UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian’s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The action is unlikely to prevent new materials coming out. Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed in a Monday articleposted on the British newspaper's website that intelligence officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) told him that he would either have to hand over all the classified documents or have the newspaper’s hard drives destroyed.

1. UK Ordered Guardian to Destroy Hard Drives in Effort to
Stop Snowden Revelations
UK authorities reportedly raided the Guardian‟s office in London to destroy hard drives in an effort
to stop future publications of leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The action is
unlikely to prevent new materials coming out.
Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger revealed in a Monday articleposted on the British newspaper's
website that intelligence officials from the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
told him that he would either have to hand over all the classified documents or have the
newspaper‟s hard drives destroyed.
After more talks, two "security experts" from GCHQ - the British version of the National Security
Agency - visited the Guardian‟s London offices.
Rusbridger wrote that the government officials then watched as computers, which contained
classified information passed on by Snowden, were physically destroyed in one of the newspaper
building‟s basements.
"We can call off the black helicopters," Rusbridger said one of the officials joked.

2. Alan Rusbridger
Another source familiar with the event confirmed to Reuters that Guardian employees destroyed the
computers as UK officials observed.
During negotiations with the government, Rusbridger said that the newspaper could not fulfill its
journalistic duty if it satisfied the authorities‟ requests.
But GCHQ reportedly responded by telling the Guardian that it had already sparked the debate,
which was enough.
"You've had your debate. There's no need to write any more," Reuters quoted the unnamed official
as saying.
In the article, Rusbridger explained that because of existing “international collaborations” between
journalists, it was still possible to report the story and "take advantage of the most permissive legal

3. environments."
“I explained to the man from Whitehall about the nature of international collaborations...Bluntly,
we did not have to do our reporting from London. Already most of the NSA stories were being
reported and edited out of New York. And had it occurred to him that [reporter Glenn] Greenwald
lived in Brazil?” wrote Rusbridger.
“The man was unmoved. And so one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian‟s long history
occurred – with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the
Guardian‟s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could
possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents.”

4. U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (front L) embraces his partner David Miranda upon his arrival at
Rio de Janeiro's International Airport August 19, 2013
Rusbridger pointed out that the whole incident felt like a “pointless piece of symbolism that
understood nothing about the digital age.”
The news comes after Sunday‟s international incident during which David Miranda, the partner of
Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, was held at Heathrow airport under the UK Terrorism Act
for the maximum time allowed before pressing charges. Greenwald was the reporter who
exclusively broke the Snowden story.
The editor promised that the Guardian will “continue to do patient, painstaking reporting on the
Snowden documents, we just won‟t do it in London. The seizure of Miranda‟s laptop, phones, hard
drives and camera will similarly have no effect on Greenwald‟s work.”
Another US security source told Reuters that Miranda‟s detention was meant to send a message to
those who received Snowden‟s classified documents, about how serious the UK is in closing all the
leaks in relation to the whistleblower‟s revelations.
Greenwald, who first published secrets leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden,
responded by promising to release more documents. He added that the UK would be “sorry” for
detaining his partner for nine hours.
Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald up to 20,000 documents with
details about the US National Security Agency and the UK‟s GCHQ surveillance operations.
„US is the intellectual author behind detention of Miranda‟
Lawyer Eva Golinger told RT that the UK has violated all concepts of freedom of the press. “We
are talking about a media outlet. Journalists and their spouses and partners being detained and
interrogated. So clearly there has been a decision made that everything related to Edward Snowden
must be captured no matter what, violating anyone‟s right under any country‟s laws.”
Golinger believes that government's pressure on journalists could inspire some to cover the topic of
government surveillance even more, instead of discouraging them to do so.
“The more principled the people reporting are, the more they will continue to pursue that work in
the face of threat. Such cheap threats and intimidation give people even more reasons to continue
doing what they are doing because it shows that those in power are clearly frightened of the
information that is being put out,” she explained.

5. “At the same time it could certainly intimidate other journalists and create the environment of self-
censorship, where many would be unwilling to take the risks that are involved with national security
reporting, particularly when it comes to the US.”
Golinger argued that US is the “intellectual author behind the detainment of Miranda.”
“We are talking about a search and capture that is going on for Edward Snowden and it is the US
that is leading that effort. It is not the UK or other European nations, they are merely abiding by the
wishes of the US…What I believe is that Washington has simply put out a request to all of its allies
that anyone related to Edward Snowden must be detained if they come into your territory and the
UK abided by that and did their duty.