Why the British Government Forced The Guardian to Destroy Its
Hard Drives  Glenn Greenwald's partner was detained, and the
newspaper's employees were made to destroy hardware containing
the Snowden files. That's partly because the U.K. has some of
the most sweeping anti-terrorism and anti-disclosure statutes
around. U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald (left) walks with his
partner David Miranda in Rio de Janeiro's International Airport
on August 19, 2013. (Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)  One Saturday in
July, British intelligence officers watched as two Guardian
employees used grinders to destroy hard drives and memory chips
that held documents from the U.S. and U.K. spying programs
revealed by Edward Snowden. It was their only choice, the
Guardian later wrote, other than to surrender the equipment to
officials.  According to Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, the
incident was foreshadowed by sinister warnings from the U.K.
government, including: "You've had your fun. Now we want the
stuff back."  Today, Reuters reported