[dmoney]

"A senior administration official also not authorized to speak publicly told USA TODAY that the United States is asking Hong Kong to act quickly on the request or risk complicating relations between the two for failing to hand Snowden over as required by international law. "

So it's OK for senior administration officials to leak information without authorization, about trying to prosecute someone for leaking information without authorization...

[graedus]

Indeed, just like it's OK for top officials to leak about what a terrific success the drone program is and how it doesn't kill any civilians (NB: anyone killed by a drone is considered a "combatant" by definition in the official language[0])

[0] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/29/world/obamas-leadership-in...