Britons Demand Explanation After Reporter’s Partner Is Detained

[bemildred]

Source: NYT

LONDON — Demands grew on Monday for the British government to explain why it had used antiterrorism powers to detain the partner of a journalist who has written about surveillance programs based on leaks by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden.

David Miranda, a Brazilian citizen and the partner of the American journalist Glenn Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, was held Sunday at London’s Heathrow Airport for nine hours, the maximum allowed by law, before being released without charge. He said Monday that all of his electronic equipment, including his laptop and cellphone, had been confiscated.

Mr. Miranda was traveling from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. In Berlin, he had met with Laura Poitras, an American filmmaker who has worked with Mr. Greenwald on the Snowden leaks about secret American and British surveillance programs that they argue violate individual rights and liberties.

The Guardian newspaper, where Mr. Greenwald is a columnist, reported that it had paid for Mr. Miranda’s flights but that he was not an employee of the newspaper. “As Glenn Greenwald’s partner, he often assists him in his work,” the newspaper said in statement. “We would normally reimburse the expenses of someone aiding a reporter in such circumstances.”



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/europe/britain-detains-the-partner-of-glen-greenwald.html

[HooptieWagon]

1. "not an employee"

That shoots down one of the totalitarian apologist's talking points.

[Autumn]

2. Oh my God. He wasn't employed as a messenger? That makes no sense.

Rec

[Thinkingabout]

3. I think they took the items confiscated are on their way to Hong Kong for medical treatment.

Miranda may have "revealed" his mission, when you play with the big boys you have to have the knowledge to stand the heat.

[Marr]

20. lmfao.

Did you feel tough writing that?

[East Coast Pirate]

23. So they got a little rough with the perp.

Fagetaboutit

[Ash_F]

4. Who these people think they are?

Citizens?

[snappyturtle]

5. There's so much we don't know. Sounds like, from the

article, that the Brits decided to detain Miranda before the plane
touched down in London from Berlin. Did the authorities run the
passenger list and Miranda came up? Did Miranda fly to Berlin via
London? Did the U.S. put Miranda on an international watch list &
the Brits then contacted the U.S. when his name was on the
passenger list? It's probably 'secret'.

Love it that Greenwald plans on writing more aggressively....
drawing a line in the sand?

[bemildred]

6. I think games are being played.

That's about all at this point. The problem is that all parties involved can be assumed to be dissembling their actions and intentions like mad.

Many theories present themselves, none have the support of sufficient evidence yet. But in this situation, all noise is good, so to speak. More noise will bring more clarity, eventually.

Consider the question, however, of who looks excited and mad and who looks frustrated and mad?

[snappyturtle]

7. Great question! It's telling. nt

[another_liberal]

8. Well they might!

If the government can take this person off a flight, hold and question him for nine hours and seize his personal property, all without ever charging him for anything, they can do the same to any of us.

[bemildred]

10. That is pretty much what the "authorities" claim. nt

[another_liberal]

19. If that is true, no one is a free man.

We are all just on parole.

[bemildred]

22. Pretty much, but it's for our own good.

[RKP5637]

26. Exactly what is going on. Freedom, rights and privacy are just a delusion. n/t

[uhnope]

9. Dude is going through customs with stolen documents

and it's shocking he was detained?

Mr. Greenwald said that all of the documents encrypted on the thumb drives came from the trove of materials provided by Mr. Snowden.

Please, the wig flipping is too much

[bemildred]

11. He didn't go through customs until they released him.

The interrogations took place in the transit area. Then they released him into the UK because there was no flight.

[uhnope]

12. OK...try this: Dude is trafficking in stolen documents but it's supposed to be shocking that...

...he's detained at the airport?

Mr. Greenwald said that all of the documents encrypted on the thumb drives came from the trove of materials provided by Mr. Snowden.

[bemildred]

13. No, not shocking at all.

Stupid though. They will regret it. They regret it already

[Ed Suspicious]

16. Define stolen, barrister.

[uhnope]

17. there's no argument that Snowden stole the docs; that's what this guy is trafficking thru airports.

Mr. Greenwald said that all of the documents encrypted on the thumb drives came from the trove of materials provided by Mr. Snowden.

[another_liberal]

21. Has Scotland Yard . . .

The Guardian is publishing Greenwald's articles. Has Scotland Yard told the editor yet that he's going to get his, "Tit caught in a ringer?"

[fedsron2us]

30. If the UK authorities felt a crime had been committed

or stolen goods were being taken through the airport why did they not arrest and charge Miranda under the appropriate criminal law rather that using the catchall Section 7 of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to detain him. Of course, that would have meant taking the matter to court before a judge and jury which clearly was too tiresome for people who no longer seem to want to bother with due process. There was also the slight problem that Miranda was not a British citizen and no crime had actually been committed in the UK. The US government claim not to be driving this process which begs the question what British law is supposed to have been broken. Does this mean that the UK government has suddenly decided that its main job is to act as some sort of global US law enforcement officer

[uhnope]

14. "Nick Cohen, a columnist for the conservative weekly The Spectator..."

Yep, the conservatives are running this bandwagon.

Nearly everyone, [right winger] Mr. Cohen wrote, suspects that the police held Mr. Miranda “on trumped-up charges because the police, at the behest of the Americans,”

Anti-American right wingers at that.

[bemildred]

15. They love it. It's like a gift. nt

[bemildred]

32. Tom McClintock, GOP Congressman, Calls For Edward Snowden Amnesty

See? They are going to be all over this.

Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) is the latest member of Congress to sound off on the fate of Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked information about secret surveillance programs to media outlets.

In an interview with KCRA-TV last week, McClintock announced that he supports amnesty for Snowden, who is currently facing U.S. espionage charges and residing in Russia under temporary asylum.

"As a practical matter, I'd much rather have him in America talking to Americans than in Russia talking to Russians," the congressman explained to The Sacramento Bee this week. "More importantly, Congress was lied to about the existence of the NSA program that seized the phone and Internet records of millions of Americans without a warrant."

McClintock told the Bee that while Snowden may have violated anti-espionage laws, "there's a higher power ... and that's the Constitution."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/tom-mcclintock-edward-snowden_n_3787182.html

[DeSwiss]

18. Leaders of the world: RESIGN.

K&R

[blkmusclmachine]

24. .

.

[SwissTony]

25. "...two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in The Guardian’s basement"

Poor buggers. They knew what they were doing as effective as sticking your finger in a leaking dyke.

[bemildred]

27. Yep. Really just being pouty because they can, or because they know no better.

Very immature at best.

[SwissTony]

28. I suppose you could argue they were trying to be intimidating.

But it makes them look stupid.

[bemildred]

29. Yup, you can argue lots of things, and they do, but the fact is they look bad again.

And it is transparent what's really going on, and it does look stupid, because it is stupid, and corrupt, and self-serving.

[fedsron2us]

31. Only two of them

Surely secret policemen come in threes - one to read, one to write and one to keep an eye on the two intellectuals