At least we're not like those third world countries that put on show trails and then execute people.

Shit, is hanging still even accepted?

In general, if Freud said it then it was probably bullshit. Psychoanalysis is the religious sect of psychology.

@2, Sometimes on an informal level in small town jails, but they're conveniently ruled as suicides.

With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured...the first thought forbidden...the first freedom denied--chains us all irrevocably.
The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged.

@ 1 He would get a fair trial, Manning did she escaped the most serious charge.

I'm all for a trial as long as Mr. Woolsey stands trial for his crimes against humanity as well.

@7: Exactly. The powerful in this country want the rest of us to be subject to a level of justice they would never accept for themselves.

@4

Yeah, setting aside the moral basis of capital punishment itself, my impression is that hanging is considered cruel and unusual. Woolsey mentions hanging because he thinks it's palatable, but he might as well say raped and tortured to death, since that's probably what he's thinking.

Snowden has been pretty brilliant in his execution of these releases. Having to go to Putin for amnesty wasn't great, but now that he's safely out of prosecutorial reach, the drip, drip, drip - with just enough time between drips for the Spy Establishment to get enough rope to really hang themselves well - of document after document, revealing the complete lies told at every single turn by the spy agencies - has been pure genius. He's shown the entire legal case backing this spying to be a complete and total fraud - basically demonstrating that everything the government has claimed is a lie.

The best part - and what drives the fear behind Woolsey's rage - (oh, and btw woolsey, GFY) is that they've now stepped on so many landmines with Snowden, they've been exposed so many times, that they are petrified to say another word defending themselves. They haven't got the slightest idea what cards he's even holding. They can't admit this of course, because it will gut the remainder of their argument that there are checks and balances in the system - there aren't any of course, and never have been. There's been - at most - an "honor system" - but there are no real checks.

And even then, the revealed policy of using the spying for non-national-security domestic policing and deliberately working to cover those tracks - shows even more how craven the behavior has been.

So, they have to keep up the charade, and keep defending it, while he blows up mine after mine under their feet...still they have to keep marching on.

Just brilliant.

@6 aside from being tortured in a military jail and held for a few years before the trail started, the system worked!

@2 - Yes it is, but only for bicycle theft.

@10 "Snowden has been pretty brilliant in his execution of these releases."

If Snowden is to be believed (and I do here), he's not the one being brilliant, but Greenwald, Poitras, and others. According to Snowden he has not had access to any of the files since Hong Kong. What still isn't clear is whether anyone has access to all of them (or how many there actually are) as he gave different sets to different folks (hence the need for Miranda to get files from Poitras in Berlin to bring back to Greenwald in Rio).

But I totally agree that the steady drip has been brilliant.

I want to see John Woo and Dick Cheney up on the yardarm before Snowden gets there.

@2, best I can tell on a quick look is that RCW 10.95.180 permits the condemned to elect hanging as the method of execution. I do not see that this provision of the statute has been successfully challenged on 8th Amendment grounds.

Since 1977, there have been three executions by hanging in the U.S., two of which occurred in Washington.

@2: According to Wikipedia, it's only allowed in Washington and Delaware. There have been 3 such hangings since 1965, the most recent of which was that of double murderer Billy Bailey in 1996.

I just wanted to say what an unaccustomed pleasure it has been to read this comment thread so far. The single discordant note only accentuates the harmony of the rest.

Just to clarify, when I said the comment thread was a pleasure so far, I meant up to and including comment 14. The thing started moving faster than I expected.

@14- John Yoo. John Woo is the movie director.

Fox News + hanging for treason = I'd agree with that. Is Fox News so fucking stupid they honestly do not realize Snowden gets amnesty to shut him up so the NSA can continue violating our rights while Obama lies about it to the American public? That's the reason for the deal to stop public scrutiny.

@19

True, but, jeez, "Face/Off" doesn't exactly get him a pass.

@22

The Mission Impossible movies sucked, too. That wasn't Mission Impossible.

@22&23 - Hard Boiled is a classic.

@24

But do the Hong Kong films count, since they were made out of U.S. jurisdiction?

His family should be held responsible until he decides to come back to America. Start cutting fingers off and show the world so that traitor can see it..