‘Security’ vs. democracy

With the sentencing of a former Pentagon analyst and a judge’s ominous words of warning, the AIPAC “spy” case has morphed into something new. What at first seemed like the case of two pro-Israel lobbyists overreaching in their efforts to gather information helpful to their cause now seems like a case of the Bush administration overreaching in its efforts to plug leaks by government employees.

Last week, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III sentenced former Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin to more than 12 years in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat and two employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. As the JTA reported, Ellis stunned the courtroom when he said that civilians are just as liable as government employees under laws governing the dissemination of classified information. “Persons who have unauthorized possession, who come into unauthorized possession of classified information, must abide by the law,” Ellis said. “That applies to academics, lawyers, journalists, professors, whatever.”

That’s what worries lawyers for Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, the AIPAC staffers who go on trial in April for allegedly receiving Franklin’s leak and relaying the information to AIPAC colleagues, the media, and an Israeli diplomat.

But it also worries those academics, lawyers, journalists, and professors who fear that the prosecution’s strategy is, as the Forward reported, part of the Bush administration’s “campaign to tighten control over classified information and deter leaks by broadening the reach of secrecy laws.”

In the past, prosecutors and judges have recognized that the onus is on the government to plug leaks among its employees, not punish those, like investigative journalists or citizen watchdogs, who regularly seek information beyond the “official story” disseminated by the government. The Franklin case effectively criminalizes those conversations — leaving it up to the civilian to determine if the information is classified or potentially so.

The Founding Fathers encouraged a vigorous adversarial role for citizens and the press. If the AIPAC prosecution succeeds in undermining that role, it will be another victory for “security” over democracy.

Andrew Silow-Carroll

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