I think this all flows back to Wikileaks. The government is not at all happy about Wikileaks and wants to prevent future episodes.
Naomi Wolf issued a warning about the Espionage Act a few years ago. I remember posting her article at the Cogblog, where, of course, it elicited the usual howls. If I had posted it while Bush were still in office, they would've fallen all over themselves praising it. This was a line from it: And here's the article itself: Espionage Act: How the Government Can Engage in Serious Aggression Against the People of the United States