Back in the U.S., back in the U.K., back in the U.S.S.R.
NSA's leak journalist's partner gets detained, just for the heck of it
Creepy. Orwellian. I don't know what else to say about the Brazilian partner of the Guardian's Glenn Greenwald, who broke the Edward Snowden whistleblower story, getting detained and checked out as a potential terrorist for nine long hours by British authorities at Heathrow Airport. The detention of David Miranda comes off as something clumsy that the Soviets or one of their client states would have done in the Cold War. Did they think Miranda was a member of that Brazilian terrorist group, "os-Qaeda"? And so I guess there are no "Miranda rights" in the United Kingdom.
Why does it matter? It's intimidation, pure and simple. No one wants to see their loved ones put under duress, so maybe the next journalist on the verge of printing something the American or British governments don't want you to know will remember this little incident, and act accordingly.