LONDON: The partner of a journalist who received leaks from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden was detained for nearly nine hours Sunday under anti-terror legislation at Heathrow Airport, triggering claims that authorities are trying to interfere with reporting on the issue.

David Miranda, the partner of Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, was held for nearly the maximum time authorities are allowed to detain individuals under the Terrorism Act’s Schedule 7, which authorizes security agencies to stop and question people at borders. Greenwald said Miranda’s cellphone, laptops and memory sticks were confiscated.

“This is obviously a rather profound escalation of their attacks on the news-gathering process and journalism,” Greenwald said in a post on the Guardian website. “It’s bad enough to prosecute and imprison sources. It’s worse still to imprison journalists who report the truth. But to start detaining the family members and loved ones of journalists is simply despotic.”

Greenwald has written a series of stories about the NSA’s electronic surveillance programs based on files handed over by Snowden. The former contractor fled the United States and is now in Russia, where he has received temporary asylum.

The 28-year-old Miranda was returning home to Brazil from Germany, where he was staying with Laura Poitras, a U.S. filmmaker who has worked with Greenwald on the NSA story, Greenwald said in his post. He also said British authorities had “zero suspicion” that Miranda was linked to a terror group and instead interrogated him about the NSA reporting and the contents of the electronic equipment he was carrying.

“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,” he said. “If anything, it will have only the opposite effect: to embolden us even further.”

London police acknowledged that they had detained a 28-year-old man at 8:05 a.m. He was released at 5 p.m. without being arrested, the Metropolitan Police Service said.

“They kept David detained right up until the last minute: for the full 9 hours, something they very rarely do. Only at the last minute did they finally release him,” Greenwald said. “This was obviously designed to send a message of intimidation to those of us working journalistically on reporting on the NSA and its British counterpart, the GCHQ.”

The Home Office says in a report released last year that more than 97 percent of those questioned under Schedule 7 are detained for less than an hour. Less than a tenth of 1 percent are held for more than six hours. Some 230,236 people were questioned under Schedule 7 from April 2009 through March 2012.

Schedule 7 is designed to help authorities determine whether people crossing U.K. borders have been involved in the “commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism,” according to the Home Office report. Border agents are not required to have reasonable suspicion before detaining a traveler.

Examining officers may require travelers to answer questions or provide documents. Detainees may be held for up to nine hours if they refuse to cooperate, the Home Office report said.

Greenwald’s post said the Guardian sent lawyers to the airport. Detainees have the right to legal representation, though publicly funded legal advice is not guaranteed.

The Brazilian government expressed “grave concern” over the detention of Miranda, Greenwald’s longtime partner with whom he’s in a civil union. The pair lives in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Sunday that Miranda was “detained and held incommunicado.”

The statement went on to say that the foreign ministry considered the detention “unjustifiable, as it involves an individual against whom there are no accusations that could possibly legitimize the use of such legislation.”

Russia has given NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden asylum for one year. Now what?

The White House has a broad array of potential diplomatic tools to craft a response — but it’s not clear which ones would send a clear message of disapproval to Russian President Vladimir Putin while not endangering areas of rare but crucial Russo-U.S. cooperation.

With the White House announcement on Thursday that President Barack Obama might scrap a summit next month with Putin over the asylum decision, how likely is a further escalation of tensions?

Simply put, are we heading into a new Cold War?

“No, we’re not going into another Cold War,” a senior administration official told Yahoo News, requesting anonymity to describe the thinking in Washington about the way forward.

If things escalate, the official made clear, it’s not because of Snowden — at least, “not just because” of him.

Sure, at this point, given the sweeping impact of the former NSA contractor’s revelations about U.S. foreign policy and domestic spying programs, it might be tempting to divide at least the president’s second term into “BSE” and “SE” — Before Snowden Era and Snowden Era.

And there’s no mistaking how unhappy the White House is with Moscow’s decision to grant Snowden asylum.

“We will be in contact with Russian authorities, expressing our extreme disappointment in this decision,” press secretary Jay Carney declared Thursday, adding: “He’s not a dissident. He’s not a whistle-blower.”

“We are evaluating the utility of a summit in light of this and other issues,” Carney added.

“Other issues” is important here. You could almost call them preexisting conditions.

