Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is responsible for publishing the initial story on the NSA leaks provided by Edward Snowden, who is now a fugitive from United States government, and his Greenwald's partner, Brazilian citizen David Michael Miranda, spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper last night in the first interview since Miranda was detained at Heathrow earlier this week.
The 28-year-old Miranda recounted how, after exiting a plane at the airport on Sunday, he was confronted by two officers, who confiscated his electronics, including a laptop and a cell phone, and escorted him to a private room. The officials then informed Miranda that he was being held under section 7 of England's Terrorism Act of 2000 and that his refusal to answer questions could result in imprisonment.
Greenwald called the actions of the officials "terrorizing," and stated that the detainment gives them more reason to continue their work. "It's not going to stop our reporting," Greenwald told Cooper. "It didn't do them any good. All it did, as I said this week, is give them a huge black eye in the world, make them look thuggish and authoritarian ... and really quite dumb."
Miranda had been in Berlin for a week visiting Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who has also been helping to disseminate information leaked by Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who had been assisting Greenwald's reporting. As was originally reported, the Guardian paid for the trip, and Miranda was returning to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with Greenwald.
"They didn't ask me anything about terrorism, not one question about it," said Miranda, who added that the officials grilled him with questions about his partner. "I was in there for eight hours without talking to anybody outside," he said, adding that he feared he would be detained indefinitely. Interestingly, the tagline that CNN decided to use was "spouse" for Miranda in relation to Greenwald, although the two remain unmarried in either the United States or Brazil.
[H/T Advocate]
Watch the interview below:
