First: I am writing this post because of the current spate of Wikileaks reveleations from classified U.S. sources. Professional obligations prevent me from reading or posting about specific items on the Wikileaks website, so I’m not linking to it, either. Please Google things as necessary.
Now, about that classified information. This is the primary regulation governing what is, for the U.S. government, classified information.
FACTOIDS
- Every President writes one of these. Barack Obama did not generate most of this text. Near as I can tell, he strengthened the language that forces people to give up old secrets in a timely fashion, and forbids people from “unnecessary” classification – but “unnecessary” depends a lot on viewpoint.
- There are many other regulations, written by the President’s subordinates, covering this same stuff. They only explain HOW individual parties choose to obey this order.
- Really, I mean it. No other law supercedes this Order, on this subject.
- Section 3.1 explains when a person may officially tell a secret. Since the current President always has maximum classification authority, he may also tell any secret he wants, whenever he wants.
THEREFORE
- Telling secrets is not, in itself, breaking the law. Telling secrets while holding a certain job is often a crime, and telling secrets after signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement is often a crime.
- It is therefore impossible for a President, or his authorized agents, to commit treason. We can split hairs on wording, but treason requires a Congressionally declared enemy, and an intentional act to aid that enemy. By those lights, I was wrong to label Karl Rove a traitor years back, and President Obama was not a traitor for telling the public about the confessions of the underpants bomber.
- PFC Bradley Manning may have a treason charge coming to him. The Taliban government is a recognized enemy, and they have publicly announced their intent to use his (alleged) leaks. If he is on the record anywhere saying that his intent in leaking was to damage the government, he’s done.
- Do not expect this charge to ever happen, though. The penalty for treason is death, or five years/10000 dollars. There is no point in charging someone with treason, though, if you aren’t going to kill him. This makes it politically impossible to convict anyone of treason without destroying the United States.
This is exactly what we’ve earned, though. When elected officials run their mouths off whenever it suits them, and we think collectively that we don’t owe anything to our government in exchange for what it provides us, and we don’t hold people accountable for their actions on any kind of uniform standard, people are going to talk.
I had more to say, but I think I’ll stop while I’m still being informative, and save rants for another time.
