4.2.12 WC: 191694 There are, of course, some historical low tech antecedents to the current high-tech dangers. During our pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and immediate post-revolutionary era, there were many “radical,” “irresponsible,” “anarchistic and “anonymous” “rabble-rousers” and even “whistle blowers,” “eavesdroppers” and “leakers” who were believed to be endangering the “security” of the government.** “Secret presses” published “anonymous” or pseudononymous screeds, some of which disclosed “secrets” or other “dangerous” information. The language of the First Amendment would seem to protect these dissidents against any abridgement of their freedom of expression—at least from the United States Government. But our history in this regard has been checkered at best, especially in the context of fear of war. Less than a decade after the ratification of the First Amendment, Congress (the very Congress that was directed to “make no law abridging the freedom of speech) “made” the Alien and Sedition law, which expressly abridged the freedom of speech of dissidents and critics of the Adams Administration. The justification for this repressive legislation was the fear of war with France. During every war or threatened war since, there have been efforts, many quite successful, to abridge the speech of “disloyal,” “unpatriotic,” and “irresponsible” dissenters. The “retail” dangers posed by individual trouble-makers (or even by groups) was, of course, rather meager compared to the “wholesale” dangers currently posed by cyber-“trouble-makers,” such as Julian Assange and Wikileaks. Indeed, even Assange and Wikileaks are somewhat closer to established media than are some others who we know little or nothing about. After all, Wikileaks worked closely with established media, such as the New York Times, The Guardian and other mainstream media. There are generally several levels of vetting before anything is published. It can be argued that Wikileaks has served as a “filter” for