[HIB]Harder to suppress leaks in Internet age

The publication this week of classified military reports from Afghanistan has brought home to the nation's capital what Hollywood has seen of late with the raw tapes of Mel Gibson's angry voice: the Internet has fundamentally transformed how secrets are disclosed. No longer can lawyers for the government or a big star rush to court or phone a top news executive to head off a damaging disclosure in a newspaper or on television. Now raw secrets can be posted online for all the world to see or hear. WikiLeaks, the website that obtained the documents, operates mostly outside the United States, making it difficult if not impossible for the government to block publication. "In the digital age, once classified information has been leaked by a government employee, there is no practical remedy available to the government" to stop its disclosure, said Rodney Smolla, a 1st Amendment expert and president of Furman University in South Carolina. "Even if the government were to march into an American or foreign court to seek an injunction against the release of the documents, there is no way to recall the millions of cites and retransmissions that occur almost instantly on the Internet."

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