Miranda had secrets: British authorities say reporter Glenn Greenwald’s Brazilian partner was carrying a staggering number of secret files when he was detained last month at Heathrow airport. Civil liberties activists had criticized the nine-hour questioning of David Miranda as a bullying tactic aimed at cowing Greenwald, the American reporter for The Guardian who broke the story of NSA surveillance. But British intelligence official Oliver Robbins told a U.K. court that Miranda was carrying nearly 60,000 highly classified British intelligence files leaked by ex–NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The material could identify British spies and techniques, Robbins said. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger disputed the claim, saying the government sought only to justify a “dismaying blurring of terrorism and journalism.”
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