Bad Optics on David Miranda detention

The left and some on the right are howling about the detention of Glenn Greenwald’s “partner” David Miranda.

The Story via Guardian:

The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National SecurityAgency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London‘s Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.

David Miranda, who lives with Glenn Greenwald, was returning from a trip to Berlin when he was stopped by officers at 8.05am 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.

The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. Accordingto official figures, most examinations under schedule 7 – over 97% – last less than an hour, and only one in 2,000 people detained are kept for more than six hours.

Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles.

Greenwald understandably is not amused:

At 6:30 am this morning my time – 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US – I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a “security official at Heathrow airport.” He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been “detained” at the London airport “under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.”

David had spent the last week in Berlin, where he stayed with Laura Poitras, the US filmmaker who has worked with me extensively on theNSA stories. A Brazilian citizen, he was returning to our home in Rio de Janeiro this morning on British Airways, flying first to London and then on to Rio. When he arrived in London this morning, he was detained.

At the time the “security official” called me, David had been detained for 3 hours. The security official told me that they had the right to detain him for up to 9 hours in order to question him, at which point they could either arrest and charge him or ask a court to extend the question time. The official – who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 – said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him.

A few things that are not being reported; one, the Guardian paid for the trip. Two, this here, which is being reported by the NYT:

Mr. Miranda was in Berlin to deliver documents related to Mr. Greenwald’s investigation into government surveillance to Ms. Poitras, Mr. Greenwald said. Ms. Poitras, in turn, gave Mr. Miranda different documents to pass to Mr. Greenwald. Those documents, which were stored on encrypted thumb drives, were confiscated by airport security, Mr. Greenwald said. All of the documents came from the trove of materials provided to the two journalists by Mr. Snowden. The British authorities seized all of his electronic media — including video games, DVDs and data storage devices — and did not return them, Mr. Greenwald said.

Some people are calling him a “Mule”, and that might very well be true too.

Here is my take on the situation: This is very bad optics, not only for the British Government, but for the United States as well. However, as someone who believes in rule of law. If you are a person, who is well-known or somehow or another related to this person who is well-known and you are carrying stolen documents that rightfully belong to a major Government and you intend on delivering them for illegal distribution; you should expect stuff like this to happen.

This is one of my major gripes with the libertarians of all stripes. They do stuff like this here; and then, when they get arrested, they act like somehow or another their rights have been somehow violated. The truth is, Snowden broke the law and when you break the law, you have to answer for your crimes. Whether abuse happened or not, in Snowden’s claims is totally irrelevant and nothing more than a distraction to the fact that the man was trusted with the secrets of the United States Government and he chose to break the law by revealing them.

If anything, Greenwald, Poitras, and Miranda ought to be charged in accessory to releasing stolen classified documents. Again, this is not about whether the United States made mistakes, this is about someone, who was trusted with classified documents and chose to release them, thereby breaking the law.

Again, let me be absolutely clear, I am not a supporter of the NSA spying program and some of it’s abuses that is being reported. What I am a supporter of, is rule of law and protecting the United States of America, and protecting classified information from getting into the hands of those who want to destroy this Country. Snowden and Greenwald obviously do not share that feeling and as a result, Snowden broke the law and Greenwald is helping him. For this, both of these men should go to jail for a very long time.

Andrew Sullivan / The Dish: Cameron Proves Greenwald Right
Associated Press: Partner of reporter at center of NSA leak detained

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Update: Fixed rather funny typo in third paragraph after quotes. More coffee! 😛

Kudos to Glenn Greenwald

I realize this posting might just harm my so-called “Conservative credentials,” if I actually had any to begin with; but personally, I really do not care, to be quite honest. Glenn Greenwald is a liberal, Democrat and has written very extensively on the misdeeds and unconstitutional acts of the United States Government. One of the of the good things about Glenn Greenwald is that he is absolutely consistent in his stance against some of the unconstitutional acts of this Government under the banner of the “War on Terrorism.” When I was still a part of the “cheering squad” for the left and Bush was still much in control; Greenwald was a daily reader for me.

One thing you should know about Mr. Greenwald is that the same criticisms that Glenn has against the Obama Administration is the SAME ones that he had against the Bush Administration. This is why I do truly like what he is doing; politics be damned, we must hold this Government’s feet to the fire at all times. Otherwise, they will trample over us, like we do not exist. This is what Glenn Greenwald does, and this is why I am adding him to my “Honest Liberals” blogroll on this site. While I disagree with him on politics; I agree with what he is doing, which is keeping them honest.

