If you steal and publish Government secrets or those of an individual you are breaking the law. If you don't steal them but publish them, you might not be.
In the second case it has to be beyond doubt that you had no involvement in the theft, or it would be easy to simply hire people to steal the stuff.
We are going to hear a lot in the next few months about the legality or importance of WikiLeaks. You opinion on that probably hinges on your view of Government in general.
If you tend to think that Government is the enemy of the people, then spying on it and stealing their secrets is probably something you support. Of course that view makes you a supporter of espionage and other criminal behavior.
Let's be clear, investigative journalism isn't the issue. It is certainly OK to try to ascertain the actions and criticize any that you feel are inappropriate. What is at issue is theft and stealing secrets.
Theft is a criminal behavior.
Some people feel that any Government secret is fair game. It is also true that some things classified don't need to be. Still that decision should be made by experts, not some random foreign person working with a foreign entity to disrupt our country.
The other thing is to remember, he is stealing from all of us, we are after all the people who make up the Government.
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