WikiLeaks Poses Legal Challenges for US Prosecutors

At the start of 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heralded internet freedom as a top foreign policy concern. But the website WikiLeaks released a series of embarrassing military and diplomatic cables, and the US restricts its employees from reading documents readily available throughout the world. US analysts and researchers are at a disadvantage with foreign counterparts who can review the cables. “The ban on viewing what is now public information is complicating the work of some federal agencies, such as the Congressional Research Service, which is considered the ‘brain’ of the U.S. Congress for the policy and legal analysis it provides lawmakers,” writes Ann Woodsome for Voice of America, a US-funded media service started in 1942 as a wartime information service. Top US officials argue the leaks violate the 1917 Espionage Act, and label the WikiLeaks editor-director as a “high-tech terrorist.” US reactions to WikiLeaks, VOA suggests, reveal that keeping secrets carry priority over internet freedom. – YaleGlobal