David Cameron Demanded This Guardian Hard Drive And Laptop To Be Shattered By The Security Services With Angle Grinders

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2398521/Pictured-Guardian-hard-drive-containing-Edward-Snowden-leaks-destroyed-David-Camerons-orders.html

Should there be a News of the World type inquiry, taking into consideration the accusation that the Guardian's editor allegedly knew there were unlawful' material on their hard drive and laptop?

[jake-the-peg]

The posession of the files may have been legal if it was subject to a public interest defense.

If it indicates security services breaking the law and acting unlawfully then illegal posession of the material may become legal.

it's the same principle that means it's not illegal to steal a push bike if it's needed to stop an armed robbery.

The investigation that needs to happen is how much political instruction was involved in the detention of this man and what the motivation was.

It seems to me that the cat is already out of the bag here and the only credible motivation was the attempt to destroy evidence of illegal activity so that no charges could be brought

[Gromit]

A blatant attempt to destroy evidence to shut down the story. It won't work, they only erased copies. Another copy can be made in seconds.

[Gromit]

It is always interesting to read how the foreign newspapers report our Government's hassling of our press. The New York Times has an excellent piece today.

// “It was quite explicit: we had to destroy it or give it back to them,” Mr. Rusbridger said in an earlier interview with the BBC. “I explained that there were other copies, not within the U.K., so I couldn’t see the point of destroying one copy. But because we had other copies I was happy to destroy a copy in London.” //

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/world/europe/british-news-organization-has-advantages-in-secrets-battle-with-government.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[Peter Pedant]

.

I am not sure he did know there was unlawful material on the computer. In fact I am not sure what unlawful material is - in this context.

Part of his thinking in allowing the computers to be destroyed is that he didnt want anyone else to know the extent and content of the data.


and the unlawful material is apparently saying that Karzai has a big nose and Sarkozi was vain
which is embarassing but hardly earth shattering

[Huderon]

From the odd bits I have heard on the radio, it seems that at least some in the government appear to think that possession of material stolen by Snowden is illegal. I'd have thought, if that was the case, the obvious thing to do is to prosecute the newspaper.

This latest move looks like an attempt to be seen to be "doing something" ... even if it is just making yourself look like a prat.

[Hypognosis]

from the nyt article

"A lawyer for Mr. Miranda, Gwendolen Morgan, told The Guardian that the police used the antiterrorism laws to bypass normal statutory procedures for seeking confidential journalistic material under the 1984 Police and Criminal Evidence Act."

Which leaves me to wonder what the 'normal statutory procedures' are like, or what's not good enough about them that they felt the need to play it this way.

Also:-

//David Davis, a Conservative member of Parliament, said that the responses of the Home Office fail “Logic 101.”

“'If you’re not on our side, you’re on the side of the terrorists,’ is what they’re trying to say,” Mr. Davis said. //

Typical of them to forget that we're on our side, the government is on its side and the terrorists are on their (a third) side. Terrorists attack governments and we just want governments to make sure that we don't get caught in the crossfire. Do the necessary things to the bad guys but please try not to impinge on our personal freedoms in the process.

Manning and Snowden are two who were doing their best to help the 'people' side whilst forgetting that they were playing for the government side. They, in turn will convict them for 'aiding the enemy'. If this is due to the fact that the enormous splurges of information each of them leaked was more than they had personally taken time read through and contained nuggests of information harmful to the safety of agents on foreign soil then I think no amount of nobility in what they did can justify saving them.

[youngmafbog]

Jail all Guardian workers and their readership.

The world will be a much better place.

[Gromit]

Ymf

You'd have to close down the internet to stop the truth about Government wrongdoing to be suppressed.