U.K. Government Thought Destroying Guardian Hard Drives Would Stop Stories

I don&#x27;t think there&#x27;s any indication that they actually thought destroying the hard drives would stop anything; seems more likely that:<p>1) They didn&#x27;t want anyone else to get access to the material that the Guardian had but would not end up publishing;<p>2) The rules said that that&#x27;s what they had to do, so they did it;<p>3) That&#x27;s all they could do on &quot;their patch&quot;, so CYA;<p>4) A little intimidation would never go amiss, surely...

Here&#x27;s the original story at the Guardian, which is definitely worth a read.<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/19/david-miranda-schedule7-danger-reporters" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theguardian.com&#x2F;commentisfree&#x2F;2013&#x2F;aug&#x2F;19&#x2F;david-m...</a>

Sounds quite similar to me.<p>&quot;As Gestapo chief of operations and later (after 1939) its chief, Müller played a leading role in the detection and suppression of all forms of resistance to the Nazi regime.[12] Under his leadership, the Gestapo succeeded in infiltrating and to a large extent destroying the underground networks of the Communist Party and the Social Democratic Party by the end of 1935.&quot;<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_%28Gestapo%29" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Heinrich_M%C3%BCller_%28Gestapo...</a>

Why bother to read to 1984 or Animal Farm anymore. We see in every bloody story these days. This story is perfectly 1984 in a nutshell.

So private property is down too. Do these guys keep a todo-list?

These people are dinosaurs. That is the most scary aspect. Imagine if Dinosaurs still existed but new how to search internet databases to find their targets!

What goods or services could be boycotted, to protest these actions by the British Gestapo?<p>Largest UK companies (that seemed recognizable): HSBC, Shell, BP, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, GlaxoSmithKline, Unilever, Vodafone, Anglo American (thought the name was funny for a huge British company), Prudential, Coldplay<p>Edit: Added services<p>Edit 2: Added list of largest UK companies<p>Edit 3: Added Coldplay