“This was a decision that was made by the British government without the involvement and not at the request of the United States government,” Earnest said. “It’s as simple as that.”  Pressed repeatedly on the matter, Earnest would not condemn the nine-hour detention of Miranda, nor did he say whether British authorities shared with the United States any intelligence they might have extracted from him.  “I don’t have a way to characterize for you any of the conversations between the British government and the U.S. government on this matter, other than to say that this is a decision that they made on their own and not at the request of the United States,” Earnest said. “In terms of, you know, the kinds of classified, confidential conversations that are ongoing between the U.S. and our allies in Britain, I’m not able to characterize that for you.”  British authorities detained Miranda, 28, on Sunday, under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for nine hours — the maximum allowed before authorities have to release or formally arrest a person. The law allows authorities to question and detain individuals traveling through airports and border areas.  In a 2012 review of the controversial law, Britain’s Home Office said that more than 97 percent of people stopped under the law are questioned for less than one hour.  Miranda was flying home to Rio de Janeiro from Berlin, with a stop in London, which is where he was taken to a room and questioned by agents, he said.  “They asked questions about my whole life, about everything. They took my computer, video game, cell phone, memory thumb drives—everything,” Miranda told reporters in Rio on Monday.  Several British politicians have demanded clarification on why antiterrorism laws were used to detain Miranda. Keith Vaz, chairman of Britain’s Home Affairs Select Committee, wrote to police on Monday asking them to explain who authorized the decision, among other things.  “It's an extraordinary twist to a complicated story,” Vaz told the BBC on Monday morning. “They may have a perfectly reasonable explanation,” he said of the authorities who detained Miranda, “ but if this is what is going to happen, if we are going to use the Act in this way, for those issues that are not related to terrorism, then at least we need to know so everyone is prepared."  Writing in the Guardian, Greenwald said he received a call at 6:30 a.m. Sunday telling him that Miranda had been detained at Heathrow. “The official — who refused to give his name but would only identify himself by his number: 203654 — said David was not allowed to have a lawyer present, nor would they allow me to talk to him.” He said they had “zero suspicion” that his partner was engaged in a terrorist plot but grilled him about Greenwald’s reporting on the NSA.  Miranda had spent the previous week in Berlin, where he met with Laura Poitras, a documentary filmmaker who has been working with Greenwald and Snowden. The Guardian said that it paid for Miranda’s flights. “As Greenwald’s partner, he often assists him in his work and the Guardian normally reimburses the expenses of someone aiding a reporter in such circumstances,” the paper said.  A spokesman for the London police, who are handling the case, said that on Sunday, “a 28-year-old man was detained at Heathrow Airport under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. He was not arrested, and he was subsequently released.” The spokesman said that police would not comment on why Miranda had been held and that no other official statements would be made at this time.  The Brazilian government expressed its “grave concern” over the detainment. and said in a statement that the move was “without justification .” . . since it involves an individual against whom there are no charges that can legitimate the use of that legislation.”  A defiant Greenwald said any attempt to intimidate journalists would ultimately backfire.  “If the U.K. and U.S. governments believe that tactics like this are going to deter or intimidate us in any way from continuing to report aggressively on what these documents reveal, they are beyond deluded,” Greenwald said. “If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further.”
Partner of journalist linked to Edward Snowden was held by London police for 9 hours under anti-terrorism law.