One of the reasons why I say all the above, is because of pieces like this here, which Glenn writes about Obama Administration:

Video:

Quote:

Anyone who observes politics closely has a very low bar of expectations. It’s almost inevitable to become cynical – even jaded – about just how inept and inane top Washington officials are. Still, even processing this through those lowly standards, I just find this staggering. Staggering and repellent. This is an elected official in Congress, the body that the Constitution designed to impose checks on the president’s abuses of power, and she does not have the foggiest idea what is happening in the White House, and obviously does not care in the slightest, because the person doing it is part of the party she leads.

One expects corrupt partisan loyalty from people like Wasserman Schultz, eager to excuse anything and everything a Democratic president does. That’s a total abdication of her duty as a member of Congress, but that’s par for the course. But one does not expect this level of ignorance, the ability to stay entirely unaware of one of the most extremist powers a president has claimed in US history, trumpeted on the front-page of the New York Times and virtually everywhere else.

Amen. While I believe the war on terrorism is an important battle; I do not believe the best way to fight it, is by dancing around the constitution to do so. This is why I respect Mr. Greenwald, because he believes that as well. Good show Mr. Greenfield; keep it up! Peace Sign

Update: I realized after I hit publish, that Greenwald is gay. So much for me being a “right-wing gay hater” eh? The truth is, what Glenn does in his private life, is his own damned business. Do I support the lifestyle? No. But that does not mean I cannot respect a man, who happen to be gay, for supporting our constitution — because now, that is what is important. Social Conservatism is great, and it is what I am; but it is not what I want my Country to be modeled after. Because it is the Christian version of Sharia Law and I do not want that in this Country ever. Sharia Law or a Christian Theocracy.

Again Good Job, Glenn — keep it up! From a fan on the “so-called” right.

Why I am not a big fan of John Podhoretz

I support Israel and all; but this right here, is why I am not a huge fan of John Podhoretz.

Glenn Greenwald reports:

One reason I think this discussion is so important is because the manipulation of the term “terrorism” this way permits and bolsters (even if unintentionally) an extremely ugly, destructive, and toxic worldview, one which the Editor-in-Chief of Commentary Magazine, John Podhoretz, vividly expressed last night on Twitter when discussing the firing of Keith Olbermann by Current TV:

That’s about as overtly racist a statement from a media figure with a platform as you’ll see (and the it’s-just-a-joke excuse is obviously irrelevant: just imagine analogous “jokes” about how disfavored journalists would be punished at The Jerusalem Post, or Black Entertainment Television, etc.). To Podhoretz, Al Jazeera is filled with Arabs and Muslims, which means: The Terrorists (for many years after 9/11, that was virtually official U.S. government policy). Podhoretz is the same person who wrote a New York Post column in 2006 lamenting that in the early stages of the Iraq War, “we didn’t kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them and make them so afraid of us they would go along with anything,” suggesting that the big U.S. mistake in the war was allowing “the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35.” Remember, though: it’s those Muslims who are The Terrorists (when influential American “terrorism experts” start talking about the John Podhoretzes of the world as terrorism advocates, and about “Shock and Awe“, the assault on Fallujah and the bombing of Gaza as terrorism, and about Ronald Reagan as a “state sponsor of terrorism” for his funding of El Salvadoran death squads and Nicaraguan contras, and about the parties responsible for the assassination of Iranian civilian scientists as international terrorists, then I’ll start to take the honorific more seriously).

I have no doubt that most respected “terrorism experts” would find Podhoretz’s comment about Al Jazeera repugnant. But the mentality on display here — and it’s quite pervasive (which is why this is one of the few remaining forms of overt bigotry that provokes no real sanction) — finds nourishment in the constant discussion of Terrorism, the Supreme Evil, as: acts of violence by Muslims directed at us (but not violence by our own government or those of its allies directed at Muslims).

The above is exactly why the libertarian crowd hates the Zionist crowd with a passion. This is why I am not a huge fan of John Podhoretz and his ilk. It is because they can make statements like this, without any repercussions. If someone, who is not a Zionist made a similar statement about Israel and Jews; they would be excoriated from one end of the blogosphere to the other. Mr. Glennwald has a very good point and I think everyone on the Jewish Conservative side of the political isle, ought to take a hard look at this and take it very seriously. If the Zionists want respect, they have to learn to respect others. Because not all Arabs out there are terrorists; just like not all blacks are murders, robbers, and so forth —- not all white people are robe and hood carrying Klansman. Some black liberals might think that, but I digress. Furthermore, not all Jews are evil bankers trying to overthrow the Country. See? It goes both ways. Someone needs to tell Podhoretz to keep his damned bigotry towards Arabs to himself.

Also too; anyone who believes that Jews can be insulted like this, and can get away with it —- ought to have a nice long talk — with Rick Sanchez.

Just a thought.