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Columbia students told job prospects harmed if they access WikiLeaks cables
The US government's panic over the WikiLeaks revelations is extending to American campuses, with Columbia University warning students they risk future job prospects if they download any of the material.
The university's Office of Careers Services's cautionary note drew criticism from observers, who expressed alarm that the liberal bastions of academe in the US would be complicit in restrictions on access to the documents.
Disclosure of the warning came in the wake of a government ban on employees, estimated at more than two-and-a-half million people, using work computers and other communication devices to look at diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. The federal government advised employees that, though freely available on newspaper websites as well as WikiLeaks, they officially remain classified.
WikiLeaks dominated the Sunday morning talk shows, with views ranging from fears about what is still to come to calls for the Obama administration to adopt a more muscular approach.
Much of the debate centers on the need to restrict the number of people with access to classified material while avoiding a return to pre-9/11 when the number of people with such access was much more restricted.