PRISM: NSA spying fallout sees Groklaw blog shut down and Guardian hard drives crushed

Another popular website has gone offline citing fears over lack of privacy, as the revelations surrounding the NSA's online surveillance tactics continue to have an effect on internet use. Further issues have also emerged for the Guardian, which was forced to destroy its UK-based hard drives containing evidence supplied by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The latest website to go offline following the demise of secure email service Lavabit and Silent Circle's Silent Mail service is technology law news site Groklaw, which said it could no longer guarantee its sources' anonymity.
Groklaw founder Pamela Jones wrote: "The owner of Lavabit tells us that he's stopped using email and if we knew what he knew, we'd stop too. There is now no shield from forced exposure. You don't expect a stranger to read your private communications to a friend. And once you know they can, what is there to say? Constricted and distracted. That's it exactly. That's how I feel."
It has also emerged that UK cabinet secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood asked the Guardian to destroy or surrender files the paper obtained from Edward Snowden. The Guardian obliged, destroying the hard drives under the supervision of two security experts from GCHQ. The paper labelled the act as "largely symbolic" as both sides knew that copies of the information stored on the offending drives was available elsewhere.
This act followed the revelation that David Miranda - the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald, who wrote a number of stories about PRISM – had been held for questioning at Heathrow airport for nine hours under terror laws. The legislation, which applies to people in UK ports and airport transit areas, means that the protection journalists would normally have in the rest of the country does not apply.
Further information about the NSA's US surveillance has been revealed today, with The Wall Street Journal citing sources saying the telecoms providers that co-operate with the programme handle up to 75 percent of US internet traffic.