>>>>Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense are conducting a criminal investigation of WikiLeaks over its release of confidential government communications.
>>>>Shouldn't they be investigating the ones whole stole the info instead?
>>>
>>>He's been locked up for 7 months....awaiting court martial....
>>>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/28/how-us-embassy-cables-leaked>>
>>Oh - I didn't realize that these new leaks came from the same source. I don't understand then - just what exactly does the DOD and DOJ plan to nail WikiLeaks with? The shoot the messenger law or what? Is the fact that they published this stuff that someone else ripped of illegal? Perhaps it is I dunno....
>
>Uh yeah. At a minimum, espionage:
>
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00000793----000-.html>
>The U.S. can go after him:
>
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/olc_override.pdf>
>But, it's quite a conundrum - any US agents who attempt such an unlawful arrest (unlawful under the host country's laws) could be liable to prosecution themselves by the host country. Remember this:
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/05/world/europe/05italy.html?_r=1>
>Not to mention the public relations nightmare. The U.S. loses no matter what. It already lost. Now that state department communications were also leaked, I'm starting to put more weight in Charles' theory....
What was Charles's theory?
I agree with you that it would be exceptionally challenging for the U.S. to successfully prosecute Julian Assuage or anyone else at WikiLeaks. We can claim jurisdiction but the fact is he is not an American and that would be a hard sell to other countries.
I vowed just the other day to avoid becoming embroiled in political debates and am going to stick to that, at least today. I will say I was not surprised that the government reaction was to threaten prosecution to the leakers rather than deny the documents' accuracy or make a case that they compromised national security. It was somewhere in the news yesterday that even before the documents were released over the weekend the State Department and other parts of the U.S. government were giving other countries a heads up that there were going to be some embarrassing disclosures.
