14 DAY TRIAL // The Guardian’s editors say “Downing Street” was involved in the destruction of the newspaper’s hard drives. They are alluding, of course, to the Prime Minister’s office that’s situated on said street.
As reported earlier, the British intelligence officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told the newspaper’s officials they could either hand over all classified documents Edward Snowden provided them with or see their hard drives destroyed.
The Guardian, obviously, chose the latter rather than hand over the requested data, saying it could not fulfill its journalistic duty if it complied with the demand.
And while their hard drives were destroyed in an effort to make it more difficult or to completely prevent further publishing of leaked documents, the newspaper obviously has other copies of the material abroad and they will use those instead, as happens with digital documents nowadays.
“I think that the British government has moved in such a way against the Guardian that would be unadoble in the United States,” said Alan Rusbridger, The Guardian’s editor.
The recent event, he says, complies with previous demands made by a senior government minister via telephone, in which the handover of the documents or their destruction was demanded.
Making the connection between the phone call and the GCHQ actions didn’t take long and The Guardian is blaming the Prime Minister for what has happened.
Its implication with the detaining of David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald’s partner, yesterday has also been made, but Downing Street denies involvement in that case as well, although it admits it has been “lept abreast of operation.”
In a similar statement, the White House has also admitted to being kept in the loop about the intentions of the British authorities regarding Miranda.
The incident with Greenwald’s partner has created quite a polemic among the United Kingdom’s politicians, with numerous voices rejecting the claims made by the Home Office that Miranda’s detention was justified.