This Cowardly Silence Is An Act Of War

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow this week aired a must-watch analysis of the British government's use of terrorism statutes against Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald's partner, David Miranda.

That Western governments needed such a public reminder that "journalism is not terrorism" is an illustrative commentary on how intense today's assault is on basic press freedom. That some would consequently depict Greenwald's promise to be a "more aggressive" reporter as an unacceptable threat -- rather than a simple pledge to keep doing his job -- is an even more illustrative commentary on the authoritarian mind-set. Indeed, by their own frightening logic, such critics apparently want journalists to react to government thuggery not with defiance and persistence, but instead with apologetic promises to be less aggressive in their reporting and/or pledges to keep quiet in the future.

Keeping quiet, of course, is apparently what the U.S. government did in the last few days, and Maddow expertly documents how that reticence is actually one of the big reveals in this latest chapter of the NSA saga. As she shows, British officials gave the United States a "heads up" about their use of anti-terrorism laws against Greenwald's spouse -- and it was the U.S. reaction, or lack thereof, that is so damning:

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