The list of Russo-U.S. disputes is long. At the top is probably Putin’s support for Bashar Assad’s regime in Syria, where a civil war has left at least 100,000 dead, according to U.N. estimates. Russia, which has a long relationship with Assad’s regime, joined China in blocking U.S. efforts to get a U.N. Security Council resolution that might have opened the way for international sanctions against Syria.

But there are other issues. American officials say Putin is behind a series of high-profile trials of critics and potential rivals, part of a crackdown on dissent and opposition as he consolidates power. Some U.S. lawmakers suspect Russia is cheating on arms control agreements.

Russia opposes U.S. missile defense plans in Europe and sharply objects to the eastward expansion of NATO, an alliance conceived to deter the Soviet Union but which has acted as something of an umbrella for former Soviet republics looking for shelter from Moscow’s frequently heavy-handed influence.

At the same time, the Obama administration’s first-term “reset” of relations with Russia has borne fruit, with the nuclear arms control START treaty ratification and the opening of the “air bridge” through Russia’s backyard to supply U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.

“But we are in a dynamic, now, with Russia, where on the balance sheet of issues on which we have progress or cooperation against the issues on which we have conflict or profound disagreements we are tilting pretty heavily to the latter,” the senior administration official said.

“There’s never been a time in post-Soviet Russia-U.S. relations when everything was perfect,” the official continued. But “these are real disagreements with a real impact.”

So now the challenge is to find a way to send a message to Putin on those disagreements but not poison cooperation on other issues.

“I know chests across Capitol Hill are being beaten as we speak, but let’s be honest, we wouldn’t return the Russian equivalent of Edward Snowden,” former Obama national security spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News.

One American career diplomat suggested one option could be to have the U.S. ambassador to Russia, the outspoken Michael McFaul, either visit or play host to Putin critics. That carries the potential downside of marking those people targets for retaliation.

What about boycotting the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia?

“The idea of declining to participate punishes our athletes above anyone else,” said Vietor, expressing views often heard inside the White House.

The U.S. could also accelerate the pace of missile defense deployments in Europe. But that would require local allies to agree, and it’s not clear how Russia would react.

Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have suggested giving the former Soviet Republic of Georgia membership in NATO — a proposal greeted with disbelief at the White House.

The problem with that idea is Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, which considers an attack on one member of the alliance an attack on all and pledges a military response. Russia and Georgia have engaged in armed conflict in recent years, and it’s not likely that the American public has much of an appetite to send troops to fight and die for either country.

Does the U.S. want to engage in an ambiguous battle over “some rocky real estate in South Ossetia?” Vietor said, referring to a disputed region Georgia considers part of its territory but does not control.

Vietor said the U.S. should avoid an “escalatory” response, while still sending a message to Putin.

“You could dial up the statements of criticism of Russian behavior, which they dislike enormously, or Mike (McFaul) could take certain meetings with opposition leaders, or people in the legal field or others that highlight the dark underbelly of the Russian government,” he said.

But “having the president of the United States dive into the fray here and make some big public statement or symbolic gesture probably isn’t the way to lower the temperature,” Vietor added.

Canceling the summit remains the only consideration — at least publicly. Given that “other issues” had already cast doubt on the merits of the meeting, there’s a solid chance that Obama will not go to Moscow.

We’ll know more about prospects for the Obama-Putin summit next week: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry were scheduled to meet in Washington next week with their Russian counterparts. The foursome was ostensibly due to work on setting up the presidential talks.

“Why would we want to punish U.S. athletes who’ve been training for three years to compete in the Olympics over a traitor who can’t find a place to call home?” Boehner told reporters at a news conference.

The Ohio Republican was asked about Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham’s idea that if Russia provides a safe haven for Snowden, the United States should consider keeping its athletes home during the 2014 Winter Olympics next February.

Boehner said Graham was “dead wrong.”

Snowden, who disclosed details about U.S. intelligence surveillance of Internet activity, has applied for temporary asylum in Russia three weeks after arriving at a Moscow airport from Hong Kong. The United States wants Snowden sent home to face prosecution for espionage.

Snowden’s fate has roiled already tense U.S.-Russian relations.

In the 1980s, the United States boycotted the Olympics over Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday accused the United States of trapping US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden in Moscow, saying he would leave Russia as soon as possible.

“As soon as there’s the chance to move somewhere he will certainly do this,” Putin said in his first public remarks since Snowden summoned several rights activists and lawyers for a dramatic meeting Friday at state-controlled Sheremetyevo airport.

