Glenn Greenwald home. Sarah Harrison exiled.



 

Wow @ggreenwald home. @wikileaks Sarah Harrison exiled, Miranda detained by terror law & @guardian forced data destruction. Says a lot re UK
— Richard Tynan (@richietynan) April 11, 2014

This is exactly the contrast that struck me on hearing that Greenwald had returned to the United States without incident, event or arrest.

Glenn Greenwald landed in New York and passed through customs unhindered.

Sarah Harrison cannot return to the UK. This is on the very real fear and very material likelihood of arrest and prosecution as a terrorist under the Terrorism Act 2000. Glenn Greenwald said here (16m) of the risk of arrest and prosecution:

Glenn Greenwald on the abuse of state power through terror laws

Glenn Greenwald said here of the lessons learnt from the Church Committee:

"The lesson of the Church Committee from the 1970s is that when you allow people in government to spy on Americans in the dark with no accountability and without warrant, they abuse that power and that’s what’s happened; it’s rampant abuse and it needs sunlight."

Glenn Greenwald has previously also cited Cicero who said: "Laws are silent in times of war." Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) said of Glenn Greenwald and the abuse of terrror laws:

"In this respect, I can say this to David Cameron. Thank you for clearing the air on these matters of surveillance. You have now demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that these anti-terror provisions are capable of rank abuse. Unless some other facts emerge, there is really no difference in kind between you and Vladimir Putin. You have used police powers granted for anti-terrorism and deployed them to target and intimidate journalists deemed enemies of the state. 

You have proven that these laws can be hideously abused. Which means they must be repealed. You have broken the trust that enables any such legislation to survive in a democracy. By so doing, you have attacked British democracy itself. What on earth do you have to say for yourself? And were you, in any way, encouraged by the US administration to do such a thing?"

Martin Firrell - "Security is no replacement for liberty"

Martin Firrell (@MartinFirrell) is a campaigner and cultural activist. In the age of Wikileaks and mass NSA and GCHQ surveillence, his famous quote is of massive contemporary relevance. Though he isn't the only one to be concerned. The maximalist civil libertarian Glenn Greenwald is leading a front against the overbearing US security and surveillance state. He and a team of civil liberties activist have launched a news site The Intercept (@the_intercept). Christopher Hitchens also fought back against the tentacles of the state and said in the August 2003 issue of Reason.

"The trade-off between freedom and security, so often proposed so seductively, very often leads to the loss of both."

Gore Vidal said in 199 during during an address, ‘Writer’s Perspective: Smithsonian Institute’:

"I don’t know where the Internet is going to go but I do know that the government is going to try and take it over. You can count on that."