These are the guys who can cause a shyteload of damage.
Creating a martyr for the hacker community is gonna get the US and others where it hurts.

They might think to gag Assange, but he is but one person in a highly sophisticated network...unfortunately,the backlash against Wikileaks might indeed open the door for taxation and censorship of the internet...and then Americans will realize (too late) that we indeed are not truly free...

That's when you will see the real hackers weigh in and literally create havoc in the US. The odd plane blowing up will seem like small potatoes.