Let’s say that somehow a US Citizen somehow (without using classified documents) becomes aware of the indentities and locations a group of foreign intelligence agents from nominally non-hostile countries like Israel or the UK or Canada etc., and turns this information directly over the media and not any of the US intelligence services.
Is there any scenario under which they are in legal trouble for going this?
I’m not sure what they could charge you with , but since we may be spying on them spying on us, you could screw up a counterintelligence operation in progress.
I don’t think they’d be in trouble even if they did this for American spies, provided that they somehow got the information without a security clearance. Their source for the information, however, would be in for a world of hurt from their government.
Dunno about the US, but it happened in Sweden in the 70s. Jan Guillou a somewhat famous reporter) got some jail time for it. Look up the IB-affair!
It is illegal to reveal the identity of an American field agent / spy. Cheney’s minion “Scooter” Libby took the fall for this several years ago. During the slagging of Wilson over his revelations that the government knew the Iraq/yellowcake allegation used by the Secretary of State at the UN was false, they inadvertently mentioned that his wife was employed by the CIA and that was the only reason he got the job to investigate the issue. I guess they assumed since she worked at the headquarters then, she was not a field agent - but apparently she had been.
Scooter was however pardoned.
As an example of the implications, she had a resume that listed some odd little consulting company as an employer at one time. Journalists Googled and found another person whose online resume included that corporation. They phoned him and explained the reason why they were asking him if he had ever been in the CIA, and that resume also disappeared from online immediately.
The law came about when someone listed some embassy employees overseas who were actually CIA, and IIRC it was a station guy in Athens who was assassinated not long after.
I’m not aware of any law that would get that person in trouble under those circumstances. The Intelligence Identities Protection Act generally requires that a person carry out a “pattern of activities” designed to harm U.S. national security by exposing covert agents that are being protected by the U.S.
Cite?
I don’t believe this is true. It is illegal for those entrusted with that information as part of their official duties to reveal it, but I don’t believe there is any legal block against “civilians” who obtain that information via other means. If there is, it would be interesting to see the law tested in court.
Libby was indicted for and convicted of making false statements to investigators. Neither he nor the first leaker (Richard Armitage) was ever charged for the leak itself.
If it was Mossad, legal might be the least of your troubles…
The Intelligence Identities Protection Act contains two provisions specifically referring to people who have access to classified information, and then a third section, copied below. This section does not restrict itself to the violator having access to classified information, in contrast to the other two provisions.
Your point about how this would fare in court is a very interesting one.
Just a clarification, Libby was not pardoned. His sentence was commuted. As he is a convicted felon, he cannot practice law, which he is not happy about.
Thanks for the citation.
and says:
His name and position had been published by people outside the USA. Presumably the US would be happy to arrest and convict anyone who came within their grasp, even foreigners who published in foreign publications.
The civilian presumably would not know that these foreign agents might be working undercover with the US government. Seems like one of those things that the government just has to suck up; they can’t tell us they’re spies, and therefore can’t bust us for outing them
That makes no sense. If the civilian doesn’t have some reason to believe that a person is a covert agent, why would they attempt to out that person as a covert agent? The whole point of that section is to provide for criminal punishment of those who may collect information on who may be covert agents, and then publishes it. The fact that the U.S. generally does not comment on the identities of covert agents prior to being out does not materially impact someone’s liability to be prosecuted under the law.
So… a citizen deducing the indentity of a foreign intelligence agent could be prosecuted for revealing the identity of an non-hostile foreign intelligence agent if the US decides they did not (for whatever reason) want them exposed.
Interesting.
Sure seems like it, though my guess is that it is probably more aimed at protecting the identity of a foreign person covert agent who is operating at the behest of the U.S. in another country. So, if you revealed that Col. Oleg Penkovsky was actually a CIA mole, perhaps this law could apply to you. (Though this is a total WAG, I’m not sure of the history on this provision.)
I guess it is also reasonable to say that the law also protects an MI6 agent who is present in the U.S. for some sort of semester abroad intelligence exchange program; though I have no idea whether that was the intent or not.
The person could only be prosecuted is their intent was to harm the US’s foreign intelligence capabilities and they were aware that the US government was taking action to conceal the identity of the foreign intelligence agencies.
And the only real way to discover that the US government was taking action to conceal the identity of the foreign intelligence agent would be to learn about it via classified documents. Otherwise, how would one know whether that Israeli guy is collecting data with the US government’s permission or whether or not he is actually collecting data without the US government’s permission (possibly with intent to thereby harm the US)?