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Comment by d23 | Hacker News Reader

I 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.

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What do you mean "got away with"? These laws exist to deter leaking, and that only works if people believe they'll be applied. Do you think they're worried about losing votes over this? There's only a handful of congresspeople who are vocally against it, and most of the American people don't care. "It's called protecting America." - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (D-California). Who's there to vote for?

> Do you think they're worried about losing votes over this?

I think they'd like the controversy to die, not stoke it.

Few 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).

Who 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?

The 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

It's not like Sweden is a surveillance state or something

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FRA_law

Which cuts in favor of my point: Sweden had its own motivations for prosecuting Assagne.

They get away with prosecuting leakers because leaking classified information (while often noble) is a crime.

The issue is prosecution of journalists for publishing said info, which is not a crime.

There is considerable debate about this:

http://www.rcfp.org/browse-media-law-resources/news-media-la...

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