UK Prime Minister Was Behind Guardian's
Hard Disk "Pulverization"
You know it's bad when Russia accuses Britain of breaking
human-rights and freedom-of-the-press declarations, but that is what it has
done following the revelations that the UK Prime Minister Cameron was
behind the decision to 'pulverize'
The Guardian's hard-drives in an effort to suppress more leaks. As
Reuters
reports, two sources with direct knowledge confirm
Cameron ordered
his top civil servant to "deal with this matter." Falling back on the
old playbook, the government defends its actions on the basis of 'threatening
national security', and adds, "we won't go into specific cases but if highly
sensitive information was being held insecurely we have a responsibility to
secure it," with regard the 'pulverization'.
British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered his top
civil servant to try to stop revelations flowing from the Guardian
newspaper about U.S. and British surveillance programs, two sources
with direct knowledge of the matter said.
News that Cabinet
Secretary Jeremy Heywood had contacted the Guardian drags Cameron into a
storm over Britain's response to media coverage of secrets leaked by
fugitive U.S. intelligence contractor Edward
Snowden.
...
The sources named the official as
Heywood, who is Cameron's most senior policy adviser. "The prime
minister asked the Cabinet Secretary to deal with this matter, that's
true," one source told Reuters.
Government supporters say
information leaked by Snowden, who has obtained asylum in Russia, could
threaten national security. However, rights groups have accused the
government of an assault on press freedom over a series of
incidents.
...
A Downing Street spokeswoman
said: "We won't go into specific cases but if highly sensitive
information was being held insecurely we have a responsibility to secure
it."
...
It has argued that these were
operational security matters.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-08-21/uk-prime-minister-was-behind-guardians-hard-disk-pulverization
