Earlier today British security officials at Heathrow Airport detained Glenn Greenwald’s partner, a Brazilian citizen, under the authority of schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000. David Miranda was transiting through Heathrow on his way home after a trip to Berlin, where he had visited Laura Poitras, Greenwald’s partner in exposing the NSA’s surveillance programs. British authorities ended up holding Miranda for nine hours, the maximum allowed, and then confiscated his cell phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs, and game console before finally releasing him.
This is more than just shocking. It’s stupid. Criminally, insanely stupid. I can hardly think of a better way of convincing skeptics that security authorities can’t be trusted with the power we’ve given them.
British citizens want to know if any government ministers were involved in this. As an American citizen, I’d like to know if any American officials were involved in this.