David Miranda has only two degrees of separation between himself and Edward Snowden, since he is the lover of Glenn Greenwald, who in turn is the journalist who revealed Snowden’s secrets.

According to The Guardian, Mr Miranda was detained and questioned by security officials at London Heathrow Airport under Schedule 7 of the UK Terrorism Act. These security officials (most likely at the behest of the US government, though they deny this) then held Mr Miranda incommunicado for almost nine hours and confiscated (i.e. stole) his mobile phone, laptop computer, camera, and memory sticks. So much for the rule of law.

In the words of Nick Cohen, a columnist for the conservative weekly The Spectator: “The next time [the authorities] try to tell you that the secrecy and attempts to silence legitimate debate are ‘in the public interest,’ do not forget what they did to David Miranda, because they can do it to you, too.” Remember these apt words the next time you wait in line at an airport security checkpoint.