Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation

Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation

www.theguardian.com

At 6:30 am this morning my time - 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US - I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a "security official at Heathrow airport." He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been "detained" at the London airport "under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000."

According to a document published by the UK government about Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act, "fewer than 3 people in every 10,000 are examined as they pass through UK borders" (Dav

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This story has really got under my skin, so just to clarify, if you tell the truth about the U.S. government then not only will they harass you, but they will get other countries to harass your family and friends also?

Does anyone else think the U.S. is behaving like a spoiled brat?

Well, by the sounds of it they were trying to get more information about what else is going to be released next. Maybe it's also a sign that they don't know exactly what information was taken. Either way, I find this to be a disturbing story which highlights our so called "rights".

www.theguardian.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Just saw this on twitter. I hope he doesn't wait too long to release whatever information Snowden gave to him. There's no doubt he's got bad people gunning for him.

So they're using terrorist laws, to go after intimidation of journalists. And planning on trying to terrify anyone who would even dare to whistleblow. I hope all the journalists and media and public stand up and send them a good sharp metaphoric kick in the nards.

reply to post by solongandgoodnight


Hopefully it wasn't in his laptop and other electronics they confiscated from him.

reply to post by Unity_99


I don't believe they would be that stupid, but you never know.

Everyone remember Naomi Wolf?
She warned of all this years ago...

Well now we know why they increased security over fear of a "Booby Bomb" at Heathrow don't we?
ATS

David was unable to call me because his phone and laptop are now with UK authorities.

See if he was Jason Bourne he would have used an invisible chi whammie and knocked them out stole their sim cards and used it to spy on them.

Amateur skills.

This is a travesty. They held this guy for suspicion of terrorism, with zero evidence of terrorism. They all but admitted they just used the terrorism laws at their disposal to harass this guy due to a beef with his partner.

The worst part is that there isn't anything anybody can do about it. Any official at any airport can hold you for 9 hours, refuse legal council, and steal all of your stuff, with out needing to have a reason!

I sometimes wish these escalations would speed up and TPTB would just show their hand. This slow con crap is getting really old. Does anybody not see where this is heading? Its like one of those crappy suspense movies where they trickle out little bits and pieces even though everybody watching had the plot figured out ten minutes into the film.

DC

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Its not just the US. Its the Illimunati in general. They have their hands in everything...and i literally mean everything

Well Glenn Greenwald sure must have pi$$ed some people off, that they were going after his partner to intimidate him.
This whole NSA thing is getting out of control. Something's gotta give.

S&F for the find OP

Just to add, here's RT's story on it:

The partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald was held at Heathrow airport under the UK Terrorism Act for the maximum time allowed before pressing charges. Amnesty International dubbed the move an unwarranted revenge after Greenwald revealed NSA spy programs.

rt.com...

Originally posted by Unity_99
So they're using terrorist laws, to go after intimidation of journalists. And planning on trying to terrify anyone who would even dare to whistleblow. I hope all the journalists and media and public stand up and send them a good sharp metaphoric kick in the nards.

Freedom of speech is a thing of the past with 24/7 surveillance on the broadest scale. Maybe Americans just don't care or are too dumb to understand that they've lost the rule of law. Sixty years ago Moa said that moral decadence would allow the western governments to become dictatorships.

Originally posted by xDeadcowx
This is a travesty. They held this guy for suspicion of terrorism, with zero evidence of terrorism. They all but admitted they just used the terrorism laws at their disposal to harass this guy due to a beef with his partner.

The worst part is that there isn't anything anybody can do about it. Any official at any airport can hold you for 9 hours, refuse legal council, and steal all of your stuff, with out needing to have a reason!

I sometimes wish these escalations would speed up and TPTB would just show their hand. This slow con crap is getting really old. Does anybody not see where this is heading? Its like one of those crappy suspense movies where they trickle out little bits and pieces even though everybody watching had the plot figured out ten minutes into the film.

DC

Its actually pretty amazing from my perspective, to see how conditioned the public is to accept the body search and allow every man, woman and child to be viewed as a potential terrorist. That's been happening since September 12th, 2001. This preemptive paradigm has evolved in the past decade, and yet we sublimely allow the government to escalate the security state model. Even when it becomes the number one threat to sovereignty over the potential of terrorism.

reply to post by Zcustosmorum


Spoiled brat, no these people are much more serious that that.

