Guardian told to destroy NSA ffiill ess on Camerron’’ss orrd errss

British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered his Cabinet Secretary to ask the Guardian to destroy leaked secret documents on UK and US intelligence operations on the grounds that it posed "serious threat to national security", a media report said on Wednesday, reports PTI. In a statement, a spokesman for deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, gave the first official confirmation that the cabinet secretary Jeremy Heywood made the request to the Guardian. The intervention by Clegg came after Yvette Cooper, a Labour Party politician, said that parliament's intelligence watchdog should investigate Cameron's role in asking the Guardian to surrender or destroy the National Security Agency documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The shadow home secretary made her call after the Independent reported that Heywood made the request to the Guardian on the instructions of the prime minister.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, was quoted as saying by the Guardian that the prime minister must make a statement to MPs when parliament returns next month. In a statement issued after the official confirmation that Heywood asked the Guardian to delete its hard drives, Vaz said: "The actions of the cabinet secretary are unprecedented and show that this issue has reached the highest levels of government."