Off Topic: Britain forced Guardian to destroy copy of Snowden material
Britain forced Guardian to destroy copy of Snowden material – Yahoo! News Canada.
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The editor of the Guardian, a major outlet for revelations based on leaks from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, says the British government threatened legal action against the newspaper unless it either destroyed the classified documents or handed them back to British authorities.
In an article posted on the British newspaper’s website on Monday, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said that a month ago, after the newspaper had published several stories based on Snowden’s material, a British official advised him: “You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.”
After further talks with the government, Rusbridger said, two “security experts” from Government Communications Headquarters, the British equivalent of the ultra-secretive U.S. National Security Agency, visited the Guardian’s London offices.
In the building’s basement, Rusbridger wrote, government officials watched as computers which contained material provided by Snowden were physically pulverized. “We can call off the black helicopters,” Rusbridger says one of the officials joked.
The Guardian’s decision to publicize the government threat – and the newspaper’s assertion that it can continue reporting on the Snowden revelations from outside of Britain – appears to be the latest step in an escalating battle between the news media and governments over reporting of secret surveillance programs.
On Sunday, British authorities detained for nine hours the domestic partner of Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian writer who met face to face in Hong Kong with Snowden and has written or co-authored many of the newspaper’s stories based on his material.
The Guardian reported, and UK authorities subsequently confirmed, that David Miranda, Greenwald’s Brazilian partner, was detained by British authorities under an anti-terrorism law as he was in transit from Berlin to Brazil and was changing planes at London’s Heathrow Airport.
One U.S. security official told Reuters that one of the main purposes of the British government’s detention and questioning of Miranda was to send a message to recipients of Snowden’s materials, including the Guardian, that the British government was serious about trying to shut down the leaks.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters on Monday that while the United States did not ask British authorities to detain Miranda, British officials had given the United States a “heads up” about the British government’s plan to question him.
Rusbridger, in his article on the Guardian’s website, said that despite the destruction of the computers in London, he told British officials that due to the nature of “international collaborations” among journalists, it would remain possible for media organizations to “take advantage of the most permissive legal environments.” Henceforth, he said, the Guardian “did not have to do our reporting from London.”
A source familiar with the matter said that this meant British authorities were on notice that the Guardian was likely to continue to report on the Snowden revelations from outside British government jurisdiction.
Rusbridger said that in meetings with British officials before the computers were destroyed, he told them the Guardian could not do its journalistic duty if it gave in to the government’s requests.
In response, he wrote, a government official told him that the newspaper had already achieved the aim of sparking a debate on government surveillance. “You’ve had your debate. There’s no need to write any more,” the unnamed official was quoted as saying.
During Miranda’s trip to Berlin, which the Guardian said it had paid for, he visited with Laura Poitras, an independent film-maker who was the first journalist to interact with Snowden. Poitras co-authored stories based on Snowden’s material for the Washington Post and the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Greenwald told the New York Times that Miranda went to Berlin to deliver materials downloaded by Snowden to Poitras and to acquire from Poitras a different set of materials for delivery to Greenwald, who lives with Miranda near Rio de Janeiro.
Greenwald said British authorities seized all electronic media, including data memory sticks, which Miranda was carrying. But Greenwald told the Forbes website that “everything” Miranda had “was heavily encrypted.”
Greenwald did not immediately respond to an email from Reuters requesting comment.
While British authorities confirmed that Miranda had been detained under an anti-terrorism law, they did not further explain their actions. Brazil’s government complained about Miranda’s detention in a statement on Sunday that said the use of the British anti-terrorism law was unjustified.
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Tim Dobbyn)
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WarSclerotic 
August 20, 2013 at 9:46 AM
I wonder if you were a little shocked that a number of us would be considered ‘Tea Party’ conservatives, JW.
🙂
August 20, 2013 at 10:12 AM
Shocked? I would hope that many were. The Tea Party is based on a resistance to the 1% the same as OWS was.
As usual, those in power found ways to divide the resistance to their abuses by focusing on social issues that naturally divide a free society.
If you ask me, outside of politics the supposed division of the American people into left/right, red/blue etc. is the most successful disinfo campaign ever waged in the US.
There was only one break in that success, the Ross Perot campaign which brought supposed liberals and conservatives together around the perceived unfairness and dysfunction of the government.
It frightened the powers that be so much that they forced Perot to drop out when he was ahead through violent threats against his family. He was allowed to reenter the race only when it was clear that he no longer could win.
This is what we face and why despite both parties’ betrayal of their constituents interests, no third party has been able to gain traction yet. The press does its part by continually dismissing any possibility of a third party succeeding.
