U.K. Punishes Glenn Greenwald by Detaining His Boyfriend Under Terrorism Law

In a naked effort to intimidate and inconvenience Glenn Greenwald, who first reported the Edward Snowden leaks, authorities in the U.K. detained his partner, David Miranda, for nearly nine hours Sunday while Miranda traveled from Europe to the couple’s home in Rio de Janeiro.

As Greenwald writes in response to the incident, “Even the Mafia had ethical rules against targeting the family members of people they felt threatened by.”

Greenwald says a man identifying himself only as a “security official at Heathrow airport” said Miranda was being held “under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.” This is a law meant to confront terrorism, not embarrass journalists. Worse, Miranda wasn’t even traveling to the U.K. He was on a layover from a flight originating in Berlin and destined for Brazil.

Greenwald says this effort at intimidation will not deter his work:

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. If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further.

— Posted by Peter Z. Scheer