The series of articles by the New York Times involving the NSA screening program could not have been published without clearly illegal leaks coming from current and former government officials. These officials, whether they intended to or not, have done harm to America's national security by deliberately telegraphing certain wartime operational procedures authorized by the president, which were intended solely to defeat the enemy's terrorist plotting against American citizens. The New York Times deserves nothing but contempt from every American who takes this war effort seriously, and who understands the significant harm to the war effort being committed by this once great, and now disgraced, newspaper.

Those officials leaking the information have not only committed a moral wrong against their country, but they have also committed a legal wrong.

Scott over at Powerline puts forth the case:

Permit me to repeat one key point. The Times story is based on leaks of classified information by "nearly a dozen" current and former government officials. Whatever ambiguity may exist regarding the legality of the NSA program -- I don't think there's much, and whatever there is derives from our lack of knowledge of all relevant facts -- does not exist regarding the leaks. Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 798) prohibits the disclosure of several narrowly defined categories of information, specifically including classified information regarding communications intelligence:

a) Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information—

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(3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government...

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Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

The following subsection (b) makes clear the applicability of the act to the informants and information related to the Times story:

The term "communication intelligence" means all procedures and methods used in the interception of communications and the obtaining of information from such communications by other than the intended recipients;

The term "unauthorized person" means any person who, or agency which, is not authorized to receive information of the categories set forth in subsection (a) of this section, by the President, or by the head of a department or agency of the United States Government which is expressly designated by the President to engage in communication intelligence activities for the United States.

It is clear that the Times story itself involved an epidemic of lawbreaking among current and former government officials. The sources for the Times story should be entering the zone known as The Big House.

Indeed.