The Big Chill.

The article focuses on a case involving Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman who were charged with conspiring to violate the 1917 U.S. Espionage Act. Rosen and Weissman allegedly disclosed information relating to national defense to reporters and discussed it with Israeli embassy officials. Both of them were lobbyists with the American Israel Political Action Committee. Because neither defendant was a government employee or was paid by a third party or received tangible items related to national security, the prosecutions are not typical Espionage Act cases. According to Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy, the case is worrisome because it targets the leakees and the not the people who leaked the information. INSETS: The vagueness of the Espionage Act;Judge Ellis' jurisprudence.