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IANAL. However, I don't believe that the US military can impose criminal sanctions on civilians, only their own personnel. (With specific exceptions for being called in to deal with specific emergencies, etc.)

From the article TechDirt links to: "Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with "communicating with the enemy", a military crime that carries a maximum sentence of death."

So far I haven't seen anyone link to the document itself, so it's all third-hand.




What about former servicemembers? What about defense contractors? Their subcontractors? The downstream impacts of this decision are vague and unsettling.

If I hypothetically supported/donated to wikileaks would I later be ineligible for employment at a very large portion of the US workforce?


Former servicemembers can be recalled to active duty for the explicit purpose of charging them under the UCMJ, although there are some restrictions. This occurs only very rarely (I only know about the time it was used to convict a murderer).

Defense contractors are not bound by the UCMJ.


I have no doubt there are all sorts of perfectly legal activity that will make you ineligible for military service.




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