The United Kingdom used an anti-terrorism law to detain Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald's husband and Brazilian citizen David Miranda for 9 hours. Miranda was denied access to any due process, denied access to an attorney and repeatedly threatened with incarceration if he did not answer questions. The Guardian reported:
Miranda was stopped at Heathrow en route to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with Greenwald, who has written a series of stories for the Guardian revealing mass surveillance programmes by the NSA. He was returning to their home from Berlin when he was stopped, allowing officials to take away his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.
During his trip to Berlin, Miranda met Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has been working with Greenwald and the Guardian. The Guardian paid for Miranda's flights. Miranda is not a Guardian employee but often assists Greenwald in his work.
Greenwald and Mirdana described the ordeal on Anderson Cooper last night, and afterward, I debated Jeffery Toobin as he punctuates his nonsensical arguments with a touch of racism, equating Miranda to a "drug mule."
Watch the debate here:
Toobin had no answer for the most pertinent question: What is so dangerous to governments about journalism that a government needs to use a terrorism law to stop journalism?
Firedoglake's Kevin Gosztola rightly lambasted Toobin's hypocrisy:
Toobin has slammed Snowden for being a “grandiose narcissist.” He has chided Snowden for committing “a crime,” one that any government employee or contractor would have known not to commit because they are “warned repeatedly that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information is a crime.”
. . . Toobin is the last person who should be preaching about the sanctity of United States government secrets. He is the last one who should be climbing up on a high horse to share how government has a right to seize “stolen information” because he, himself, stole information.
The documents Toobin stole were not released to a news outlet to be reported on because he felt it was in the public interest. They were taken because he wanted to write a book that would help him make a name for himself and personally benefit him.
Both the US and the UK look as foolish as Toobin does calling Snowden names when the governments pull desperate stunts like
downing the plane of a sovereign nation's President and detaining a journalist's spouse. If the government wants journalists to stop reporting on NSA lawbreaking, then the NSA should stop breaking the law.
But, that doesn't seem likely anytime soon considering Siobhan Gorman's recent report that NSA surveillance of US citizens' internet activities is far more extensive than previously-disclosed.