Someone once explained to me the strategy of the US (and other govs).
They want to discourage future dissidents by making an example of people who oppose the status quo. They want the prospect of being a whistleblower to be as unpleasant as possible, without creating a martyr for people to rally around.
So they typically don't just kill the person. They might use poison to maim an adversary (Yushchenko, Litvinenko, ..). Make the person disappear. Discredit them. Shape the public opinion. Paint them as traitors. Countries have their own flavor, but it's basically the same playbook.
Making life hard for Snowden and Assange has a chilling effect for all people thinking about turning against their governments.
The Abu Garib whistleblower was not punished, he was protected.
Some of the actions of Manning and Assage fell way outside the prospect of 'Whiste blowing'.
Assange is being put to trial because preliminary evidence indicates that he was active participant in helping Manning in his activities and not just an agent of the press.
(You'll notice that the 'New York Times' Editors are not going to trial for things that they published).
The trial will result in either his acquittal or not.
That's it.
The US doesn't poison people for 'leaking revenge'.
even if you subscribe to the belief that the us doesn't poison people for 'leaking revenge,' there is still something to say about the legal intimidation tactics used to discourage dissidence.
just a while back, Rebekah Jones, the Floridian data scientist who leaked private COVID information to Florida emergency personnel, had her home raided. there's no real argument to be had whether the search was legal or not, since they attained a warrant and supposedly alerted her before their arrival, but the violent nature of the visit was definitely done to send a message. marching up to her house, kids and husband inside, with a troop of armed officers is definitely not necessary if all they wanted was her computer and to search her home. i have trauma just interacting with officers on routine traffic stops, can't imagine being a child and having a gun pointed at me, even worse, i can't imagine being a parent and feeling guilt for having put my family in that position. i'm not trying to make this political, but i don't want to be naive and say that these are the actions of a well-meaning group of people.
They want to discourage future dissidents by making an example of people who oppose the status quo. They want the prospect of being a whistleblower to be as unpleasant as possible, without creating a martyr for people to rally around.
So they typically don't just kill the person. They might use poison to maim an adversary (Yushchenko, Litvinenko, ..). Make the person disappear. Discredit them. Shape the public opinion. Paint them as traitors. Countries have their own flavor, but it's basically the same playbook.
Making life hard for Snowden and Assange has a chilling effect for all people thinking about turning against their governments.