Lawmakers Want to Bar Sites From Posting Sensitive Government Docs (wikileaks, etc)

[The Straight Story]

Lawmakers Want to Bar Sites From Posting Sensitive Government Docs

Three Republican lawmakers have asked the Department of Homeland Security what can be done to bar or criminally penalize whistleblower sites that reposted a sensitive airport-screening manual that was published on the internet by a government worker.

They also asked about enacting regulations that would bar such publication in the future.

The congressmen are outraged that sites like Cryptome and Wikileaks republished the manual after it was posted online by a government contractor working for the Transportation Security Administration. The manual was posted last March on a government procurement site and was discovered Sunday by a blogger.

In their letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (.pdf) on Wednesday, Reps. Peter T. King (R - New York), Charles Dent (R - Pennsylvania) and Gus Bilirakis (R - Florida) asked, “How has the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration addressed the repeated reposting of this security manual to other websites, and what legal action, if any, can be taken to compel its removal?”

They also asked if DHS is “considering issuing new regulations pursuant to its authority in Section 114 of Title 49, United States Code, and are criminal penalties necessary or desirable to ensure such information is not reposted in the future?”

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/tsa-leak-2

[kerrywins]

1. Of Course the Gov. Doesn't Like Leaks

Tyrants hate transparency...or I should say, they hate it when they have to be transparent, but they want to watch and spy on you.

[L0oniX]

2. Maybe Wikileaks could move their hosting to Pakistan.

[ck4829]

3. Instead of punishing actual leakers, they want to go after the groups that create transparency

This is what this is really about.

[ret5hd]

4. I thought this issue was decided way back with the Pentagon papers.

[zbdent]

5. I'm sure that Robert Novak would have supported this ...

[enlightenment]

6. Apparently no one has pointed out that

closing the barn door after the horses are out is a waste of time?