Andrew Sullivan: Cameron Proves Greenwald Right: Noted for August 18, 2013

Andrew Sullivan: Cameron Proves Greenwald Right:

When the NSA leaks burst onto the scene, I was skeptical of many of the large claims made by civil libertarians and queasily sympathetic to a program that relied on meta-data alone, as long as it was transparent, had Congressional buy-in, did not accidentally expose innocent civilians to grotesque privacy loss, and was watched by a strong FISA court… all the checks I supported have been proven illusory…. I’ve found myself moving further and further to Glenn’s position. What has kept me from embracing it entirely has been the absence of any real proof than any deliberate abuse has taken place…. So it is a strange and awful irony that the Coalition government in Britain has today clinched the case for Glenn…. I have met David Miranda…. The thought of his being detained by the British police for nine hours because his partner embarrassed the American government really sickens me at a gut level…. David was detained under an anti-terrorism law… for nine hours--the maximum time under the law, to the minute. He therefore falls into the 3 percent of interviewees particularly, one assumes, likely to be linked to terrorist organizations. My obvious question is: what could possibly lead the British security services to suspect David of such ties to terror groups?… Although David was released, his entire digital library was confiscated--including his laptop and phone. So any journalist passing through London’s Heathrow has now been warned: do not take any documents with you. Britain is now a police state when it comes to journalists, just like Russia is. In this respect, I can say this to David Cameron: Thank you for clearing the air…. You have attacked British democracy itself. What on earth do you have to say for yourself? And were you, in any way, encouraged by the US administration to do such a thing?