Protest

Some even say Afghans are people of color too.
Farzana Wahidy/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

I promised notorious Zoroastrofascist Trita Parsi (right-wingers say he's an agent of Ayatollah Khamenei but the truth is even worse: plotting to restore the ancient Media, which is not the mainstream one) that I would register my protest against the mistreatment by UK authorities of David Miranda, who was detained and harrassed for nine hours at Heathrow Airport, London, en route between Berlin and Rio de Janeiro.

I had noted to Trita that what happened to Miranda was not exactly the same as what happened to Anna Politkovskaya, and he had replied, more or less, that [jump]
the murder of Politkovskaya fits right in with a system in which it would be perfectly normal to keep somebody in an airport for questioning for nine hours and steal all his electronic equipment because they have a beef with, though not a legal case against, that person's husband. Which is quite true. And although it is doubtless unlikely that the UK will be murdering any journalists any time soon, that just doesn't make this conduct right or acceptable. Or funny (although the fact that Glenn Greenwald is involved unfortunately does make it funny, because the vastness of Greenwald's self-regard has that effect on everything he touches, however serious it may be).

All the more so given that the UK authorities did this invoking their anti-terrorism law, under the suspicion that Miranda might be carrying some data stolen by Edward Snowden from the US National Security Agency, as if the publication of that data in The Guardian could be construed as an act of terror. No it cannot! It may be bad, it may be dreadful, it may be chargeable under the Official Secrets Act if they do it, but it just isn't an act of terror. Apparently they used the anti-terrorism law because it allows them to be abusive as they like within the extraterritoriality of the airport departure area, and does that remind you of anything?

Hint: It's a place where a full-fledged US court system has been erected but US law doesn't apply, except to the extent that they feel like applying it. And US law doesn't apply because it's in Cuba. I've always thought we should take Cuba to the International Criminal Court for allowing human rights abuses in Guantánamo (can't take the US to the ICC, of course, since the US doesn't belong), but nobody ever pays any attention to me.

The use of an entirely irrelevant law to silence or to punish the publishing of something you didn't want published reminds me of something too: the case of Bradley Manning, who was given 35 years today for turning over the secrets of our military success in Iraq and Afghanistan to our country's enemies at the Guardian and New York Times (now the Guardian will know just what to do if we invade—nothing, preferably, since judging by the Iraq experience we'll probably be bombing Manchester, which they abandoned in 1964, or more likely still the offices of Le Figaro, because Suck On This).  This is called "espionage" because if WikiLeaks or the Guardian or the Times prints something that Ayman al-Zawahiri can use, it will be just as if he got it from a spy.

This sends some of my Obot friends into a style of humor that I really don't care for.

Obama personally sentences #Manning to 35 years, just because he did espionage! I'm literally angry with rage!
— Whitey Dudebro (@WhiteyDudebro) August 21, 2013

Ha. Ha. That is like so amusing. I'm so white I blame everything on Obama and spying should be legal for progressives and 35 years is like worse than the enslavement of an entire race.

Uh, not really. Not this page. And similarly, caeteris paribus, for David Miranda. It may be a small thing (as Manning's sentence is not), but it's a bad sign.

"The Horror of Heathrow". From The Guardian. Really.