The "aiding the enemy" charge in the Manning case was based on military law, and it is not directly applicable to leakers in other parts of the government or to reporters and publishers. But the theory on which it was based has echoes in the more general espionage laws...
a dodged bullet is still a bullet
[Judge Ellis] said the case "exposes the inherent tension between the government transparency so essential to a democratic society and the government's equally compelling need to protect from disclosure information that could be used by those who wish this nation harm...
"The rights protected by the First Amendment must at times yield to the need for national security."
