Closing down the press

This is getting really creepy. It seems the government is now claiming it is illegal to receive leaked information and then pass that information on to someone not authorized to see it. Here's what Kevin Drum's site says:

Here is Fred Kaplan on the case against Rosen and Weissman:

Neither works for the U.S. government. Neither has a security clearance. (Rosen, a former official, used to have one, but it expired 20 years ago; the prosecutors claim that its terms are still in effect.) If Rosen and Weissman were accused of being Israeli spies, or if either they or AIPAC were labeled foreign agents, that would be one thing. But the indictment makes no such accusation....They're charged with giving classified information not to foreign governments or spies but rather "to persons not entitled to receive it."

This is what journalists do routinely every day. They receive information from insiders, write it up in a story, send it to editors, who publish it in newspapers, magazines, wire services, or on Web sites, all of which are seen by readers who have not been officially authorized to view that classified material.

....If [Rosen and Weissman] are convicted under this legal theory, the Washington Post's Walter Pincus or The New Yorker's Seymour Hersh could be next.

Is Kaplan overreacting? Maybe not. Here is Walter Pincus himself in the Washington Post today:

A lawyer familiar with the AIPAC case said administration officials "want this case as a precedent so they can have it in their arsenal" and added: "This as a weapon that can be turned against the media."

What's more, the same story reports that Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is considering legislation that would make it easier to prosecute leaks — legislation that even John Ashcroft thought went too far. If Roberts is serious, the press could be in real trouble when it reports on things like the CIA's secret prisons or the NSA's domestic spying program.

Frankly, I think Rosen and Weissman probably should be charged, but not charged with this. They should be charged as Isreali spies. If this claim sticks, then almost every newspaper in the country could be closed down.