Edward Snowden did NOT lie: Michael Green responds to Kevin Ryan

Kevin Ryan Has Unfairly Smeared Edward Snowden

January 5, 2014

http://markcrispinmiller.com/2014/01/36452/

Kevin Ryan’s recent article, “Flirting with Sauron: The Risks of Trusting the Snowden Story” seriously and unfairly tarnishes the integrity of a likely hero, wrongly calling Edward Snowden a liar. By first misreading and then altering a Guardian quote from Snowden, Ryan claims falsely to have caught Snowden in a flagrant lie. Ryan then (mis)uses that “lie” to impugn and impeach Snowden’s credibility, effectively implicating Snowden as a co-conspirator or principal in Greenwald’s ostensibly shady self-serving dealings with Paypal billionaire Pierre Omidyar.Ryan’s article presents no new facts or insights about Glenn Greenwald’s questionable behavior, nor any legitimate basis for linking Edward Snowden to Greenwald’s putative misbehavior in any way except as its victim. Rather than clarifying or adding anything to the questions already raised by others, especially Sibel Edmonds, Ryan’s article does essentially nothing beyond unfairly smearing Snowden, who deserves better treatment than this.

Kevin Ryan owes Edward Snowden a public apology. But rather than apologizing for his mistake and withdrawing the article, Ryan has refused to reexamine his work. Sadly, my efforts to explain Ryan’s error to him in an extended email exchange have been met with nothing but his peremptory denials that he erred. Thus, in fairness to Edward Snowden, I describe Ryan’s mistake below and attempt to correct the public record myself.

A careful reading of Ryan’s own source, an article by Glenn Greenwald in The Guardian, shows his elementary misquoting of Snowden and the implausibility of Ryan’s interpretation of Snowden’s actual statement.

Ryan wrote:

It was originally reported that the number of documents Snowden had stolen was in the thousands. Today, however, that number is said to be nearly two million. This calls into question Snowden’s early statement, as reported by Greenwald, that he “carefully evaluated every single document… to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest.” The huge, new number also reveals that less than one tenth of one percent of the documents (only about 900) have actually been released to the public.

How could Snowden have “carefully evaluated every single” one of what is now being said to be nearly two million documents? He only worked for Booz Allen Hamilton for a few months. According to NSA Director Keith Alexander, Snowden also worked directly for NSA for twelve months prior to that, which is interesting. But still, that would require carefully evaluating thousands of documents a day during that entire time. Didn’t he have a job apart from that?

But Ryan has misquoted Snowden. This is what Greenwald wrote:

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January 11, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Urgent Health Warning Across West Virginia: Don’t Drink the Water

January 11, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Radiation levels near Fukushima plant boundary 8 times the government standard

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disaster/fukushima/AJ201401100083 

  …..According to the NRA, the number of locations where such instruments are set up has risen from 446 to 815. The newly installed devices started full-scale operations on Jan. 10.

 

 

The additional instruments were installed at centers for local community meetings and other places where residents will likely gather after they are allowed to return home.…..

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Radiation levels around the boundary of the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant have risen to eight times the government standard of 1 millisievert per year, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said.

The Nuclear Regulation Authority is scheduled to hold a meeting Jan. 10 to discuss countermeasures for a southern area on the plant site that has long been a source of problems.

A level of 8 millisieverts per year was estimated as of December near an area with many storage tanks containing highly radioactive water, company officials said.

After water leaks from underground tanks on the plant’s premises were found last April, the utility transferred radioactive water to the aboveground storage tanks near the southern boundary, TEPCO officials said. The readings there were estimated at 7.8 millisieverts per year as of May.

TEPCO said the main factor behind the increase in radiation levels was X-rays from the storage tanks.

Beta rays released from radioactive strontium and other substances in the water reacted with iron and other elements in the storage tank containers to generate the X-rays, the officials said.

The reactor decommissioning plan for the Fukushima plant stipulates that radiation levels around the boundaries of the facility should be below 1 millisievert per year. That way, TEPCO can minimize the negative impact of radiation on areas outside the plant, according to the plan.

With a succession of high radiation levels reported on the plant premises and elsewhere, the NRA set up radiation monitoring devices at an additional 400 locations in 12 cities, towns and villages around the stricken facility, including ones in evacuation zones.

According to the NRA, the number of locations where such instruments are set up has risen from 446 to 815. The newly installed devices started full-scale operations on Jan. 10.

The additional instruments were installed at centers for local community meetings and other places where residents will likely gather after they are allowed to return home.

The NRA measures air dose rates 0.5 to 1 meter above the ground every 10 minutes.

The monitoring results are available on the NRA’s website at http://radioactivity.nsr.go.jp/en/ 

(Akira Hatano contributed to this article.)

January 11, 2014 Posted by arclight2011part2 | Uncategorized | Leave a comment