UK Intelligence Keep Fighting the Guardian

Alan Rusbridger, editor at the Guardian, has revealed that he was contacted by a senior government official who claimed to represent the views of Prime Minister. This meeting ultimately led to the intelligence service destroying hard drives at the newspaper’s London office.
Two meetings took place, after which the official demanded the return or destruction of all whistleblowing content the journalists were working on. The editor admitted that his tone was “steely, if cordial, but there was an implicit threat that the government and Whitehall favored even more draconian approach”. The problems emerged last month, when Rusbridger received a call from the center of government, demanding the data back. Consequently, the editor had further meetings with Whitehall people who wanted the Snowden content back or destroyed.

Rusbridger asked them directly whether the authorities were planning to shut down the paper’s reporting through the courts. The official confirmed they were, indeed. In response, the editor explained that the newspaper wasn’t actually constrained to doing reporting from London only. Actually, most of the NSA secrets were being revealed and edited out of the United States and Brazil. As such, any court order would fail to stop the Guardian because it would only apply to the United Kingdom.

Anyway, the official called in two security experts from Government Communications Headquarters and they oversaw the destruction of hard drives in the paper’s basement. Of course, the whole exercise was fruitless, because the information still existed and will be examined by journalists outside the country, but it seems they felt they had to do just something to show they are working on the issue.

Rusbridger admitted that soon it would be impossible for journalists to have confidential sources. Thus far, it is perfectly clear that Heathrow transit lounges are not as safe as those of Sheremetyevo. Just a few days ago, Mr. Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald (a journalist who has done most of the work around the NSA revelations), was detained at Heathrow for 9 hours without legal representation on terror charges. All his electronic devices were seized and you understand why and what they were looking for all those nine hours.