Outcry over detention of Glenn Greenwald’s partner under terrorism legislation

Opposition is growing internationally to the nine hours detention of David Miranda, the partner of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, under British counter-terrorism laws. Greenwald has written a series of stories exposing the mass surveillance programs carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA), based on documents given to him by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. ● All the facts point to Miranda being seized, in a chilling episode, by the UK authorities in collusion with the US government. ● Miranda was held Sunday morning at London’s Heathrow Airport on his way from Berlin to his Rio de Janeiro home. Miranda, 28, a Brazilian citizen, was kept incommunicado and interrogated by British police without access to secure legal counsel. British officials seized the electronic equipment in his possession, including his mobile phone, laptop computer, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and game consoles. ● On Monday he described his ordeal. “I remained in a room, there were six different agents coming and going, talking to me. They asked questions about my entire life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, mobile phone, my memory cards, everything.” ● Greenwald wrote that the British authorities “are going to regret what they did...I am going to write my stories a lot more aggressively now. I am going to publish many more documents now. I am going to publish a lot about England, too. I have a lot of documents about the espionage system in England. Now my focus is going to be that as well.”

The Guardian: British authorities told US before detaining Miranda
The Guardian: David Miranda's lawyers threaten legal action over 'unlawful' detention
The Guardian: David Miranda detention prompts outcry over 'gross misuse' of terror laws
Russia Today: The Guardian: Downing St. involved in 'Snowden materials' destruction order
Russia Today: UK ordered "Guardian" to destroy hard drives in effort to stop Snowden revelations
Reuters: UK Govt Destroyed Guardian's Snowden Docs
Jason Ditz: Britain, US Face Angry Backlash Over Miranda Detention

The Guardian: Rusbridger: destroying hard drives allowed us to continue NSA coverage Guardian editor-in-chief says he agreed to 'slightly pointless' task because newspaper has digital copies outside Britain. ● The move followed weeks of private discussions with Whitehall officials who eventually threatened legal action over the material "unless we handed it back or destroyed it", he said. "It was a rather bizarre situation in which I explained to them that there were other copies and, as with WikiLeaks, we weren't working in London alone so destroying a copy in London seemed to me a slightly pointless task that didn't take account of the way that digital information works these days," said Rusbridger. "Given that there were other copies and we could work out of America, which has better laws to protect journalists, I saw no reason not to destroy this material ourselves rather than hand it back to the government."

PressTV: Government agents force "Guardian" to destroy Snowden files ● The paper’s editor Alan Rusbridger said they were contacted by "a very senior government official claiming to represent the views of the prime minister" adding that the official “demanded the return or destruction of all the material we were working on." "You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back. There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall figures," he said. "The demand was the same: 'hand the Snowden material back or destroy it...You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more’ ,” he added. Later in his article on the paper’s website, Rusbridger said that despite the destruction of the computers in London, they can continue reporting on the matter from outside Britain, thanks to “international collaborations” among journalists.