In a strong desire to show that the US is not alone in abusing ill-conceived legislation enacted with the best of intentions but having horrible results, the UK "police" have decided to use the Terrorism Act 2000, Schedule 7 (apparently they have schedules instead of paragraphs and sub-paragraphs) against the partner of a Guardian journalist. In using this particular set of tragic legislation, they have apparently designated The Guardian a terrorist organization. That should throw readership up a bit. Now, I put the word police in quotes because it appears that no one wants to admit it was them publicly. It seems that the people that they publicly answer to are a bit miffed, since the US got a heads up and they didn't. Some are trying to make a big deal about the US claiming that they did not ask for the detention. However, since it was more of a courtesy call, and since the person was being stopped no matter what the US wanted, why would they muddy the waters by putting a request in formally for inclusion? All they had to do was sit back and pop some popcorn.
The reality is that this was a power play, a bully tactic against the people supplied information by Snowden. The problem in today's world is that the data, even if it was on this guys laptop, would also be backed up elsewhere. Likely in multiple locations. So really you gained nothing, since it is already known what was taken, and pissed off the guys who will now publicly crucify your actions with the information that they have. Going after WikiLeaks like this didn't stop the flow of information at that site, and this won't stop The Guardian from publishing. It's also a perfect example of what happens when legislation is rushed through with too little thought given to the far over-reaching powers given to police with no requirement to answer to anyone and no right of defense given to the victims of it's enforcement. You'd think after the abuses committed during the troubles by British law enforcement, they would have known better. I guess not.
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