VISUAL AIRCRAFT RECOGNITION

"DDAY" wrote in message
ink.net...
----------
In article . net,
Tankfixer
wrote:

Look up the example of the classified history of the CIA's involvement
in
the Iranian coup in the 1950s. Short story: the classified document
was
leaked and put on the web. The government did nothing.

Depends who leaks it I supose.. ;')

Not really. Publishing classified material is not illegal in the United
States, with a finite exception--the names of covert intelligence officers
currently based overseas. This is based upon long precedent and the
belief
in the United States that a functioning democracy requires a free press
that
can publish information that the government does not want released.

It's a little more complicated for leaking classified information to the
press. In general, that's not actually illegal--99.999% of people who do
it
get an administrative punishment (i.e. they get fired, fined, or lose
their
security clearance). They don't go to jail. Only one person has gone to
jail for this, Samuel Loring Morrison, back in the 1980s. There is
currently a case before the courts where the government is trying to
convict
two people for accepting classified information and making if public.
Whether they will be convicted of that is an open question.

Put it this way:

Person A, a govt. employee, gives classified information to a foreign
govt.
He goes to jail for espionage.

Person B, a govt. employee, gives classified information to a newspaper
and
gets caught. He gets fired or given an administrative punishment. It is
highly unlikely that he will go to jail. (And it is worth remembering
that
top level officials leak classified information all the time. People in
the
White House leak information to newspapers to make the White House look
better. That's how the game is played in Washington.)

The newspaper publishes classified information. Nothing happens to them.


If you're interested in learning about the subject, go to the FAS
website
and read multiple issues of Secrecy and Government Bulletin. You'll
get a
sense of the limitations concerning the press and classified
information.

I may give them a look.

Read up on the AIPAC case.

If it's not on the Internet or it doesn't agree with Tinkerbelle then it's
untrue. You are wasting your time with that low level troll.