There is no reason on Gods green earth for the Brits to stop and harass Greemwalds partner on terrorism charges of any kind. This is pure intimidation.

It was inevitable that the US and British would start harassing Glen Greenwald for his reporting on the Snowden NSA affair. And I am sure this is only the beginning.

I wish him well but he has got to watch his back because he and Snowden are now targets.

I like Glen immensely and support him; he is one of our best reporters.

We have to get behind hin and show our support!

I came across some very interesting comments about this story...

As usual, the real dirt usually is hidden in some of the blog comments:

(Notice the obvious slander tactic, calling Snowden’s documents "Stolen")

It isn’t mentioned in any of the articles at The Guardian, oddly enough, but the New York Times reports that The Guardian paid for Greenwald’s partner’s trip: Britain Detains Partner of Reporter Tied to Leaks

"Mr. Miranda was in Berlin to deliver documents related to Mr. Greenwald’s investigation into government surveillance to Ms. Poitras, Mr. Greenwald said. Ms. Poitras, in turn, gave Mr. Miranda different documents to pass to Mr. Greenwald. Those documents, which were stored on encrypted thumb drives, were confiscated by airport security, Mr. Greenwald said. All of the documents came from the trove of materials provided to the two journalists by Mr. Snowden." littlegreenfootballs.com...

See also: NYT: Greenwald’s Partner Was Transporting Snowden’s Stolen Documents

I'm surprised at Britain but here in the U.S. it's common practice for Feds to confiscate everything someone owns and then never file charges... and never give it back. If memory serves, back in the 90s when the NSA got their panties in a twist over PGP, the feds did this to a computer guy in Texas, who earned his living doing tech work, seizing every bit of equipment he owned, never filing charges, and then never giving it back even after years of court wrangling. The last I read, it had gone on for well over a decade.

See, for the feds, seizing private property and then later defending it in court is absolutely free; for a citizen, losing their property (even cars and houses) and then trying to get it back legally drains every resource they have, and the feds know it. It is a strategy that utterly paralyzes its target in daily living. No one cares when they use it against some drug lord, but it's used all the time to incapacitate anyone the feds target. And that's exactly what this was about with Glenn and David.

It's sheer harassment. Always has been, always will be. I'm just kind of surprised the UK has taken up the same vile practice, though I'm not sure why there's anything left in me that thinks they're not all playing out of the same playbook. www.theguardian.com...

reply to post by Willtell


The easiest and most efficient way to show support for Greenwald is stop watching all other news channels completely, cut off the funding so they can't spread more lies and half truths.

I'm not one to agree with these tactics but i think it reasonable to suspect close associates of those they deem to be terrorists. Since they deem the NSA snitches as terrorists it is reasonable to believe they feel they have proper justification to interrogate close associates as they enter and leave the country.

Let's say Bin Laden really was the terrorist threat they say he was. if his close associates were to try to enter the country wouldn't you expect them to get the same kind of treatment, and think it remiss if they didn't? The problem originates far from this detainment and thus at this point in the process the detainment is probably considered proper protocol.

just playing devil's advocate here.

"You're either with us, or you're against us" gets a whole new meaning. It is pretty clear that anyone who dares to ask pertinent questions, expose unethical behavior or is involved with a person who does, will find himself on some sort of blacklist or worse.

The society we live in today no longer allows free speech and thoughts. I don't see the difference between oppressive governments and terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda. There was no reason whatsoever to detain that person, except intimidation and harassment from a government which has totally forgotten the concept of service and the liberties it is supposed to protect.

I also don't understand why Intelligence agencies target regular civilians while they should be focusing on real threats. Maybe its the design and the corrupt actions of the entire global political system that is responsible for the creation of terrorist groups and extremists in the first place.

I guess the real questions are: Who is going to stop them? How long are regular people, who work and pay their taxes, going to keep tolerating this? What is it going to take to change this world? The techniques that are used by the allied governments clearly don't work. What's the agenda here? Who benefits?



www.theguardian.com
(visit the link for the full news article)