Whether the leaked info contains beneficial or malicious material is irrelavent. It is classified material that should never see the light of day.
Assange needs to be punished for espionage, and with the normal punishment for espionage.
If everything is classified then we are a nation of slaves, dumb and happy. Is that what we want. There are materials that have to be classified but it should be directly related to our nation security.
You (and Lieberman etal) might be better served to direct your attention to the people who leaked to Assange.
Without those names we do not know the motivation of the leakers. Given that Hillary is Secretary of State and may be considering a primary challenge against her party’s incumbent President it is entirely possible that the White House itself is responsible for the leaks. Or—maybe it is a Clinton move. Dirty tricks is their trademark.
Or—maybe both of them!
I still maintain that Assange is a patsy, a small bit player in this mess.
Has any investigation been proposed, ferreting out the sources of "classified" data?
I am especially intrigued by the omission of what's NOT been released so far - IS THERE NOTHING NEGATIVE ABOUT 0BAMA??
Think of it this way: If someone anonymously sent you a file with a bunch of Chinese classified material and you posted it online, do you think you should be subject to arrest by the Chinese for espionage? You are basically just the publisher of the information.
We’re dealing with the actual person who broke the law here. I don’t know that we can go after Assange.