Ensign seeks legislation to blunt Wikileaks
Sen. John Ensign says he will be introducing legislation that would make it a crime to publish the names of military and intelligence informants, a response to the latest leak of classified field reports from the war in Iraq.
Ensign said he is disturbed by the ongoing activities of the whistleblower website Wikileaks, which last week made public 392,000 official documents compiled during the Iraq war. That disclosure came on the heels of 77,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan that Wikileaks released in the spring.
Ensign said his bill would expand the 1917 Espionage Act, which already makes it a crime to disclose U.S. codes and intercepted foreign communications. His said he will try to amend it to make it illegal to release information about informants as well.
"My legislation will extend the legal protections for government informants, such as the Iraqis named in this latest document dump, and will prevent an organization such as Wikileaks from hiding like a coward behind a computer mainframe while putting lives in jeopardy," he said. Aides said he may try to attach it to a defense bill the Senate is expected to debate during the post-election lame duck session.
Ensign maintained his bill would draw a distinction between Wikileaks and news organizations.
"News organizations traditionally do an excellent job of protecting the identities of sources when it's clear that printing their name would place them in grave danger," he said in a statement.
In August, Ensign temporarily blocked the Obama administration's proposed ambassador to Iceland until he was assured the appointee, Luis Arreaga, would pressure that government where Wikileaks has a base.
Pentagon officials have denounced the leaks, saying they could put troops in danger. In an email reported by Bloomberg News, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said the latest documents including the names of 60,000 Iraqis, "300 of which were particularly concerning to us" because the documents make clear they were cooperating with the U.S. military.
Wikileaks editor Julian Assange defended the leak in an interview with Larry King on CNN this week.
The New York Times, one of the news organizations that was allowed to review the documents in advance, said they "provide no earthshaking revelations, but they offer insight, texture and context from the people actually fighting the war."
For instance, the Times reported, there appears to have been more deaths of Iraqi civilians than the United States government has acknowledged. Also, it appears that American soldiers were directed to turn a blind eye to violent abuse on detainees by Iraqi authorities.
