The composition of FOGBANK is classified. What, if anything, happens to Dr. Smith, Professor of Physics, if he correctly figures out what it is and how to make it, and gets (or tries to get) this information published?
What happens to me if I, through happenstance, discover that Madame X is a spy for the USA and tell other people about it?
I am not an expert in this by any stretch of the imagination, but I would say that your second scenario matches Julian Assange’s. He was handed classified information and he broadcasted it.
The US has not formally prosecuted him for that (in absentia). They were investigations into weather they could, but I don’t think there has ever been a formal decision that they can.
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I recall from a documentary about the development of the F-117 stealth aircraft that when they were doing flight testing (while its existence was classified), an F-117 passed another conventional military aircraft at a distance close enough for the pilots of the latter to exclaim “WTF is that?” It seems ATC knew what what was happening, and arrangements were made for that flight crew to sign some documents saying they would not disclose anything about what they saw.
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An important difference is that Assange is an Australian citizen, and I believe he published his US-classified information while he was not in the US. He might not have had a legal obligation under US law to keep classified info secret, and in fact I think he still hasn’t been charged with anything in the US.
I think if a US citizen knowingly exposes a US spy, he could be charged with treason or espionage. See Robert Hansen, Aldrich Ames, or any number of other people who informed the Soviets about US spies.
Right, it occurs to me that the cases I’ve presented would probably be handled differently. (See Dick Cheney too, right?)
In general, classified information in the US must be explicitly designated as such by a government classifier, and its status is not protected by law, but by executive privilege and contracts (e.g. if you are a government contractor being given access to classified information, you sign a contract, NDA, etc. stating you will follow the rules on disclosing it). In general, revealing classified information is not itself illegal. If you are not a government employee and have obtained the information yourself legally, it is not even technically classified, because no classifier has reviewed it, and you can do what you wish with it.
The exception is any information related to nuclear weapons, which is automatically classified by law from it’s inception, regardless of where it came from. The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 specifies in part that “All data concerning (1) design, manufacture, or utilization of atomic weapons; (2) the production of special nuclear material; or (3) the use of special nuclear material in the production of energy,” is considered Restricted Data and automatically classified regardless of how it originated, unless the government has explicitly declassified it. The term people use to describe this is “born secret” - even if you derive it independently in your garage, it is classified by default.
The constitutionality of this has never been tested in court. There was a case in the 1980’s when a magazine published an article with a great deal of informed speculation garnered from unclassified sources about nuclear weapon design, but the US government dropped the case before it reached the Supreme Court.
Note that this is all specific to nuclear weapons information (“Restricted Data”), which has special status. I am not aware of any similar law that would prevent an ordinary person from disclosing other general classified information that has been legally obtained (i.e. independently derived).
Obviously, there are other ways the government can prosecute you for disseminating information they wish to keep secret - there are laws specifically about treason, espionage, military secrets, etc. The above is solely about generally “classified” information with no other special characteristics.
To answer the OP’s question - Dr. Smith would be prosecuted for disseminating classified information. He may or may not be able to successfully defend himself in court on free speech grounds - the automatic classification of nuclear weapons information has never been challenged in court. If you tell people that Madame X is a spy, you will very likely not be prosecuted on the basis of revealing classified information, assuming you obtained it legally (because no one has told you that information is classified and in any case you have no obligation to handle classified information in any particular way), but they may find some other thing to prosecute you for.
Most of the informants prosecuted were already entrusted with classified information by the US government and had already sworn not to disclose classified information. Most civilians have not done this.
Maybe the Rosenburgs are a counterexample to this though.
I guess it depends on the circumstances.
If you, Professor Dextrose Malaprop, discover that cabon tetratritiide makes a marvellous nuclear plasma enhancer when bombarded by neutrons, which might be useful in amplifying nuclear chain reactions - probably nothing. If you point out it might be an effective use in bombs, and might be the magic FOGBANK, you are coming close to revealing a classified secret.
I recall there was a case in the late 80’s or early 90’s where some magazine tried to publish an article about nuclear bomb-making. They found that the necessary information was in some advanced textbooks, and one of the absurdities when the US government tried to shut them down, was that the textbook was not classified, but underlining certain sections made it classified.
This is nothing like Assange’s case. Assange acepted classified items and published them (allegedly redacting anything that named specific agents that might put them at risk) much as the NY Times did with the Pentagon Papers 40 years earlier. He has taken refuge in the Ecuador Embassy (Ecuador being a beacon of freedom compared to Britain and Sweden, obviously) since he has the very real fear that being extradited to Sweden for questioning about consensual sex (the women only asked if they could force him to take a STD test) was simply a ruse to allow the Sedes to then hand him over to the USA for prosecution. Sweden so far has rfused to rule this out.
I assume part of the issue is intent. If you publish “Neutron density enhancements in carbon-tritium plasmas” in the “New England Journal of particle physics”, odds are you’ll get a polite call from the government at worst. If you publish “Useful ingredients for enhancing nuclear blasts” in the “Wyoming Journal of Anachy” expect a more formal response.
The second issue - knowingly revealing a US field agent is a crime, unless your name is Cheney or “Scooter”. the issue with Valerie Plame was that even though she was working in the head office in Langley, apparently she had done time in the field so revealing her employer was a crime. Supposedly.