Sunday, August 18, 2013

Greenwalds Partner Detained By British Officers, Dumb

Glenn Greenwald explains Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation "The detention of my partner, David Miranda, by UK authorities will have the opposite effect of the one intended."

Ars Technica summarizes "David Miranda—partner of The Guardian's lead NSA-leaks reporter Glenn Greenwald—was detained under local terrorism laws for nearly nine hours on Sunday at London's Heathrow airport. Miranda was eventually released without any charges, but authorities confiscated property such as Miranda's phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs, and games consoles, according to The Guardian."

and adds...

“When I was in Hong Kong, I spoke to my partner in Rio via Skype and told him I would send an electronic encrypted copy of the documents,” Greenwald told the website two months ago. “I did not end up doing it. Two days later his laptop was stolen from our house and nothing else was taken. Nothing like that has happened before. I am not saying it’s connected to this, but obviously the possibility exists.”

Amnesty International adds some details, UK: Detention of Guardian employee at Heathrow unlawful and unwarranted.

Andrew Sullivan concludes Cameron Proves Greenwald Right.

Since then, I’ve watched the debate closely and almost all the checks I supported have been proven illusory. The spying is vastly more extensive than anyone fully comprehended before; the FISA court has been revealed as toothless and crippled; and many civilians have had their privacy accidentally violated over 3000 times. The president, in defending the indefensible, has damaged himself and his core reputation for honesty and candor. These cumulative revelations have exposed this program as, at a minimum, dangerous to core liberties and vulnerable to rank abuse. I’ve found myself moving further and further to Glenn’s position.

What has kept me from embracing it entirely has been the absence of any real proof than any deliberate abuse has taken place and arguments that it has helped prevent terror attacks. This may be too forgiving a standard. If a system is ripe for abuse, history tells us the only question is not if such abuse will occur, but when. So it is a strange and awful irony that the Coalition government in Britain has today clinched the case for Glenn.

No comments: