The Edward Snowden spying drama became Kafkaesque this morning when dueling articles were published in Britain’s two leading newspapers.
One was a dramatic revelation in the Independent that the U.K. has a major spying outpost in the Middle East to intercept and monitor vast amounts of internet traffic. The Independent cited documents leaked by Snowden as its source for the story.
Then came a rebuttal and denial in The Guardian claiming the British government had itself leaked the story, denying that Snowden had been the source.
We blogged about it in detail at In the (K)now blog in UK government accused of leak in Snowden drama
This involves two of Britain’s most trusted newspapers. I monitor them routinely, because of their outstanding, aggressive coverage of world affairs, including the United States.
The rebuttal and denial was published in by Glenn Greenwald, perhaps the most important journalist of our time.
We profiled him Aug. 13 at In the (K)now blog in
“Glenn Greenwald: scholar, journalist, media critic etraordinaire”
For these two newspapers to publish contradictory claims about a major news event is extraordinary.
The ongoing saga of the man accused by American officials of espionage has now taken a turn not even Ian Flemming could have imagined when he wrote the James Bond series of thrillers.
The question is, if not Snowden, who, then, leaked the data?
That is a very good question indeed.
It’s a made-for-television mini-series.
Stay tuned for the next episode, as another "source" leaks who leaked the leak about the leak. (snark)