§ 953. Private correspondence with foreign governments.Any citizen of the United States, wherever he may be, who, without authority of the United States, directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, with intent to influence the measures or conduct of any foreign government or of any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
This section shall not abridge the right of a citizen to apply himself, or his agent, to any foreign government, or the agents thereof, for redress of any injury which he may have sustained from such government or any of its agents or subjects.
The Logan Act is THE definitive law on how American citizens are to conduct themselves when in contact with any foreign government.
Unfortunately, it is seldom if EVER enforced.
It could have been cited as a reason to arrest and convict one John F'in Kerry in 1971 after his illegal negotiations with the Communists in Paris, negotiations made with the full knowledge that they were not authorized by, nor were they condoned by, the United States Government.
As for our latter day Arabist James Baker, using the logic I've seen thus far in this thread, there seems to be the idea that it "never hurts" to talk to our enemies.
That is true under normal conditions.
The global jihad we are facing, supported, encouraged, and in many cases underwritten by the regime in Iran, does NOT constitute normal conditions.
The leadership in Tehran is in the grip of an ideology that is far more extreme than anything that we might have faced in the dictatorial regimes of the past like Nazi Germany, militarist Japan, or the Soviet Union. The jihadist mindset is one which believes in, and will accept, only ONE outcome which is the wholesale conversion of all infidels (that's you and me folks) to Islam, or the killing of all who will not bow to 'allah'.
Unlike the Shah of Iran who was a strong U.S. ally, the little runt running Iran now (Ahmanutjob) has threatened to exterminate Israel AND the United States, they are hell bent on obtaining a nuclear capability and only an utter fool and/or knave (like the aforementioned John F'in Traitor) believes otherwise.
Baker is either as naive a fool as Jimmy Carter, or he's been bought and paid for with Arab money. His illustrious Iraq Surrender Group was a total waste of time and effort, the bottom line of that empty-cranium-storming (because there was no 'brain' to storm) is that the United States should basically get the F outta Dodge (Iraq), leave the Iraqi people to their own devices, and watch the chaos from a safe distance.(you know, basically what Bush #41 did by not supporting Kurdish rebels and other groups who wanted to overthrow Saddam at the end of the Gulf War).
If Baker is acting on the authorization of the President of the United States, shame on both him AND George Walker Bush.
If Baker is NOT acting with authorization from our Government, he should be arrested and tried under the Logan Act.
But that would require much more in the way of gravitas that I suspect exists right now in Washington D.C.