英国要求《纽约时报》销毁斯诺登泄密文件 美情报机构“黑色预算”被曝光

The British government has asked the New York Times to destroy copies of documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden related to the operations of the U.S. spy agency and its British partner, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), people familiar with the matter said.

The British request, made to Times executive editor Jill Abramson by a senior official at the British Embassy in Washington D.C., was greeted by Abramson with silence, according to the sources. British officials indicated they intended to follow up on their request later with the Times, but never did, one of the sources said.

On Friday, in a public statement, Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, said his newspaper, which had faced threats of possible legal action from British authorities, on July 20 had destroyed copies of leaked documents which it had received from Snowden.

Rusbridger said that two days later, on July 22, the Guardian informed British authorities that materials related to GCHQ had made their way to the New York Times and the independent investigative journalism group ProPublica.

Rusbridger said in his statement that it then took British authorities "more than three weeks before anyone from the British government contacted the New York Times.

"We understand the British Embassy in Washington met with the New York Times in mid-August - over three weeks after the Guardian's material was destroyed in London. To date, no-one has contacted ProPublica, and there has been two weeks of further silence towards the New York Times from the government," Rusbridger said.

Rusbridger added that, "This five week period in which nothing has happened tells a different story from the alarmist claims made" by the British government in a witness statement it submitted on Friday to a London court hearing regarding an investigation by British authorities into whether the handling of Snowden's leaks violated British anti-terrorism and official secrets laws.

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington told Reuters: "We are not going to get into the specifics about our efforts but it should come as no surprise if we approach a person who is in possession of some or all of this material."

The spokesman added: "We have presented a witness statement to the court in Britain which explains why we are trying to secure copies of over 58,000 stolen intelligence documents - to protect public safety and our national security."

A spokeswoman for the New York Times said the paper had no comment.

The British investigation was opened after authorities at London's Heathrow Airport earlier this month used an anti-terrorism law to detain David Miranda, the domestic partner of Glenn Greenwald, a Guardian writer who has met with Snowden and has played a lead role in writing about material the former NSA contractor leaked.

Miranda was held and questioned for nine hours before being allowed to resume his trip from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he and Greenwald live. Greenwald has said that Miranda had carried Snowden related material from him in Brazil to Laura Poitras in Berlin, an American film-maker who has also met with Snowden, and that Miranda was carrying Snowden-related materials which Poitras gave to him back to Greenwald.

In her witness statement submitted to the British court on Friday, Detective Superintendent Caroline Goode, who said she was in charge of Scotland Yard's Snowden-related investigation, said that among materials officials had seized from Miranda while detaining him was an "external hard drive" containing data encrypted by a system called "True Crypt," which Goode said "renders the material extremely difficult to access."

Goode said the hard drive contained around 60 gigabytes of data, "of which only 20 have been accessed to date." She said that she had been advised that the hard drive contains "approximately 58,000 UK documents which are highly classified in nature, to the highest level."

Goode said the process to decode the material was complex and that "so far only 75 documents have been reconstructed since the property was initially received."

Goode also said that it was "likely" that Scotland Yard "is investigating a conspiracy with a global dimension. It is necessary to ascertain if this stolen, classified material has been disseminated to others in order to prevent further disclosure which would prove valuable to terrorists, thereby preventing further offences and protecting public safety."

She also said that "Disclosure of any information contained within those documents would be gravely injurious to UK interests, would directly put lives at risk and would pose a risk to public safety and diminish the ability to counter terrorism."综合外国媒体8月30日报道，据知情人士透露，英国政府要求《纽约时报》销毁爱德华•斯诺登提供的美情报机和英国政府通信总部(GCHQ）合作的行动内容副本。另一方面，《华盛顿邮报》披露了美国情报机构的“黑色预算”，数额惊人。

***英国要求《纽约时报》销毁泄密文件

知情人称，英国驻华盛顿大使馆高级官员向《纽约时报》执行主编吉尔•艾布拉姆森提出了销毁斯诺登提供的泄密文件副本的请求，但艾布拉姆森没有回应。

英国《卫报》编辑艾伦•拉斯布里杰30日发表公开声明称，《卫报》此前受到英当局采取法律行动的威胁，已于7月20日销毁了从斯诺登处获取的泄密文件副本。

他还指出，《卫报》7月22日通知英国当局，已经将与英国政府通信总部有关的资料转交给《纽约时报》和独立新闻调查集团Propublica。“据我们所知，英国驻华盛顿大使馆在《卫报》销毁文件3周后联系了《纽约时报》，不过他们目前还没有联系ProPublica。”

拉斯布里杰说： “英国政府30日向伦敦法院提交了一份证人证言，这是英国当局发起的对持有斯诺登泄密文件是否违反英《反恐法》和《官方机密法》的调查。他们在这份证人证言里耸人听闻。然而这5周时间里没有发生任何事情，足以证明事实与之相反。”

英国驻华盛顿大使馆一名发言人表示：“我们不会详述对此采取的措施，但如果我们联系了部持有部分或全部文件的人，也没什么好奇怪的。我们已经向英国法庭提交了证人证言，解释了我们为什么努力销毁5.8万份被窃情报的副本，我们是为了保护公共安全和国家安全。”

《纽约时报》发言人表示对此不予置评。

***英警方截获5.8万份加密文件

本月早些时候，英国警方在伦敦希罗思机场拘留了格伦•格林沃尔德的伴侣戴维•米兰达，格林沃尔德是《卫报》记者，在斯诺登泄密事件中扮演了重要角色。

米兰达被拘留了长达9小时。据格林沃尔德曾透露，米兰达被捕时正携带着帮他从柏林的劳拉•鲍伊特拉斯处带回的斯诺登提供的文件。鲍伊特拉斯是一名美国电影制片人，曾经见过斯诺登，参与了对美国政府大规模监控项目的曝光。

卡罗琳•古德探长负责伦敦警察厅对斯诺登事件的调查。她在30日提交给法院的证人证言里说，警方在拘留米兰达时获得的资料存储在一个“外置硬盘驱动器”中，并进行过加密，难以读取。

古德称，硬盘空间大概是60GB，“只有20GB的数据已被读取”。她还透露，硬盘中存储了5.8万份与英国相关的高度机密文件，但由于解码过程复杂，目前只获取了75份。

古德还说：“伦敦警察厅很可能正在调查一起全球层面的阴谋。必须查明这些被窃的机密文件是否散播到其他人手里，以阻止恐怖分子进一步获得可利用信息，从而保护公共安全。对这些信息的泄漏将严重损害英国利益，将生命置于危险之中，对公众安全构成威胁，并削弱反恐能力。”

***美国情报机构“黑色预算”曝光

据英国广播公司8月30日报道，《华盛顿邮报》根据斯诺登提供的文件披露了美国情报机构超大规模的“黑色预算”。16个情报机构的预算总和高达526亿美元。

其中中央情报局（CIA）预算最高，达147亿美元。自2004年以来，中情局的预算增长了50%以上。美国国家安全局（NSA）2013年申报的预算是108亿美元，仅次于中情局。

美国此前从未对公众公开过情报机构预算明细。《华盛顿邮报》公开了预算细节的图表，但并没有公布全部文件。