DEFCON 2

That's how Ryan Chittum refers to The Guardian's experiences since publishing the first of the Snowden reports.  British authorities have demanded the return of the classified material.  They have gone so far as to smash some of the paper's hard drives.  The Guardian now has moved all of its work on the Snowden affair to the U.S. in the belief that they will have more freedom there. 

Chittum's classification of these and other incidents as DEFCON 2 is explained below:

In light of Rusbridger’s disclosures, it’s even clearer that the detention of Miranda is part of an attack on American journalists authorized at the highest levels of the British government, and it’s an attack that is at the very least implicitly backed by the Obama administration.

We have the spectacle of communications between two American journalists-in-exile—reduced to passing information via courier because their government is spying on everything they do online—busted up by the US’s top ally, apparently with no protest from the Obama administration, which was given a heads-up.

On top of that, Greenwald’s paper has been threatened by its own government with prior restraint and had its hard drives smashed in its basement to make a (stupid) point.

This is police-state stuff. We need to know the American government’s role in these events —and its stance on them— sooner rather than later.