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Will the US prosecute Greenwald for the leak? No way. If they do that, it will be harder to say anything about free speech or freedom of the press in this co
by einhverfr 13y ago
Will the US prosecute Greenwald for the leak? No way. If they do that, it will be harder to say anything about free speech or freedom of the press in this country, and that is not the American way.
What is, unfortunately, the American way, is to try to find something else to charge him with (see Assange for example), not only to silence him but also to discredit him. Do not be surprised if allegations of pedophilia or other crimes are made.
Many decades ago my mother's uncle (http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/caughlan_interview.shtml http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/caughlan_inter...) began to build his private legal practice on defending people from Smith Act prosecutions due to involvement with the Communist Party USA (ironically he never really considered profit much of a motivator for him, and he left a high powered law firm to defend the Community Party), distributing Marxist literature, and the like. Did the government come after him? Yes. With the Smith Act? No. They didn't want to come right out and say "we don't want these people to have good legal representation." Instead they came with a variety of unrelated, and eventually sent him to prison for a year. Unusually he was reinstated to the bar on his release (which is somewhat unusual). (Listening to the interviews with him, I hadn't known he was kicked out of the ACLU for defending civil liberties of Communists.)
The goal wasn't to throw him in prison but to take away his voice. It didn't work with John. He went on to fight, fight, and fight some more, eventually winning significant victories for political freedom in this country. With someone like Greenwald, though I don't know. It does seem to have been fairly effective at discrediting Assange.
I harp a lot on "Show me the man and I'll find you the crime" and certainly we are not at the same level the Stalinist USSR was, but I can tell you that it is something that has roots in the US as well.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- tome 13y agoAssange hasn't been charged with anything by the US.
- einhverfr 13y agoAll the better to say we had nothing to do with it, but given that he was charged during the controversy do you really think that had nothing to do with it? My mother's uncle, John Caughlan, was charged first with purjury for claiming he was never a member of the Communist Party at an immigration hearing (where he was an attorney, on behalf of, I think Hazel Wolf), and then on various tax technicalities, and so forth until something stuck. He eventually spent a year in jail. The further it is removed from the controversy the better. That Assange and Greenwald are outside the US makes them easier targets for accusations passed on to foreign police forces.
- madaxe 13y agoBut, but, he's a rapist! So we should all denounce him. This is the view now held by most about Assange, sadly. On the note of Greenwald, it looks like it's already started: Gabriel Schoenfeld, a national security expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who is often on the opposite ends of issues from Mr. Greenwald, called him, “a highly professional apologist for any kind of anti-Americanism no matter how extreme.” They'll be calling him a terrorist within the week.
- einhverfr 13y agoI still stand by it, they will pay someone to make accusations of pedophilia or something. Calling him a terrorist is too close to the controversy. The approach taken to Assange is far more effective.
- d23 13y agoI highly doubt anything will happen to Greenwald. He's too high profile, and this case is too high profile. They got away with prosecuting leakers because they were obscure.
- ihsw 13y agoFew things were higher profile than WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, and they certainly took away his voice. Now he is relegated to being a sideshow -- a novelty to gawk and point at (not unlike a caged beast).
- rayiner 13y agoWho is "they"? The vast international conspiracy where the U.S. government pulls the puppet strings of Scandinavian countries? Because if there is anything the Scandinavians are known for, its being puppets of the U.S. right?
- ihsw 13y agoThe puppet strings you refer to are trade (and other economic development) agreements. The other Scandinavian countries may not have had such close ties to the US as Sweden, however US-Sweden relations have a rich and storied history[1] stretching back quite far (with particular emphasis on defense against Soviet aggressions). [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Sweden_relations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US-Sweden_relations
- roboneal 13y agoIt's not like Sweden is a surveillance state or something http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA_law http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA_law
- rayiner 13y agoWhich cuts in favor of my point: Sweden had its own motivations for prosecuting Assagne.
- 13y ago