UK Government Destroys Guardian's Snowden Drives

An anonymous reader writes with revelations that the UK government has been pressuring the Guardian over its publication of the Snowden leaks for a while, and that it ultimately ended with GHCQ officials smashing drives of data to pieces. From the article: "The mood toughened just over a month ago, when I received a phone call from the centre of government telling me: 'You've had your fun. Now we want the stuff back.' ... one of the more bizarre moments in the Guardian's long history occurred — with two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian's basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents. 'We can call off the black helicopters,' joked one as we swept up the remains of a MacBook Pro." The paper had repeatedly pointed out how pointless destroying the data was: copies exist, and all reporting on the Snowden leaks is already being edited and published from locations other than the UK.

Comments

Good!

[camperdave]

With the drives destroyed, and the leaks plugged, we can all get back to our normal lives under the new heightened levels of paranoia.

Re: Good!

[Anonymous Coward]

... thus solving the problem once and for all!

But

ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Re:Good!

[whoever57]

There is no better way to motivate a journalist than to tell them that they aren't allowed to to report on something. I mean, seriously, what do these governments think they are going to accomplish.

Probably about the same as the senior officer of the Met who spent a day travelling to and from the Grauniad's Manchester offices in order to tell an editor that there was nothing in the stories of phone hacking by News International. I mean, how stupid do you have to be to go out of your way to tell a reporter that there is no story and expect the reporter to drop it?

Re:Good!

[drinkypoo]

I am slightly saddened by the fact that you felt the need to link to the wikipedia pyrrhic article. Does anyone here seriously not understand the term?

Oh man, I haven't got to say this in ages... You must be new here.

Small Potatoes

[SuperKendall]

The U.K. thinks it can join the fascism club just because it smashes a computer or two?

The U.S. arrested a filmmaker a year ago just for making a movie. Are those reporters in jail? Don't think so. You're going to have the step up the game U.K. to join the big boys.

Bonus points for all the cameras though.

This guy

[MichaelSmith]

Mordac the preventer

A show of power

[Taco Cowboy]

... thus solving the problem once and for all!

But

ONCE AND FOR ALL!

I guess the Anglo/Rican alliance is felt feeling so powerless that they just had to smash up a MacBook Pro to show that they are powerful

It's not unlike a lame thief who just had to rob candies from a little baby in order to feel great

Re:A show of power

[Nyder]

The intention wasn't to destroy the data, it was to punish and intimidate.

It worked, I think that Laptop is scared and will never hold a harddrive again...

We'd Best Watch Out

[Greyfox]

If we keep oppressing the UK this way they might dump all the tea into the Boston harbor or something.