I volunteered for the Perot campaign for 6 months and served as the coordinator of Jewish voters on the West Coast. I was living in LA at the time.
August 20, 2013 at 10:30 AM
I actually voted for Perot!
Anyway, the MSM has smeared the Tea Party as some kind of racist bible-thumping group of people when they’re anything but.
I myself am an atheist (though I have Jewish ancestry.)
August 20, 2013 at 11:16 AM
I agree. The MSM focused on social issues to estrange voters from both the Tea Party and OWS.
Tea Party = Atavistic fundamentalists, sexist, racist etc.
OWS = Drug using dirty hippies, lazy, spoiled etc.
Wish there was another Perot you and I could vote for. I boycotted the last election as “none of the above” was not an option in my state.
August 20, 2013 at 3:16 PM
They smeared Ron Paul too, a libertarian at heart.
August 21, 2013 at 3:19 AM
Please watch yesterdays’s (and many preceding) Keiser Reports on RT and learn about the true depths of depravity to which the US government and the military industrial media complex will stoop.
August 20, 2013 at 10:37 AM
The famous and old British democracy at its best. And the people rights have been respected, also. Like were respected the rights of the people who tried to reach Israel ( then Palestine ) after their families were butchered by the Nazis.
Britain fought for the Europe not to be overrun ? That is what are you telling us, Justice? Of course, I mean ”telling” when your mouth doesn’t get dirty and out of control, sir. The Russians also fought against the Nazis and that a f t e r the Europe was already overrun. And how much time could England make a stand against the Nazi Germany without the never ending arms and American pool of people?
Without the American intervention sir, we all should have spoke German today and take care not to have any Jewish granny somewhere, in some files.
The Russians indeed fought a great war against the Nazis, but Stalin was a criminal. The British also had their ”finest hour” facing the Nazis – Battle Of Britain, the defeat of the Luftwaffe – but the British Government was criminal regarding those poor Jews who made it and reached the Palestine shores.
So, Justice, don’t ”tell” us stories about the British Great Democracy and The Rights Of Men And Women In The British Empire, sir, because the Ghosts Of The Past wont remain silent.
Today, sir, Europe, Britain and the USA are falling apart under the very eyes of ours. Europe became an unclear puzzle of people and cultures and the Muslim invasion there wont help the continent to recover; in fact, the opposite is true. Britain is falling apart from within and I’m talking about the same Islamic ”invasion” into England; I was told that London is not what it used to be. America is falling because it has a president who is doing a poor job and nobody is even considering to fire him (from his job).
Where are the eyes of the world turning today, Sir? Who is the Shield Of The West, Sir? Who is strong, steady and quiet and is
surrounded by enemies who are killing and butchering each other?
Who might that be?
That country is Israel, here, in the Holy Land who has risen again through the blood of its people and a great Promise, made by Him at the dawn of the mankind history.
August 20, 2013 at 11:19 AM
Yasher koach, Luis…. Achi!
August 20, 2013 at 12:32 PM
Thank you, Joseph.
August 20, 2013 at 12:47 PM
Right on brother.
Feel free to drop by for tea if you’re ever heading north.
August 20, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Right on, but read this.
http://www.southerninstitute.info/holocaust_education/ds9.html#america
August 20, 2013 at 2:45 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lend-Lease
August 20, 2013 at 2:49 PM
Lend-Lease was a critical factor in the eventual success of the Allies in World War II.[N 1] In 1943–1944, about a quarter of all British munitions came through Lend-Lease. Aircraft (in particular transport aircraft) comprised about a quarter of the shipments to Britain, followed by food, land vehicles and ships
August 20, 2013 at 7:09 PM
We have to give credit where credit is due.
At least tjhe Britsh authorities allowed “The Guardian” to go thus far.
The fact that a British paper broke the story and continued reporting on the story tells a lot about the state of the American main stream media which has become a mouth piece for obavez.
And it also tells a lot about those many traitors among the American politicians who knew about it and did nothing to prevent the NSA from getting out of control.
Were it not for Snowden the extend of the spying upon innocent Americans (and Non-Americans) would not be known to the wider public.
August 21, 2013 at 1:01 AM
In order to be free, one must surrender one’s freedom.
Can anyone else spot the oxymoron?
That being said, ABSOLUTE freedom is anarchy. The most basic freedom of all is the freedom to take the consequences, people tend to be myopic about that, or simply too blind to see.
Joop and John, thanks for the links, both bookmarked for further study. Luis, u always inspire me to learn more about my country’s history.
Keep up the good work JW, please e-mail me so as to enlighten me on an extremely sensitive question I have and wouldn’t have dreamed of posing were it not for your open letter to your son. Please. Shalom