Air Force Backs Off Legal Threat Against WikiLeaks Readers

Teenage children of U.S. Air Force personnel no longer face the threat of being charged with espionage for reading secret diplomatic cables freely available on the Internet.

The Air Force Materiel Command printed an official news story Monday quoting its legal office as saying, "If a family member of an Air Force employee accesses WikiLeaks on a home computer, the family member may be subject to prosecution for espionage under U.S. Code Title 18 Section 793."

Now, Air Force headquarters has backed away from that hard-line position and is disavowing the original statement.

"The release was not previously coordinated with Headquarters Air Force and has been removed from the AFMC website," Air Force Lt. Col. Richard L. Johnson said in a statement, according to Secrecy News, which has followed the issue closely.

The Air Force flip-flopping is just the latest in the contentious -- and often bizarre -- saga of the government's attempt to contain fallout over the massive release of Pentagon and State Department documents by WikiLeaks. The anti-secrecy organization is in the process of releasing some 250,000 diplomatic cables -- many classified -- in addition to the tens of thousands of military documents it has already posted on its website.

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The Pentagon and other government agencies have taken the position that even though the documents are freely available on the Internet, government employees and contractors should continue to treat them as classified. The Air Force, however, has gone even further than some other parts of government, blocking access to news websites that reprint WikiLeaks cables. But it appears that Air Force leadership recognizes that threatening legal sanction against nonemployees may be a step too far.

"The Air Force guidance did not address family members who are not Air Force members or employees," Johnson said. "The Air Force defers to the Department of Justice in all non-military matters related to WikiLeaks."