Whitehall Today

[David Morris]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/20/1232635/-Open-thread-for-night-owls-UK-suppression-of-NSA-Snowden-reporting-should-cause-a-shiver

A little over two months ago I was contacted by a very senior government
official claiming to represent the views of the prime minister. There
followed two meetings in which he demanded the return or destruction of all
the material we were working on. The tone was steely, if cordial, but there
was an implicit threat that others within government and Whitehall favoured
a far more draconian approach.

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.” There followed further meetings with shadowy Whitehall
figures. The demand was the same: hand the Snowden material back or destroy
it. I explained that we could not research and report on this subject if we
complied with this request. The man from Whitehall looked mystified.
“You’ve had your debate. There’s no need to write any more.”
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