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A Slightly Less Pitiful Giant

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WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange is now in custody in the UK and has been denied bail.  If the USA had any hand in this salutary development, I have been unable to find out about it.

Still, there is a glimmer of consciousness in Washington.  Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has figured out, even if Eric Holder has not, that Assange can be prosecuted for espionage.  Her op-ed in the Wall Street Journal is here.  It gets right to the point:

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released his latest document trove--more than 250,000 secret State Department cables--he intentionally harmed the U.S. government. The release of these documents damages our national interests and puts innocent lives at risk. He should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage.

The law Mr. Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorized person to possess or transmit "information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation."

The Espionage Act also makes it a felony to fail to return such materials to the U.S. government. Importantly, the courts have held that "information relating to the national defense" applies to both classified and unclassified material. Each violation is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The specific statutory language is in 18 U.S.C. ยง793(e), which provides:  

Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it...Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

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