Can Wikileaks Be Designated an FTO? No, But What About IEEPA?

Representative Peter King has urged the State Department to consider designating Wikileaks a "foreign terrorist organization," which among other things would implicate 18 USC 2339B (the 1996 material support statute, criminalizing the provision of any form of support or resources to designated FTOs).   According to one report, King said:

“By doing that we will be able to seize their funds and go after anyone who provides them with any help or contributions or assistance whatsoever,”...

I think it highly unlikely that the case could be made for designating Wikileaks an FTO, as the applicable statute ultimately does require a nexus with terrorism which so far as I know is entirely absent here.  But that does not mean that the goal of subjecting Wikileaks to asset seizure and, well, an embargo of sorts, is out of reach. It's just that the path lies with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), rather than the FTO framework; Representative King needs to contact Treasury, not State. In brief, IEEPA is much like the material support statute in that it authorizes the executive branch to designate certain foreign persons who then become subject to various economic sanctions, including asset blockage and criminal prohibitions on support.  IEEPA sanctions come into play when the President has declared a national emergency with respect to an unusual and extraordinary foreign threat to U.S. national security, foreign policy, or economic interests.  Thus the White House either would need to take the presumably-controversial step of declaring such an emergency vis-a-vis Wikileaks, or else finding a way to fit Wikileaks into the rubric of an existing emergency declaration pursuant to which Treasurey already is administering sanctions.  Given the recent focus of Wikileaks on exposing classified information relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the focus in this week's document dump on matters pertaining to middle east peace, well, this might not be too difficult to do.  Click here to peruse some of the existing frameworks, and see if you can't find one that provides an adequate fit. To be clear, I'm not saying this is a good idea. That's hardly obvious; Wikileaks is rapidly losing its bogus claim to the moral high ground, and now is not a great time to hand that status back to them by casting them in their preferred light (i.e., victim of government oppression).  But could it be done?  It could indeed.