I agree with you. Mowbray is doing a wonderful public service and practically single-handed snatched that Bureau from Colin Powell's embrace. My point is that he put himself really in an untenable situation when he announced in the State Department briefing that he had on his person (or this is how I interpret it) a classified cable. Whether or not the State Department overclassifies (and everyone knows they do) is immaterial. The higher the classification of an unauthorized document in his possession could lead to greater and greater penalty.
My hunch is that the cable was classified CONFIDENTIAL or the innocuous Official Use Only, or they might have really made trouble (which is what they wanted to do in the first place). Now State has undoubtedly got the original and there are markings on some cables that can give away its provenence. Let's hope he hasn't blown his source. I still say it is likely that he will lose his State pass privilege, because if for no other reason, he should have known better than to sound off the way he did