[extropy-chat] FWD [EWAR] Laws And Leaks Of Classified Intelligence

[Terry W. Colvin]

< http://www.cicentre.com/Documents/DOC_Classified_Leaks.htm >

Laws And Leaks Of Classified Intelligence:
Costs And Consequences Of Permissive Neglect
By James B. Bruce
(snips)
This presents an important anomaly in public discourse:  Nearly all of the
compelling evidence in support of this argument is available only in the
classified domain.  It thus seems daunting to make a persuasive public case
for new laws to address unauthorized disclosures when so little of the
evidence for it can be discussed publicly.  So proponents for better
laws-you will soon see why I am one of these-sometimes feel that this isn't
a fair fight.  Freedom-of-the press advocates and professional journalists
who control the press therefore exert disproportionate influence on this
debate, at least when compared to advocates of criminal penalties, as I am
here, for the leaking and publishing of sensitive classified intelligence.
But I have come to believe that First Amendment objections to civil and
criminal penalties for disclosing classified intelligence are probably
exaggerated.  And that once we get over this hurdle, it'll be more of a fair
fight, a more reasonable debate.  It is in this spirit that I offer the
following remarks.

I have four basic propositions:
The problem of unauthorized disclosures of classified intelligence is so
serious that this issue demands action from Congress as well as the
Executive Branch. 
An important reason for the seriousness of the problem lies in poor laws and
poor law enforcement. 
The remedies for this malady are not all that dramatic and constitutionally
bone-jarring, but are rather found in a sensible combination of new laws,
amending old ones, and better enforcement. 
The consequences of legal inaction are high-perhaps higher than we should
ask the American citizenry to bear. 
The scope of my concern with classified information here extends only to
intelligence, which encompasses intelligence information, activities,
operations, sources, and methods.  I exclude from my purview other kinds of
classified information such as military (war plans, weapons systems, etc.)
and diplomatic secrets, not because they are unimportant, but because I
believe that intelligence increasingly requires a distinct legal identity.
(snips)
In addition, a separate new law that we should consider would constitute a
technical counterpart to the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (50 USC
421), crafted to provide the same protection to technical sensors deployed
on any platform (space, air, land, sea) that is now afforded to human
operations.  
(snips)
- - - - -
And, the beat goes on.  How to protect themselves.  I posted this article to
give you an inside view as to the next moves of America's intelligence
agencies.  KK


-- 
"Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress." Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
     Alternate: < fortean1 at msn.com >
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