Glenn Greenwald’s Partner Detained in the UK

Glenn Greenwald’s partner was detained during a layover in the UK on his way to Brazil. The used detention powers provided under an anti-terrorism law to question him not about terrorism, but his involvement with Greenwald’s reporting on the NSA’s surveillance programs:

The detention power, claims the UK government, is used “to determine whether that person is or has been involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.”

But they obviously had zero suspicion that David was associated with a terrorist organization or involved in any terrorist plot. Instead, they spent their time interrogating him about the NSA reporting which Laura Poitras, the Guardian and I are doing, as well the content of the electronic products he was carrying. They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop “the terrorists”, and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.