Mr. Miranda, Mr. Greenwald said, was told that he was being detained under Section 7 of the British Terrorism Act, which allows the authorities to detain someone for up to nine hours for questioning and to conduct a search of personal items, often without a lawyer, to determine possible ties to terrorism. More than 97 percent of people stopped under the provision are questioned for under an hour, according to the British government.Ahh. You know how these politicians say how the laws they want passed (or just rushed through the legislative bodies) say that the laws will not be abused and the rights of the public will be respected. Yeah, all that jazz. Funny how all these European states are showing themselves to be simple extensions of the US govt. Why not just officially make them US states and collect taxes. I mean if they are going to stop the plane of the Bolivian head of state from going about his legitimate business though he posed no threat to them at all, then what's the point of calling yourself an independent nation?
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.
(17 years of informed commentary)