Posted on 08/20/2013 6:43:43 AM PDT by xzins
The Guardian newspaper says British agents destroyed their newsroom hard drives after they began publishing revelations from National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
In an opinion piece, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger claimed the hard drives were destroyed after weeks of pressure by British government officials.
He said the drives were torn apart in the basement of their office building as British intelligence agents looked on.
"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," Rusbridger wrote.
"'We can call off the black helicopters,' joked one staffer as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro," he said.
Rusbridger's op-ed comes in response to the detention of David Miranda, partner of the reporter who broke the news about America's surveillance programs.
Bagdad Bob only surrenders to little lies.
There’s an axiom in the IT industry.
Information wants to be free. It really does. It takes great effort to keep something a secret. Even moreso in the age of computers.
Alan Rusbridger, the Guardian editor-in-chief, has said that the destruction of computer hard drives containing information provided by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden allowed the paper to continue reporting on the revelations instead of surrendering the material to UK courts.
We will arrest your family, your friends, and your co-workers. We will take your property and destroy it.
And we will do it in partnership with other tyrants.
Our betters have indeed recognized the powers in Pandora’s box, and are looking for solutions. For now, brute force will have to do, and regardless of back ups and such, they are sending every one of us a chilling message, loud and clear.
Dear Lord, please share Your strength.
Send the UK gub’mint the bill for damages, replacement costs, lost data, etc. and sue if they don’t pay.
Do this in a very noisy public manner, which they can do as they are a news organization.
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