I would have agreed with you before hand, but it turns out that Greenwald and the Guardian were using David Miranda as a data mule:
In an e-mail Monday to The Associated Press, Mr. Greenwald said that he needed material from Ms. Poitras for articles he was working on related to the N.S.A., and that he had things she needed. “David, since he was in Berlin, helped with that exchange,” Mr. Greenwald wrote.
...
Mr. Miranda told reporters in Rio that he had been subjected to deep questioning at Heathrow. “I stayed in a room, there were six different agents, entering and leaving, who spoke with me,” he said. “They asked questions about my whole life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, cellphone, memory thumb drives — everything.”
Mr. Greenwald said that all of the documents encrypted on the thumb drives came from the trove of materials provided by Mr. Snowden.
He had spent the previous week in Berlin visiting Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who has also been helping to disseminate Mr. Snowden's leaks, to assist Mr. Greenwald. The Guardian had paid for the trip, Mr. Greenwald said, and Mr. Miranda was on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
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.
Having read that, I now believe the British were justified in detaining Miranda, though doing so for 9 hours was clearly excessive. What on earth was Greenwald thinking though letting his spouse, who lacks any kind of journalistic privilege, travel through the UK while carrying classified leaked NSA and GCHQ documents? It was foolish at best.
> Having read that, I now believe the British were justified in detaining Miranda, though doing so for 9 hours was clearly excessive.
Much of the controvery kicked off by this is that they used rights that are supposed to be used purely for direct terrorism-related investigations. As one of the Guardian articles so succinctly put it, this is absolutely unacceptable, unless somebody actually and officially declares journalism terrorism.
I agree, it was an abuse of law. But stopping and detaining him temporarily seems justifiable, especially as he is not a journalist, doesn't enjoy any protections other than the ones any normal travellers get and was carrying some of the leaked NSA docs.
In that light using the terrorism law and holding him for 9 hours was a brain dead move as well.
He was acting on behalf of a bona fide investigative journalist and his journey was paid for by The Guardian. That should be enough to afford him the same protection as a journalist.
What if he had not been the partner of GG, but instead just your average joe paid courier being paid for the delivery of primary source evidence to be used by the staff of the news organization? Would the contents of the package not enjoy the same protection that it would were it being carried by one of the new organization's journalists?
I agree that it was braindead, however, there is a great deal of deliberation involved. Any other form of "meeting" (to be grossly and dangerously euphemistic) would have involved lawyers and probably also consular assistance. A misuse (or, if you prefer, abuse) of anti-terror legislation is the only possible way to intimidate, interrogate and hold a foreign national who has not (and does not) currently commit a crime on British soil.
"Stopping and detaining" was exactly the one option British authorities could not use, because that would have put him outside the law-free zone that is the airport. That's why they chose another way, and that's why they get, perhaps unexpectedly, a great deal of backlash from this.
has Greenwald confirming that David was facilitating the exchange between himself and Poitras of NSA documents.
I shake my head at the matter and wonder why they didn't just use dead drops. Though I wouldn't say this justifies their use of anti-terrorism legislation to perform an extra-judicial shakedown of an individual working in the service of journalism. Free speech is a fundamental human right, not a privilege. One does not need to receive a paycheck from a newspaper to be a journalist or do journalism, nor even be the point man speaking, for journalism is merely the act of speaking informedly to the public at large. Whether you're the final writer, or the editor, or the source, or the courier delivering mail everyday, you're in the service of journalism if the end product is such speech. Any attempt to interfere with that process is repulsive, no matter where in the chain the authorities choose to strike. Sadly though, it seems free speech is not held in very high regard in most parts of the world.
In an e-mail Monday to The Associated Press, Mr. Greenwald said that he needed material from Ms. Poitras for articles he was working on related to the N.S.A., and that he had things she needed. “David, since he was in Berlin, helped with that exchange,” Mr. Greenwald wrote.
...
Mr. Miranda told reporters in Rio that he had been subjected to deep questioning at Heathrow. “I stayed in a room, there were six different agents, entering and leaving, who spoke with me,” he said. “They asked questions about my whole life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, cellphone, memory thumb drives — everything.”
Mr. Greenwald said that all of the documents encrypted on the thumb drives came from the trove of materials provided by Mr. Snowden.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/europe/britain-detai...
And:
He had spent the previous week in Berlin visiting Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who has also been helping to disseminate Mr. Snowden's leaks, to assist Mr. Greenwald. The Guardian had paid for the trip, Mr. Greenwald said, and Mr. Miranda was on his way home to Rio de Janeiro.
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.
Source: http://theweek.com/article/index/248385/the-miranda-mess
Having read that, I now believe the British were justified in detaining Miranda, though doing so for 9 hours was clearly excessive. What on earth was Greenwald thinking though letting his spouse, who lacks any kind of journalistic privilege, travel through the UK while carrying classified leaked NSA and GCHQ documents? It was foolish at best.