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Comment by acabal | Hacker News Reader

I was thinking about this today--whether or not this was a smart move for the government.

On one hand, it's obvious that bullying the partner of a famous journalist is going to get negative media attention.

On the other hand, maybe that's exactly what they want. Maybe they know these laws aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and that sort of media attention ensures that generations will know what happens when they start asking the wrong questions. "Hey kids, just look at what will happen to your family if you start questioning the laws we make to protect you."

Would Greenwald have done a better service if he hadn't told the world what happened to his partner? I don't know--but maybe.

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Making an example of a family member is crass to put it mildly, we have a basic principle in law that collective punishment is right out. So we don't punish you for your brothers crimes and so on. To punish a partner for some perceived slight when the principal agent is not charged with anything is something that I have a hard time imagining even today, in a former Soviet Union or affiliated country I could see something like that happen but this being the partner of a member of the press it seems like a spectacularly bad move.

Greenwald has basically been provoked into doing as much damage as he can do, likely he'll reveal more rather than less now. They have taken the gloves off against the one party that was still showing some restraint here.

Interesting how places like CNN don't cover this.

Greenwald has been doing this for years. His prose is always over the top, but the man is really savvy (courtroom experience, maybe). I'm going to count myself very surprised indeed if this can provoke him into doing even the smallest detail differently than he intended.

If anything, he's chuckling that he managed to provoke them to this kind of outrageous action. Rubbing his hands with glee. (Shades of "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!")

My hope is that Greenwald is not that easily provoked into making this a personal affair between himself and some government. That's part of what weakened Julian Assange's position, and I'm pretty sure Greenwald is aware of that.

Brazil has a tit-for-tat policy when it comes to how their citizens are treated. Backpressure could come from all kinds of interesting directions.

If this wasn't officially sanctioned from above there will be fall-out.

Also lots of people from all nations will be travelling to Brazil soon for the Olympics, and more importantly, the World Cup.

Imagine if high ranking FA official or English politicians were turned away at the border. It would be hilarious.

A quick google search shows that it isn't completely ignored by CNN.

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/18/world/europe/greenwald-par...

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/greenwald-par...

> Would Greenwald have done a better service if he hadn't told the world what happened to his partner? I don't know--but maybe.

Definitely not. And in the end, nothing happened to his partner. His rights were violated, for sure -- but then ask other Brazilians for their experiences in the transit zone of London Heathrow. It's a pretty much lawless zone if you happen to hold the wrong passport.

So, no. More people than you think will be able to relate to this.

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