Sunday Not-So-Funnies
The police at Heathrow decided to play ‘silly buggers’ with David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald’s partner, as he was changing planes during a trip from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro. They detained him for 9 hours and confiscated all of his electronics under Schedule 7 of the UK 2000 Terrorism Law. That Schedule gives the police the right to detain anyone they feel like annoying for 9 hours without any access to a lawyer or their country’s embassy, and the person detained is required to answer all questions or be arrested for obstructing an investigation.
Greenwald responded to what he felt was an obvious attempt at intimidation by telling US-UK authorities to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, because he’s angry, not afraid. He noted that even the Mafia exempted family members when they were going after someone.
Also angry are Brazilian authorities for the treatment of a Brazilian citizen by UK authorities. Based on the past responses of Brazil to actions taken by the US, I would recommend that UK citizens who are planning to go to or through Brazil to arrive 10 hours early for their flights.
South America was more than annoyed after what happened to Evo Morales, so this was a really stupid thing to do.
Jeff Jarvis writes about The White House credibility deficit, but I think it covers the UK as well – people no longer believe anything said by their officials, especially on the topic of terrorism, so access to officials is of no use to journalists.
August 18, 2013 4 Comments
Sunday Funnies
NewsBiscuit provides: British Intelligence launch subscription surveillance service, GCHQ+
(It’s more fun than watching Erin being depressed on its way to being a remnant low.)
August 18, 2013 Comments Off on Sunday Funnies