Putin accused Washington of preventing Snowden from leaving Russia after the fugitive ex-intelligence analyst arrived from Hong Kong on June 23.

“He arrived on our territory uninvited, he did not fly to us, he was flying in transit to other countries,” Putin said in televised remarks.

“But as soon as he was in the air, it became known, and our American partners essentially blocked off his further flight.”

Snowden was checked in for a flight from Moscow to Havana, Cuba on June 24 but never boarded the plane.

“They themselves scared off all the other countries, no one wants to take him, and therefore they essentially themselves trapped him on our territory,” Putin said.

“A nice gift to us for Christmas,” the strongman president was quoted as saying by Russian reporters travelling with him on a visit to the island of Gogland in the Gulf of Finland.

Asked what will happen to Snowden, Putin said: “How would I know? That’s his life, his fate.”

But he also noted a change in position by Snowden, who said Friday he wanted to apply for asylum in Russia until he can travel on to Latin America.

The Russian president conspicuously refrained from indicating if or when he might grant asylum to the world’s most famous fugitive.

Putin said earlier this month that Snowden could claim asylum in Russia only if he stopped his leaks.

The condition initially prompted Snowden to withdraw his application, before the rights activists who met him on Friday said he had promised not to harm US interests in the future.

“Judging by his latest statement, he is somewhat changing his position, but the situation has not been finally clarified so far,” Putin said.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service said earlier Monday that it had not yet received an application from Snowden.

Putin, who is set to host US President Barack Obama for a bilateral summit in Moscow followed by the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg in early September, reiterated Russia’s refusal to damage ties with Washington for Snowden’s sake.

“‘We have certain ties with the United States. We do not want you through your activity to damage our ties with the States,'” he said he had told Snowden.

“He said ‘no’. You are laughing but I am serious,” added Putin, addressing a group of students.

He said Snowden had vowed to continue his activism.

“We said: ‘That will be without us, then. We have other battles to fight,'” he said with a smile.

Snowden, whose passport has been revoked by Washington, has been marooned in the airport’s transit zone for the past three weeks.

In a sign that Moscow may seriously consider an application from him, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, Sergei Naryshkin, said Friday that Snowden could apply for either temporary asylum or political asylum.

Requests for political asylum are reviewed by the Kremlin and granted by the president.

Observers have noted that Snowden’s Friday meeting did not include some figures likely to upset Putin, such as Russia’s best-known rights campaigners or organisations that deal with refugees.

But among those invited were figures such as Vyacheslav Nikonov, a lawmaker from ruling party United Russia, who would probably not have been known to Snowden before his arrival in Russia.

Washington has reacted sharply to the possibility that Moscow might offer Snowden a safe haven and accused it of providing him a “propaganda platform”.

RIO DE JANEIRO: Edward Snowden has very sensitive “blueprints” detailing how the National Security Agency operates that would allow someone who read them to evade or even duplicate NSA surveillance, a journalist close to the intelligence leaker said Sunday.

Glenn Greenwald, a columnist with The Guardian newspaper who closely communicates with Snowden and first reported on his intelligence leaks, told The Associated Press that the former NSA systems analyst has “literally thousands of documents” that constitute “basically the instruction manual for how the NSA is built.”

“In order to take documents with him that proved that what he was saying was true he had to take ones that included very sensitive, detailed blueprints of how the NSA does what they do,” Greenwald said in Brazil, adding that the interview was taking place about four hours after his last interaction with Snowden.

Snowden emerged from weeks of hiding in a Moscow airport Friday, and said he was willing to meet President Vladimir Putin’s condition that he stop leaking U.S. secrets if it means Russia would give him asylum until he can move on to Latin America.

Greenwald told The AP that Snowden has insisted the information from those documents not be made public. The journalist said it “would allow somebody who read them to know exactly how the NSA does what it does, which would in turn allow them to evade that surveillance or replicate it.”

Despite their sensitivity, Greenwald said he didn’t think that disclosure of the documents would prove harmful to Americans or their national security.

“I think it would be harmful to the U.S. government, as they perceive their own interests, if the details of those programs were revealed,” said the 46-year-old former constitutional and civil rights lawyer who has written three books contending the government has violated personal rights in the name of protecting national security.

