Greenwald partner ordeal: politicians want answers
Glenn Greenwald, who exposed NSA surveillance, accuses the UK of being “despotic” after his partner is detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours. Politicians demand answers from police.
Politicians, including shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, have condemned the nine-hour detention of a journalist by police at Heathrow Airport and said that the police must explain why they detained David Miranda for so long.
Mr Miranda was travelling between Berlin and Rio via London, on a information-gathering trip paid for by the Guardian, when he was detained and questioned for nine hours by airport police and his mobile phone, laptop and memory sticks were confiscated.
“Any suggestion that terror powers are being misused must be investigated and clarified urgently – the public support for these powers must not be endangered by a perception of misuse,” Ms Cooper said. Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs select committee has said he will also ask police to justify their actions.
David Miranda who is working on a documentary about NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, is also the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Brazil-based journalist behind the key revelations about the NSA. Mr Greenwald wrote about Mr Miranda’s nine-hour detention in the Guardian, and said the incident was an attempt to intimidate journalists.
If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded. Glenn Greenwald
“This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism,” he said.
“It’s bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It’s worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic.”
Downing Street has responded that “it is for the police to decide when it is necessary and proportionate to use these powers.”
‘Unjustifiable’
Mr Miranda was travelling from Germany back to Brazil, where he lives with Mr Greenwald in Rio de Janeiro.
Speaking at Rio de Janeiro airport Friday, Mr Miranda said: “I remained in a room. There were six different agents coming and going. They asked questions about my entire life, about everything.
“They took my computer, video game, mobile phone, my memory card. Everything.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday that Mr Miranda was “detained and held incommunicado.”
The statement went on to say that the foreign ministry considered the detention “unjustifiable, as it involves an individual against whom there are no accusations that could possibly legitimize the use of such legislation.”
“I remained in a room. There were six different agents coming and going. They asked questions about my entire life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, mobile phone, my memory card. Everything.” – David Miranda, on his 9-hour detention in Heathrow Airport
Mr Greenwald has written a series of stories about the NSA’s electronic surveillance programmes based on files handed over by former NS contractor Mr Snowden.
Russia has granted temporary asylum to Mr Snowden – something that has led to a chilling of US-Russian relations.
Would it be OK for UK to invade Guardian newsroom- or FBI to invade NYT- if they think they have classified docs, detain everyone for 9 hrs?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 19, 2013
‘Zero suspicion’
Mr Greenwald added that British police had “zero suspicion” that Mr Miranda was linked to a terrorist group, and had instead grilled him on the NSA reports.
“If the UK and US governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded,” he said.
“If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further.”
The Metropolitan police confirmed a 28-year-old man was detained at 8:05 am, and was released 5 pm without being arrested.
‘Breathtakingly broad power’
Police are allowed to detain people for nine hours under the Terrorism Act’s schedule seven, which authorises security agencies to stop and question people at borders.
The Home Office says in a report released last year that more than 97 per cent of those questioned under schedule seven are detained for less than an hour. Less than 0.1 per cent are held for more than six hours.
No grounds for suspicion is required under Schedule 7 for an officer to detain and question a passenger. However officers are expected to use the detention to determine whether or not the person held is connected to terrorism.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of freedom group Liberty has criticised the legislation as: “breathtakingly broad”.
She said: “David Miranda’s chilling nine-hour detention was possible due to the breathtakingly broad Schedule 7 power, which requires no suspicion and is routinely abused. People are held for long periods, subject to strip searches, saliva swabbing and confiscation of property – all without access to a publicly funded lawyer.
“Liberty is already challenging this law in the Court of Human Rights but MPs disturbed by this latest scandal should repeal it without delay.”