cnn | Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the news about secret U.S.
surveillance programs, said the authorities who took his partner into
custody at London's Heathrow Airport "are going to regret what they
did."
"I am going to write my
stories a lot more aggressively now," the Guardian reporter told
Brazil's Globo TV on Monday in Rio de Janeiro.
"I am going to publish
many more documents now. I am going to publish a lot about England, too,
I have a lot of documents about the espionage system in England. Now my
focus is going to be that as well."
Greenwald's partner,
28-year-old David Miranda, was held for nearly nine hours. He was
reportedly passing through the airport on his way home to Brazil after
leaving Berlin. Authorities seized his laptop, phone, and other
materials.
The White House knew the move was coming.
"There was a heads up that was provided by the British government," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday.
So the United States knew
it "was likely to occur, but it's not something that we've requested
and it's something that was done specifically by the British law
enforcement officials there," he said.
He would not comment on
whether the United States has obtained material from Miranda's laptop --
and would not say whether President Barack Obama condemns the
detention.
Agents asked 'about my entire life'
Miranda, also speaking to Globo TV in Rio, said agents were asking him questions "about my entire life."
"I was in a room, there
were six different agents coming in and out and talking to me," he said.
"They took my computer, video games, cell phone, everything."
The detention was
reported by The Guardian. Before releasing him, authorities seized
Miranda's laptop, cell phone, video game consoles and USB sticks,
Greenwald wrote for The Guardian.
"This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism," he said.
"It's bad enough to
prosecute and imprison sources. It's worse still to imprison journalists
who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and
loved ones of journalists is simply despotic. Even the Mafia had ethical
rules against targeting the family members of people they felt
threatened by."
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