Last month, technicians from GCHQ, the UK electronic surveillance agency, stood over journalists from The Guardian newspaper to make sure that they destroyed a computer containing files leaked to them by Edward Snowden, the former contractor to the US National Security Agency. This week, the British police abused anti-terror legislation to detain David Miranda, the partner of Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian journalist, and seize his files. Coming up next: officials from the NSA and GCHQ bang their heads against a brick wall in frustration at having allowed Mr Snowden to abscond with their secrets. It would be as effective, and legal.
上個月，英國電子偵聽機構——國家通訊總部(GCHQ)的技術人員緊盯著《衛報》(The Guardian)記者，以確保他們破壞了一臺電腦，該電腦上裝有由美國國家安全局(NSA)前合約員工愛德華•史諾登(Edward Snowden)披露給他們的檔案。就在本週，英國警方又借用反恐法律，拘留了《衛報》記者葛倫•葛林沃爾德(Glenn Greenwald)的伴侶戴維•米蘭達(David Miranda)，並沒收了他的文檔。接下來的一幕是，NSA和GCHQ官員對於自己竟然讓史諾登帶著大量機密潛逃，氣得用頭撞牆。這麼做的有效性相同，還合法。