WikiLeaks Congressional Hearing Set for Dec. 16

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

/ Lennart Preiss

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a Dec. 16 hearing on the potential application of U.S. espionage laws in relation to WikiLeaks, the committee announced on Friday, marking the first such hearing to address the website's recent release of classified U.S. diplomatic cables.

The meeting, officially entitled the "Hearing on the Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issues Raised by WikiLeaks," will address how espionage laws can be updated and effectively implemented in the digital era, MSNBC reports.

As WikiLeaks continues to release thousands of classified U.S. documents, the American government has wrestled with finding an effective and legal means of prosecution - particularly as the espionage laws, which were passed under the Espionage Act in 1917, have few contingencies for dealing with the complex, quickly-evolving nature of contemporary digital security threats.

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently being held without bail in a UK prison under charges of sexual assault against two Swedish women.

In an interview with ABC News this morning, a lawyer for Assange said that an American indictment against her client was forthcoming.

While Justice Department officials say an indictment is not imminent, Attorney General Eric Holder has repeatedly said DOJ lawyers are working on building a case.

The Judiciary Committee has not yet announced a list of witnesses for the hearings.

[CarloCaraluzzo]

and being a member of the communist party is a CRIME in Texas. Thats that free political system America has going.IMAO!!! Clueless Bastards!!! IMAO!!!

[unitedd]

NASA has just released secret information into the public domain by selling hard drives known in advance to contain secret information. These are drives that FAILED in-house auditing for such stuff. And prior to that, disk drives containing blueprints for the current generation of super stealth fighters were sold by Lockheed-Martin to Iran. (And people think Wikileaks did bad stuff?!?!?!?! How the hell does a bunch of personal opinions compare with giving a terrorist-funding nation plans for the top US fighters?

[CarloCaraluzzo]

So these terrorists are going to be building fighter jets now?

[greenlantern1]

Dear Sirs,
Chuck Colson, under orders from President Nixon, forged the Diem Cable.
That document "proved" that President Kennedy masterminded the murder of an American ally!
Does the Republican party continue to praise him as a role model?
Clifford Spencer

[Rodeo_Joe]

Presidential candidate Eugene Debs received a ten-year prison sentence in 1918 under the Espionage Act for daring to read the First Amendment in public.

E.E. Cummings spent three and a half months in a military detention camp under the Espionage Act for the 'crime' of saying that he did not hate Germans.

Go ahead, wave that flag.