The recent–and still ongoing–revelations in the Guardian by their columnist Glenn Greenwald and his colleagues have already given rise to a number of dismissive myths.

Here are three of them, and my responses.

1. “It’s nothing new. We’ve known about this for a long time.”

For example, Senator Chambliss, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee: “Everyone’s been aware of it for years.”

This is a common human reaction to any information that is presented as being important. It’s healthy and reflects a critical attitude. You may remember  similar responses to the WikiLeaks cables. But the latter turned out to be incredibly useful. So it’s worth recognizing what is new here, and what we’ve already known. (And there is a difference between “known” in the sense of known as a undisputed fact and “suspected.”)

In 2005 the New York Times revealed (after sitting on the story until…