What are the rules on leaking classified information?

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That's what I was thinking.


But the military guys are saying otherwise. They're saying that there is mens rea because they have a duty to find out the security clearance of any information they obtain.


I'll give you a hypothetical: You're a soldier in Afghanistan. You're out in the field and you happen upon an Afghani that hands you a journal with seemingly innocuous contents (it will later be revealed that it was steganographic). Little do you know, an intelligence agency or group knows about this journal and has deemed its contents classified. But you show it to your buddies, and one of them leaks it. Is the guy that leaked it liable? Are you?
 
They're still responsible for that information. They are absolutely liable for the information.




Yes, they do have the duty and the charge to find out and/or know the classification of information they may be disseminating. Usually there is some sort of a command security manager in each military command that is there to answer these sorts of questions for members of said command.

Good rule of thumb that most of the uniformed services preaches to thier troops is: If you're unsure of the sensitivity of the issue you're discussing, end the discussion and report it to said security manager.
 
this honestly seems like one of those situations where punishment would be dealt out depending on who gets pissed off about it.
 
You weren't able to answer it. I'm satisfied it being a "stupid question" so long as we can both acknowledge that the answer to it is beyond your knowledge.
 
I'd imagine they'd be covered in the same area, but I'll just say... whichever you prefer?
 
i honestly don't know....intentional release of the information could possibly net you an article 106 charge (i think, don't quote me) and unintentional would probably be article 134.

again, in the real world, punishment for an accidental release of information or material would really depend on the circumstances
 
These sound a lot like educated guesses. Are either of you guys in the military?
 
Beyond my knowledge huh?

Did you really think there was a possibility they'd be off the hook for not knowing?

WELL GEE I DIDN'T KNOW SO YOU CAN'T HOLD ME RESPONSIBLE!

lol
 
Yeah, I figured as much. But I really wanted to emphasize my point in the first post that it's completely reasonable for the guy to not expect it to be classified information. I wanted to avoid something like, "Welp, he was wandering around one of the upper floors at the Pentagon and found some papers on the floor." Because yeah, that would just be stupid for him to leak that. I could definitely see how the court would call that reckless.
 
Active duty USN and have been for 12 years in a job that has required me to hold a security clearance for that entire time
 
You don't just ''accidentally'' stumble upon classified material. Regardless of the form of the media, its always clearly labelled.
 
well there are proper ways of dealing with captured equipment and documents, so if anything your soldier in Afghanistan would get a slap on the wrist for that, but otherwise no, it cant be classified when he finds it. He will generally give it to the intelligence geeks who will prepare reports about the book and those may be highly classified.
 
before i worked here at hood I was assigned to the NSA so i'm fairly sure i know what i'm talking about. theres obviously a lot of regulations and shit but basically if you're a regular dude you just report it and then shut up
 
Hood eh? I know a lot of the guys (civilian side) that run the railhead out there...
 
Always? I didn't know that. I figured in general practice, yeah, but just assumed that there would be exceptions.


Well, in the hypothetical I stipulated that the journal was already regarded as classified by an intelligence agency. (but given your previous post, I'm not under the impression that it's impossible to classify information that we don't have). To clarify, the Afghani was walking around with sensitive information. The solder that received the journal was unaware that it was sensitive, nor would it be reasonable to expect him to know.


At any rate, do you happen to know where all of this is covered in the UCMJ?
 
the original guy is responsible for keeping it safe.

But honestly, journalists should really self censor themselves. Nobody needs to know the specifics of a military group's movements.
 
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