Reply #67: Journalists are not "obligated". No one says they are.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

In order to obtain the sources they promise not to reveal them. Whether they keep the promise is up to them. There is no law obligating them to protect the source. Any more than if one of the hijackers said to "I'll tell you a secret if you promise not to tell", to Joe Schmoe the bartender who agreed to keep mum.

However, there are a mountain of laws to protect "National Security" and those who violate those laws face the possibility of imprisonment or even death. So, if the CIA file clerk with a secret clearance, comes across a memo ordering the CIA agents in Cuba to get the mafia to assasinate Fidel Castro, or fund the Contras, or knock off Patrice Lumumba, or overthrow Salvador Allende, and decides to leak it to the press on condition of source confidentiality, she/he has to trust that that confidentiality promise will be kept. Unfortunately, in the above cases no leaks from conscious stricken CIA types occurred.