He has previously said the documents have been encrypted to help ensure their safekeeping.

Greenwald, who has also co-authored a series of articles in Rio de Janeiro’s O Globo newspaper focusing on NSA actions in Latin America, said he expected to continue publishing further stories based on other Snowden documents over the next four months.

Upcoming stories would likely include details on “other domestic spying programs that have yet to be revealed,” but which are similar in scope to those he has been reporting on. He did not provide further details on the nature of those programs.

Greenwald said he deliberately avoids talking to Snowden about issues related to where the former analyst might seek asylum in order to avoid possible legal problems for himself.

Snowden is believed to be stuck in the transit area of Moscow’s main international airport, where he arrived from Hong Kong on June 23. He’s had offers of asylum from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Bolivia, but because his U.S. passport has been revoked, the logistics of reaching whichever country he chooses are complicated.

Still, Greenwald said that Snowden remains “calm and tranquil,” despite his predicament.

Fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has requested a meeting with human rights groups in Moscow, Russian officials say.

Mr Snowden wants to meet them later on Friday at Sheremetyevo airport, where he is thought to be staying.

The former CIA contractor is wanted by the US on charges of leaking secrets about US surveillance schemes.

He has sent requests for political asylum to at least 21 countries, most of which have turned down his request.

However, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela have indicated they could take him in.

Mr Snowden planned to make a statement on Friday, Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed airport source as saying.

The American, who has been stuck in transit since arriving in Moscow from Hong Kong on 23 June, has sent meeting requests to leading human rights organisations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

“I can confirm that such a meeting will take place,” an airport spokeswoman said.

Sergei Nikitin, the head of Amnesty International’s Russia office, confirmed he had received an invitation and planned to attend the gathering.

Prominent Moscow lawyer Genrikh Padva is also reported to have been invited.

Washington wants to prosecute Mr Snowden over the leaking of thousands of classified US intelligence documents.

The leaking of classified intelligence documents has led to revelations that the US is systematically seizing vast amounts of phone and web data.

The case has strained relations between the US and China.

President Barack Obama said on Thursday he was “disappointed” that China had chosen not to hand over Mr Snowden to the US authorities when he was in Hong Kong in June.

A US government official said the decision had undermined calls for co-operation between the two countries

But China said Hong Kong – which allowed to Mr Snowden to leave Russia – had acted in accordance with the territory’s law.

CARACAS:  Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro offered asylum to former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden on Friday in defiance of Washington, which is demanding his arrest for divulging details of secret U.S. spy programs.

“In the name of America’s dignity … I have decided to offer humanitarian asylum to Edward Snowden,” Maduro told a military parade marking Venezuela’s independence day.

“He is a young man who has told the truth, in the spirit of rebellion, about the United States spying on the whole world.”

The 30-year-old former National Security Agency contractor is believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport.

Russian officials have kept Snowden at arm’s length since he landed from Hong Kong on June 23, saying the transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control.

It was not immediately clear how Snowden would react to Maduro’s offer, nor reach Venezuela if he accepted.

There are no direct commercial flights between Moscow and Caracas, and the usual route involves changing planes in Havana. It is not clear if the Cuban authorities would let him transit.

Given the dramatic grounding in Vienna of the Bolivian president’s plane this week over suspicions that Snowden was onboard, using European airspace could prove problematic.

One alternative flight plan would involve an aircraft taking off from Moscow, refueling in Vladivostok, and then continuing east over the Pacific to South America.

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience over Snowden’s stay in Moscow. Its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday that Snowden had not sought asylum in that country and needed to choose a place to go.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia had received no request for political asylum from Snowden and he had to solve his problems himself after 11 days in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

President Vladimir Putin has refused to extradite the American and Russian officials have delighted in his success in staying out of the United States’ clutches since revealing details of secret U.S. government surveillance programs.

But Moscow has also made clear that Snowden is an increasingly unwelcome guest because the longer he stays, the greater the risk of the diplomatic standoff over his fate causing lasting damage to relations with Washington.

“He needs to choose a place to go,” Ryabkov told Reuters. “As of this moment, we do not have a formal application from Mr Snowden asking for asylum in the Russian Federation.”

Ryabkov told Itar-Tass news agency separately that Russia “cannot solve anything for him” and the situation should now be resolved “one way or the other”.

