50 USCS § 783 (2005). A statutory procedure allows a "whistleblower" in the intelligence community to report concerns with the propriety of a secret program. The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act of 1998, Pub. L. 105–272, Title VII, 112 Stat. 2413 (1998) essentially provides for disclosure to the agency Inspector General, and if the result of that is unsatisfactory, appeal to the Congressional Intelligence Committees. Former NSA official Russ Tice asked to testify under the terms of the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, in order to provide information to these committees about "highly classified Special Access Programs, or SAPs, that were improperly carried out by both the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency". Executive Order 13292, which sets up the U.S. security classification system, provides (Sec 1.7) that "[i]n no case shall information be classified in order to conceal violations of law". Given doubts about the legality of the overall program, the classification of its existence may not have been valid under E.O. 13292. Publication of classified information It is unlikely that a media outlet could be held liable for publishing classified information under established Supreme Court precedent. In Bartnicki v. Vopper, 532 U.S. 514, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment precluded liability for a media defendant for publication of illegally obtained communications that the media defendant itself did nothing illegal to obtain, if the topic involves a public controversy. Due to the suit's procedural position, the Court accepted that intercepting information that was ultimately broadcast by the defendant was initially illegal (in violation of ECPA), but nonetheless gave the radio station a pass because it did nothing itself illegal to obtain the information. Nor could the government have prevented the publication of the classified information by obtaining an injunction. In the Pentagon Papers case, (New York Times Co. v. U.S., ), the Supreme Court held that injunctions against the publication of classified information (United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by The Department of Defense – a 47-volume, 7,000-page, top-secret United States Department of Defense history of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War) were unconstitutional prior restraints and that the government had not met the heavy burden of proof required for prior restraint. The 1917 Espionage Act, aside from the SIGINT provision discussed above, only criminalizes 'national defense' information, not 'classified' information. Although the Justice Department as a matter of law sees no exemption for