Glenn Greenwald: Prosecute leaker!

Glenn Greenwald wrote a funny column yesterday at Salon.com. In his entry, Greenwald writes about a new leak that occurred yesterday, and urges the Obama administration to prosecute the leaker.

Greenwald writes:

A serious leak of classified information has just taken place -- which, as we all know, is a dastardly crime for which the harshest punishment is merited. To make matters even more grave, this time the unauthorized disclosure has taken place during A Time of War, resulting in the illegal publication of sensitive information about the nation's enemy. The leak was transmitted to Associated Press, which then published it to the world:

Libyan state television showed blackened and mangled bodies that it said were victims of airstrikes in Tripoli. . . . A U.S. intelligence report on Monday, the day after coalition missiles attacked Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capitol, said that a senior Gadhafi aide was told to take bodies from a morgue and place them at the scene of the bomb damage, to be displayed for visiting journalists. A senior U.S. defense official revealed the contents of the intelligence report on condition of anonymity because it was classified secret.

I wonder if Eric Holder will shortly announce an investigation to find out who is responsible for this leak? Will the guilty party be charged with a capital crime and be held in solitary confinement near a cell occupied by Bradley Manning? Only time will tell. Thankfully, AP has granted anonymity to this courageous whistleblower and will hopefully safeguard his identity in the event that a criminal investigation ensues. After all, leaking information that is "classified secret" is a crime which this administration takes very, very seriously.

Greenwald raises a question here that I wish he would sometimes make more specific: Is it a good idea that the US is increasingly practicing arbitrary legal judgments? Should not a law dictate the action taken when a leak occurs? Is it really a good idea that whether you are prosecuted is determined not just by what you do, but who you do it against?

These questions worry me because it is quite important that the law applies to everyone if a democracy is to function. That should be obvious, but it is not.

Update: I corrected the second last paragraph (missing word).