The US Government has announced that federal workers should not be looking at the government secrets. Fine; I suppose your employer can tell you what you can’t do. But several experts are extending the logic, saying that succumbing to the temptation to look at the site may permanently disqualify you from ever getting a security clearance, because you could be asked whether you ever looked at classified information you were not authorized to see.
Would they really do that? This article in the Washington Post says they would.
The Career Services Offices of several universities have sent their students warnings about this danger.
This seems crazy on the face of it. Do we really want our future diplomats and intelligence officers to be the only people in the country who haven’t found out what those cables say? Should these universities be telling their students also not to read the New York Times, which has published some of this classified information?
By the way, if you want to risk your future security clearance by listening to the cables rather than looking at them, this site will give you audio versions.
Oops! No security clearance for me now; I just clicked that link.