rushed by the Times and the other courts that the government didn't have time to fully prepare its case (this was argued by those that dissented from the opinion). I'm not a constitutional lawyer and the court has totally turned over from the time that New York Times v United States No 1873, 44F.2d 544 was decided. Also the current conditions are different. North Viet Nam and the Viet Cong were not a direct threat to the United States homeland and there was no declaration of war as made by both houses of Congress in this case. Yes I know they don't use the word "war", but if you read them it's the only way they can be read and at least one court has already recognized this declaration as having the same effect as a declaration using the actual words "declaration of war" If you want to read the decision and the concurring and dissenting opinions go to: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0403_0713_ZS.html

[Sacajaweau]

Someplace on the FISA website, there are a couple of statements that are explicit in saying that we are at war with the terrorists AND that the President's Powers are superior to FISA. I'll go back and try to find the "stuff".

[Wristpin]

Yep, the people who worked in the SCI programs have slam dunk violated the law. It seems fairly obvious to me anyway, that the series of timed disclosures from different programs reeks of a conspiracy. I believe the Dems recruited dupes within the DOD and CIA to disclose TS info through the media. The NYT is the de facto media outlet of the DNC.

This was all laid out in Rockefeller's memo a couple of years ago. It's called "The Politics of National Destruction!"