WAR BREAKS OUT BETWEEN THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT AND SNOWDEN WRITERS

[Geee]

Human Events:

British authorities detained David Miranda, partner of UK Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for nine hours at Heathrow Airport on Sunday morning. According to an interview Miranda gave to the Guardian on Monday, he was returning from Berlin on a trip to “ferry materials between Greenwald and Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on stories related to the NSA files released by US whistle-blower Edward Snowden.”

 

The British government acted under its Terrorism Act of 2000, which allows a maximum nine hours of detention for designated terrorism suspects. The UK Telegraph says only about 40 people per year are held for such an unusually long period. The authorities took Miranda’s computer, along with all of the other electronic devices he was carrying. A statement from the government relayed by Reuters makes it clear they were looking for stolen security documents:

 

“The government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security,” a Home Office (interior ministry) spokesman said in a statement.

 

“If the police believe that an individual is in possession of highly sensitive stolen information that would help terrorism, then they should act and the law provides them with a framework to do that.

 

“Those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they are condoning.”