Guilt by association? Glenn Greenwald’s partner, David Miranda, was detained for almost nine hours under the Terrorism Act of 2007,  by UK authorities at London’s Heathrow airport as he traveled home to Rio de Janeiro from Berlin. Miranda was released without charge, but officials confiscated electronic equipment including his cell phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and game consoles.

You will recall his partner, Glenn Greenwald, wrote a series of stories leaked from Edward Snowden about the National Security Agency’s surveillance program. What did Greenwald think would happen? That he and his lover could run around the world and not be subjected to scrutiny in light of the security leaks?

David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.30am and informed that he was to be questioned under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. The controversial law, which applies only at airports, ports and border areas, allows officers to stop, search, question and detain individuals.

While in Berlin, Miranda had visited Laura Poitras, the US film-maker who has also been working on the Snowden files with Greenwald and the Guardian. “This is a profound attack on press freedoms and the news gathering process,” said Greenwald. “To detain my partner for a full nine hours while denying him a lawyer, and then seize large amounts of his possessions, is clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and GCHQ. The actions of the UK pose a serious threat to journalists everywhere.

“But the last thing it will do is intimidate or deter us in any way from doing our job as journalists. Quite the contrary: it will only embolden us more to continue to report aggressively.”

A spokesperson for the Guardian said: “We were dismayed that the partner of a Guardian journalist who has been writing about the security services was detained for nearly nine hours while passing through Heathrow airport. We are urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities.”

A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: “At 08:05 on Sunday 18 August 2013 a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow airport under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was not arrested. He was subsequently released at 17:00.” Source: Guardian

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.