Collapse of case against NSA official unlikely to deter Obama’s legal front on leakers

WASHINGTON — Criminal defendants of all stripes in national security cases, including Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North in the Iran-Contra affair and al-Qaida terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, have long sought to work government secrets into their defense. The hope is the prosecutors will skip a trial rather than expose sensitive information in court. This strategy worked perfectly in the just concluded.