Public speech now being criminalized
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy /
February 11, 2006
The AIPAC Case: Criminalizing Public Speech
In an unprecedented and previously unimaginable case, two former employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) were accused last year of mishandling classified government information. Now they have asked a federal court to dismiss the charges against them.
The prosecution of the former AIPAC officials, Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, represents an extraordinary attempt by the Bush Administration to use the Espionage Act to restrict the activities and even the conversations of members of the public who are not government employees.
“The prosecutors in this case have taken the unprecedented step of criminalizing an alleged leak not just against the government official who was charged with protecting such information, but also members of public policy organization with First Amendment protection who listened to what this government official had to say,” the new defense motion to dismiss states.
“If this indictment is allowed to stand, a statute which in the first instance is intended to address classic spying will not only be applied to erring government officials but now will be applied to private American citizens pursuing first amendment protected activities.”
more...
I was reminded Rosen and Weissman may have been slipping secrets to Israel about Iran.
(Edit to add:
Keith Weissman, an Iranian affairs expert, was fired by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in April 2004 and is awaiting trial in April 2006. <1> (
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/01/21/ex_pentagon_analyst_sentenced_to_12_years/)
On September 1, 2004, the New York Times reported (
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/national/01inquire.html) that Weissman, along with fellow AIPAC employee Steve Rosen had been questioned regarding their involvement in an espionage case. Larry Franklin, a Middle East analyst at the Defense Intelligence Agency was alleged to have passed classified information about Iran to Rosen and Weissman, who in turn are accused of relaying the information to the government of Israel.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Keith_Weissman)
This could explain some of the sudden interest.
:shrug: