Considering that the US was given the heads up, I would guess that the order came from Cabinet level, possibly given the nod by William Hague. Now, I have met h

Considering that the US was given the heads up, I would guess that the order came from Cabinet level, possibly given the nod by William Hague. Now, I have met him, and he is (or appears to be) a very smart guy indeed. Speculating for a moment that he did give the OK to this, then I do not doubt that he did it with his eyes wide open. He would have known exactly what the PR repercussions were. There must have been a very good reason for him to want to stop Mr. Miranda - which means that it is unlikely to be simple intimidation. (Not the sort of thing that I can imagine your typical Whitehall civil servant stooping to in any case). My guess is that it was believed that he was carrying a copy of Snowden's cache of documents, and the UK badly wanted to get their hands on a copy. Which is fascinating, if true, because it means that they still do not know what documents he has.... Fun to speculate ....