National Security

Although the days depicted in Steven Spielberg’s film “The Post” — with a war in Vietnam, an embattled White House, and the classified Pentagon Papers — are long gone, the government continues to claim it has an interest in keeping certain secret material from the public eye. Massive online leaks, such as the one undertaken by Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and intelligence analyst, have led to the discovery of civilian surveillance programs orchestrated by the National Security Agency. Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama used the power of the executive to prosecute more leakers under the Espionage Act than all previous presidents taken together, highlighting the tension between the country’s interest in keeping the homeland secure and the public’s right to know how its business is being conducted.