Officials describe Top Secret cable, without punishment. Last Friday, in a Washington Post story by Greg Jaffe and Greg Miller, several anonymous officials described in detail the contents of a Top Secret cable sent from the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan to Washington. In the cable, sent via CIA channels more secure than State Department networks, ambassador Ryan Crocker argues that Pakistan’s Haqqani network is providing havens to militants, which is hindering U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.

Because this cable is Top Secret and has not been declassified, the officials who described it to the Washington Post have broken the law. They have compromised material far more sensitive than that which Pfc. Manning and WikiLeaks are accused of releasing – which is all marked Secret or lower, some of it unclassified. Yet there isn’t and there won’t be an investigation underway to indict these officials. EFF writer Trevor Timm took issue with this hypocrisy on Twitter in a series of tweets:

No DOJ investigation is in the works, because the deliberate leak of this Top Secret cable, by several anonymous officials who will face no repercussions, helps advance U.S. policy. As Jaffe and Miller write, the cable “could be used as ammunition by senior military officials who favor more aggressive action by the United States against the Haqqani havens in Pakistan.” Had the cable revealed wrongdoing by U.S. officials, or otherwise impeded U.S. policy, the officials who leaked it would be on trial.