As the controversy grows over the detention at London’s Heathrow airport for 9 hours of the partner of Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who did the interviews in which now-Russia-resident Anthony Snowden leaked secrets about the extent of NSA surveillance, Greenwald has now vowed to publish more secrets about the UK and says the UK will be “sorry.” I believe this latest assertion is a big mistake that Greenwald’s critics will use against him.

The reason: it’ll be paraphrased in a more negative way that could shift the story from being totally about the content of Snowden’s information, and the detention of David Miranda which led to MIranda being released uncharged and his laptop, cellphone and memory sticks confiscated, to a new narrative: a reporter who will be portrayed to be angry and intending to get back at those who angered him — even if he was planning to publish that material sooner or later, anyway.

[UPDATE: But this still needs to be taken into its total context. The Huffington Post reports that Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, did a column in which he says top government officials told him two months ago “”You’ve had your fun. Now we want the stuff back” and then came the spectacle of “two GCHQ security experts overseeing the destruction of hard drives in the Guardian’s basement just to make sure there was nothing in the mangled bits of metal which could possibly be of any interest to passing Chinese agents.”]

Rightfully or wrongfully, that’s how it will likely play out. It’s a bit akin to the Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s comment in 1995 suggesting that he shut down the government because then President Bill Clinton made him sit at the back of Air Force on — inspiring a famous New York Daily News cover. Few today believe that was T-H-E reason for the shutdown. But that’s how Gingrich’s words were played.

If the Snowden story is about the content, the reason why Miranda was detained, the story plays one way. But if it shifts and becomes about anangry reporter who said they’ll be “sorry” for detaining his partner and taking information from him or trying to intimidate him, it shifts the story from the issue to someone who will be portrayed as seeking revenge — no matter how wronged he and his close associate may have been. This interview where he reportedly said that was in Portuguese. Was there something lost in the translation?

And when Greenwald writes future revelations, no matter how solid and sensational they may be, in our change-the-subject politics it’ll be asserted he’s doing this now because he’s mad at the U.K. and wants to show them he can’t be pushed around. That will be the suggestion. Sort of like the ‘ol “disgruntled employee” garbage: in many cases the employee is correct but to discredit him/her allegations are painted as stemming from anger — as if an allegation made can be negated by anger. But a verbal shell game can sometimes work (at least partially).

Here’s part of the Reuters story linked above:

The journalist who first published secrets leaked by fugitive former U.S. intelligence agency contractor Edward Snowden vowed on Monday to publish more documents and said Britain will be “sorry” for detaining his partner for nine hours.

British authorities used anti-terrorism laws on Sunday to detain David Miranda, partner of U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald, as he passed through London’s Heathrow airport.

Miranda, 28, a Brazilian citizen, said he was questioned for nine hours before being released without charge, minus his laptop, cellphone and memory sticks, which were seized.

Greenwald, a columnist for Britain’s the Guardian newspaper who is based in Rio de Janeiro, said the detention was an attempt to intimidate him for publishing documents leaked by Snowden disclosing U.S. surveillance of global internet communications.

Snowden, who has been granted asylum by Russia, gave Greenwald from 15,000 to 20,000 documents with details of the U.S. National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

“I will be far more aggressive in my reporting from now. I am going to publish many more documents. I am going to publish things on England too. I have many documents on England’s spy system. I think they will be sorry for what they did,” Greenwald, speaking in Portuguese, told reporters at Rio’s airport where he met Miranda upon his return to Brazil.

“They wanted to intimidate our journalism, to show that they have power and will not remain passive but will attack us more intensely if we continue publishing their secrets,” he said.

He should have left out the “I think they will be sorry for what they did.” You’ll see it linked to and repeated again — as sure as NSA records you talking to your Aunt Edna in Peoria, or knows about all those emails I’m constantly getting for a company suggesting I need an “enlargement.”

You can see how this is starting to play out on Twitter among some on Twitter:

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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