His remarks echoed comments by President Vladimir Putin, who has urged Snowden, 30, to leave as soon as he can.

France and Italy, both U.S. allies, said they had rejected asylum requests from Snowden.

“Like many countries France has received, via its ambassador in Moscow, an asylum request from Edward Snowden. For legal reasons and given the applicant’s situation, it will not be processed,” Interior Minister Manuel Valls said in a statement.

Valls said earlier on Thursday that France’s relations with the United States would not allow it to harbor Snowden.

Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino said any asylum request would have to be presented in person at the border or in Italian territory which Snowden had not done.

“As a result there do not exist the legal conditions to accept such a request, which in the government’s view would not be acceptable on a political level either,” she told parliament.

Relations between Snowden and the Russian authorities appear to have soured when Putin said on Monday that he could only be granted asylum by Moscow if he agreed to stop actions that could harm the United States.

Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Tuesday that Snowden had withdrawn his interest in asylum in Russia after Putin spelled out the terms. His options have narrowed further since then as no country has agreed to grant him asylum.

KEEPING RELATIONS ON AN EVEN KEEL

Russian officials have kept Snowden at arm’s length since he landed from Hong Kong on June 23, saying the transit area where passengers stay between flights is neutral territory and he will be on Russian soil only if he goes through passport control.

Moscow has also done nothing to trumpet his presence or parade him before cameras and Putin has avoided the temptation to mock Obama when asked about the affair in public. He said last week he would prefer not to deal with it at all.

Relations with Washington have been strained since Putin’s return to the presidency last year. He has accused the United States of backing protesters demanding his removal and Washington is worried that he is cracking down on dissent.

But there have been signs of an improvement as the sides try to cooperate more on security since the April 15 Boston marathon bombings, in which two ethnic Chechens are the main suspects. The United States has also shown some restraint in its remarks.

“We continue to talk with the Russian government every day (about Snowden), absolutely every day, including myself,” U.S. ambassador Michael McFaul told reporters. “We hope to resolve this … in a way that we want to have it ended and so far we’re very happy with our interactions with the Russian government.”

Russia’s Interfax news agency underlined Washington’s own determination to keep ties on an even keel, quoting an unnamed source as saying Snowden’s case had not been raised by U.S. Justice Department officials at recent talks in Moscow.

Russia has, however, reveled in the diplomatic fallout since Bolivian President Evo Morales, a Putin ally, was held up on his way home from an energy meeting in Moscow because a number of European countries refused initially to let his plane into their airspace over suspicions that Snowden was on board.

Bolivia blamed the delays on Washington and the Russian Foreign Ministry criticized three European Union member states.

“The actions of the authorities of France, Spain and Portugal could hardly be considered friendly actions towards Bolivia,” it said. “Russia calls on the international community to comply strictly with international legal principles.”

Bolivia accused France, Italy, Spain and Portugal of blocking the plane.

It said some wrongly believed US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board.

Speaking in Berlin, French President Francois Hollande said he granted permission as soon as he knew it was Mr Morales’ plane.

President Morales was flying back to Bolivia from Moscow when the plane was forced to stop in Vienna.

Angry reactions

The French foreign ministry issued a statement on the incident.

Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: “The foreign minister called his Bolivian counterpart to tell him about France’s regrets after the incident caused by the late confirmation of permission for President Morales’ plane to fly over [French] territory.”

The episode sparked angry reactions from heads of state across Latin America.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner referred to “not only the humiliation of a sister country, but of the South American continent”.
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro said on Twitter: “I reaffirm all our solidarity with Evo [Morales] and from Venezuela, with dignity, we will respond to this dangerous, disproportionate, and unacceptable aggression”
Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa tweeted: “We express our solidarity with Evo [Morales] and the brave Bolivian people.”
A statement by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff said: “The embarrassment to President Morales hits not only Bolivia, but all of Latin America.”
Demonstrators marched on the French embassy in La Paz, burning the French flag and demanding the expulsion of the ambassador to Bolivia.

President Correa asked that the Unasur group of South American nations call an urgent meeting over the matter.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, expressed his “deep displeasure” with the “lack of respect” shown by the countries that denied airspace to Mr Morales’ jet.

Bolivia’s Vice-President Alvaro Garcia said a group of Latin American leaders would meet in Cochabamba, Bolivia, on Thursday over the case.