America’s military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the specter of increasing terrorism both at home and abroad, raise perplexing questions about government secrecy: Just how much information should the U.S. government disclose about its military, intelligence, and counterterrorism activities, and how much information should news organizations reveal to the public?
“Leaking“—the unauthorized disclosure to the press of secret information—is a well-established part of the U.S. government’s normal functioning. In his new book, Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law (Norton, 2010), Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Gabriel Schoenfeld examines history and legal precedent to argue that leaks of highly classified national-security secrets have reached hitherto unthinkable extremes, with dangerous potential for post-9/11 America. He goes on to make the case that in some circumstances legal prosecution of those who publish national defense secrets is warranted.
