Re: Miranda carrying documents—I'm not sure I get why
Why would you get on a plane to deliver ENCRYPTED documents on a thumb drive? They're encrypted. If they're encrypted properly, it's very, very difficult, if not impossible, to break that encryption.
So why not simply find a way to simply send them electronically? Use a couple of burner phones, for godsakes. Even if the NSA scoops them, what are they going to see?
These people are either idiots or they knew Miranda would be detained and they're doing it for show.
Just doesn't add up.
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and for many reasons. Here in the US, we do that, too, and frequently. In fact, if you, as a US citizen come back from, say China, with your laptop, there's a good chance you will be detained in Customs, while your laptop is checked for illegal copies of things like current-release films and the like. Customs may also detain you for a time to make sure your bags don't contain illegal drugs, prohibited items like elephant ivory, and other things that can't be brought into the US.
From time to time, people even miss their flights in the process. That's why it's important to allow plenty of time for clearing Customs when booking flights into the US from other countries. Many people have missed flights due to being detained in Customs and have had to re-book on another flight.
I remember a flight from Istanbul, Turkey, when I returned from my 15 month tour in the USAF at a base in Turkey. There was outgoing Customs to deal with. Even though I was flying on military orders, my bags were carefully inspected by Turkish customs. Drugs, illegal antiquities, and other stuff that wasn't allowed to leave Turkey was the goal. As it happened, I had purchased an Oud during my time there, and had constructed a fitted wooden case for it, so it would arrive safely as luggage. Not thinking about exit customs, the case was sealed with screws, since it was to be a shipping case, not something I would need to open. Still, I had packed a phillips screwdriver in my other luggage, just in case. Sure enough, Turkish customs insisted that I open the case for inspection. I did, it passed, and I moved on. It took about a half hour to open the case for inspection and seal it again. During that time, I was detained in a room.
When I arrived at JFK, I had a chance to open that case again, for US Customs, so they could see my Oud. That caused a delay, again of about half an hour. I had a four hour interval between flights, though, so I wasn't inconvenienced too much.
I took the screwdriver because there was that possibility. When I arrived in Turkey, 15 months earlier, Turkish Customs was interested in my 5-string banjo. Was I illegally importing it? Was I a musician? Should a duty be charged? The upshot was that I had to remove the banjo and play it for the customs official, to demonstrate that it was mine and that I was a musician. I deftly played the Scruggs version of the Beverly Hillbillies theme, to the delight of the customs folks and everyone standing around. "Play more," I was told, so I knocked out "Wildwood Flower" and "Foggy Mountain Breakdown", too. By then, a small crowd had gathered. By the time I got out of the Istanbul airport, I had missed the bus I was supposed to catch, and had to take a cab to the Istanbul Hilton, where I had a voucher for a room and a meal overnight. A Customs delay.
If you're taking stuff that interests a foreign government, you're likely to experience a delay. Great Britain has an interest in this NSA thing, because they have a relationship with the NSA. So, Mr. Greenwald's partner should have anticipated a delay. It's all the news these days. I believe he made it to his plane, though, and got back to Brazil OK, but without some thumb drives of interest to the UK government, and perhaps some other items. There should have been no suprise on his part, I think.
What's an Oud?
