>there is good reason to suspect that the FBI would hear of the article and try to censor such an article for national security reasons
The rest of your post aside, the FBI cannot do that. It wouldn't matter if it was secret. It's not even a close call, it's been explicitly and repeatedly slammed down by courts even in extreme cases like classified information being illegitimately leaked, for example with the Pentagon Papers (SCOTUS ruling [1] against prior restraint). It just came up again a few months ago when a federal judge tried to use prior restraint and depublishing against the LA Times over their publication of information about a confidential informant and bargain that was accidentally published in full on PACER. A rung bell cannot be unrung.
Now, if the FBI could find a leaker who had signed an agreement with the Federal government they could go after them in person. If a newspaper broke the law to obtain a story then that separate violation could independently be prosecutable (in public). But none of that means the publicly released information can then be taken back. And even if some random blogger might be intimidated illegally and not find the resources to fight back, that wouldn't be an issue for a major publication.
I don't take issue with your skepticism in general but it's not helpful to ascribe special powers to government that it doesn't actually have either.
The rest of your post aside, the FBI cannot do that. It wouldn't matter if it was secret. It's not even a close call, it's been explicitly and repeatedly slammed down by courts even in extreme cases like classified information being illegitimately leaked, for example with the Pentagon Papers (SCOTUS ruling [1] against prior restraint). It just came up again a few months ago when a federal judge tried to use prior restraint and depublishing against the LA Times over their publication of information about a confidential informant and bargain that was accidentally published in full on PACER. A rung bell cannot be unrung.
Now, if the FBI could find a leaker who had signed an agreement with the Federal government they could go after them in person. If a newspaper broke the law to obtain a story then that separate violation could independently be prosecutable (in public). But none of that means the publicly released information can then be taken back. And even if some random blogger might be intimidated illegally and not find the resources to fight back, that wouldn't be an issue for a major publication.
I don't take issue with your skepticism in general but it's not helpful to ascribe special powers to government that it doesn't actually have either.
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1: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/403/713#writin...