3 lessons from the detainment of Glenn Greenwald's partner

David Miranda's run-in with British authorities offers insight into the ongoing NSA controversy

Glenn Greenwald and David Miranda
(Image credit: REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes )

British authorities are facing a global backlash for the nine-hour detention of the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who published Edward Snowden's leaks on U.S. surveillance programs. Greenwald called the move an abuse of counterterrorism laws and an attempt to intimidate him, and liberal British lawmakers have demanded an investigation. The U.S. says it had nothing to do with the case.

David Miranda, who lives with Greenwald, was held and questioned at London's Heathrow airport on his way back to his native Brazil from Germany, where he had met with Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who has been helping Greenwald publicize the secret documents Snowden has provided.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.