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Life Imitates Hypotheticals

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To refute the notion that freedom of speech or the press is absolute, a common device is to cite a hypothetical of spoken or written words that everyone with sense would agree can be prohibited. The most famous is Justice Holmes's example in Schenk v. United States, 249 U.S. 47, 52 (1919), "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Another classic is that of Chief Justice Hughes in Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697, 716 (1931), "No one would question but that a government might prevent ... the publication of the sailing dates of transports or the number and location of troops."

Well, now it turns out someone has actually done that and is going to be punished for it. John Christoffersen writes for AP,

A former Navy sailor convicted of leaking details about ship movements and the best ways to attack them was sentenced Friday to the maximum 10 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Mark Kravitz said Hassan Abu-Jihaad, of Phoenix, betrayed his country and endangered his fellow sailors.


Abu-Jihaad, 33, was convicted last year of disclosing classified national defense information. Prosecutors labeled him a traitor who was trying to help foreign terrorists replicate the bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors.

Abu-Jihaad, an American who is formerly known as Paul Hall and whose chosen Muslim name means "father of jihad," was a signalman aboard the USS Benfold who was honorably discharged from the Navy in 2002.

He was accused of leaking details of the ship movements to operators of a Web site in London that openly espoused violent jihad against the U.S. The information included the makeup of his Navy battle group and a drawing of the formation the group would use to pass through the dangerous Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in April 2001.

The ship was not attacked.

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