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Comment by umvi | Hacker News Reader

Is there any country on earth that would've done differently given the same circumstances?

Russia or China would probably just carry out a secret execution.

I can recall many cases where the US prosecuted the leakers, but very few where they prosecuted the journalists who published the leaks, save for some contempt charges when journalists refused to reveal their sources.

Assange wasn’t a journalist in this case he was a handler.

He groomed sources and actively pushed them to steal secret information and transfer it to Wikileaks.

And when it suited him he happily burned and exposed his sources.

The fact that anyone can even remotely defend this tool is beyond me.

Then think again, how would the worst people you know of use the precedent this case sets in a hypothetical dystopic branch of the future?

If it could be used to act against journalists with more moral integrity than Assange, maybe you see the reason why someone would defend Assange.

So it is not because of him, but despite of him.

There isn’t a slippery slope argument here anymore than there was in the tabloid hacking scandal.

Wikileaks exploited individuals like Manning and pushed them to commit crimes.

Journalists can’t go and groom vulnerable individuals with access to information using the same tactics that intelligence agencies use and then claim they are protecting their sources.

There is no precedence to be set here.

It's when everyone thinks like this that you begin to run into problems.

But it's okay because China and Russia do it.

... Is us governmental corruption and abuse of power so bad that were willing to say "yeah but China and Russia would do it too"? Cuz that's bleak...

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