When governments become vindictive and petty
“There is simply no basis for believing that David Michael Miranda presents any threat whatsoever to the UK government. The only possible intent behind this detention was to harass him and his partner, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, for his role in analysing the data released by Edward Snowden."
Then the real kicker
“States cannot pass anti-terror acts and claim they are necessary to protect people from harm and then use them to retaliate against someone exercising his rights. By targeting Miranda and Greenwald, the UK authorities are also sending a message to other journalists that if they maintain their independence and report critically about governments, they too may be targeted.”
When schedule 7 can be used
According to the advice published by the Association of Chief Police Officers’, Schedule 7 should only be used to counter terrorism and may not be used for any other purpose.
However what this amounted to was a stop and search in the vain hope of extracting revenge, however under European Law this is illegal
A similarly over-broad and vague section of the Terrorism Act 2000 which allowed stop and frisk without any grounds was held to be unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights in 2010. Section 44 - as it was known - violated Article 8 of the European Charter of Human Rights which protects privacy.
When a State believes in has the right to intimidate citizens of other countries for its own nefarious reasons it risks its credibility abroad, The UK likes to believe it is an enlightened democracy, I would say it is beginning to resemble an authoritarian State.
The Brazilian government issued an official statement soon after the release of Mr Miranda.
The foreign ministry document says there was no justification for detaining an "individual against whom there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that [anti-terror] legislation".
It also says Brazil expects incidents "such as the one that happened to the Brazilian citizen today" not to be repeated.
The Brazilian foreign office states there was no reason for this detention.
Therefore the detention was unlawful.
This must not be repeated.
Ok, so who gave the order for the detention, and have they been charged?
This was not a mistake, this was a deliberate act of intimidation by a State.
I wonder how many brownie points the UK earned for this in US eyes, will they get a shipment of cookies? [note "the Brownies" is the UK equivalent of the girl scouts].
If you want to avoid being labelled as a police state stop behaving like one is my advice.
1:35 AM PT: The Brazilian Foreign Ministry has this on their website
Brazilian citizen held in London
The Brazilian government expresses grave concern about the episode that happened today in London, where a Brazilian citizen was held without communication at Heathrow airport for 9 hours, in an action based in the British anti-terrorism legislation. This measure is without justification since it involves an individual against whom there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that legislation. The Brazilian Government expects that incidents such as the one that happened to the Brazilian citizen today do not repeat.
http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/...
5:39 AM PT: I just know it, I'm really just feeling it coming on......
I'm going to go all Godwin at some point.
Goddammit
Keep me away from a keyboard!
;-)