Detaining my partner: a failed attempt at intimidation
The salient quote from Greenwald's article on this:<p><i>They completely abused their own terrorism law for reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism: a potent reminder of how often governments lie when they claim that they need powers to stop "the terrorists", and how dangerous it is to vest unchecked power with political officials in its name.</i> [1]<p>This is a great example of why we should treat terrorism like any other crime, and why the police should never be trusted with exceptional powers simply because we feel under threat. Give them the powers, and they will be misused - in this case they were used on a relative of someone nothing to do with terrorism purely for the purpose of intimidation. The security services even called Greenwald to give him the news that his partner had been detained.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david-miranda-detained-uk-nsa" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/18/david-m...</a>