Kill the Kyl Amendment!

Kill the Kyl Amendment!

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) appears to be determined to criminalize the leaking -- and publishing -- of classified information. The Senate could vote as early as this week on what amounts to a backdoor approach to an official secrets act.

Here's some brief history for you provided with help from Pete Weitzel of The Coalition of Journalists for an Open Government, of which SPJ is a part:

Sen. Kyl tried unsuccessfully to ram his proposal through the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week by attaching an amendment to an unrelated bill on data mining. The bill was postponed in part because its sponsor considered the amendment unfriendly (no kidding). Never mind that Kyl tried to sneak in his proposal without any public hearings or discussion about this matter.