[ RadSafe ] Dubious Claim that US officials destroyed Fukushima documents. Secrecy over nuclear crisis

[Roger Helbig]

Rather doubt much of this is true, but it seems to have made
Bloomberg, which generally is thought of as being a sound news source.

Roger Helbig

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Christina MacPherson posted: "Professor: U.S. personnel destroyed
thousands of documents to prepare for evacuation of Japan after 3/11 --
Bloomberg: "Near-Chernobyl experience" for Tokyo even though 200+
kilometers from Fukushima
http://enenews.com/professor-u-s-personnel-destroyed-tho"
Respond to this post by replying above this line

New post on nuclear-news

US officials destroyed Fukushima documents. Secrecy over nuclear crisis

by Christina MacPherson

Professor: U.S. personnel destroyed thousands of documents to prepare
for evacuation of Japan after 3/11 -- Bloomberg: "Near-Chernobyl
experience" for Tokyo even though 200+ kilometers from Fukushima
http://enenews.com/professor-u-s-personnel-destroyed-thousands-of-documents-to-prepare-for-japan-evacuation-bloomberg-tokyo-faced-a-near-chernobyl-experience-while-over-200-kilometers-from-f

Bloomberg, , Willianm Pesek in Japan, Feb. 6, 2014: [...] Anyone who
lived through Tokyo's near-Chernobyl experience in 2011 may recall how
poorly NHK performed even then. The network downplayed risks at every
turn to avoid panic. Many of us learned about explosions at Fukushima
from CNN, BBC and U.S. military news conferences, not Japan's most
trusted news source. Just imagine the next time disaster strikes.
Abe's secrecy law means journalists and whistle-blowers can go to jail
for reporting what the government doesn't want the public to know.
It's nice to know that during the next crisis, when we're desperate
for news, NHK will be ready to distract us with cheerful PR puff
pieces. It's now official policy.
Number 1 Shimbun, Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, Feb. 4, 2014:
Paul Blustein, former Washington Post [and Wall Street Journal
reporter who is now affiliated with the Brookings Institution] [...]
accuses some present members [of the  FCCJ] of propagating
misinformation -- even of "journalistic malpractice." [...] "I'm
referring to the oft-repeated claim that the accident came perilously
close to irradiating the Tokyo metropolitan area. [...] it is
massively at odds with the facts. Propagating it is not just
misinformation; it can now be fairly deemed an act of journalistic
malpractice [...] It pains me to level such accusations at fellow
journalists [...] Leading the pack was the New York Times, which
carried a front-page story on Feb. 27, 2012 asserting that Kan and his
fellow Japanese leaders "secretly considered the possibility of
evacuating Tokyo" [...]  Jeffrey Bader, who had served on President
Obama's National Security Council, explained that modeling of
radiation plumes and weather patterns by Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory - one of the government's premier scientific facilities -
had shown there was no need to consider evacuating Americans from the
Tokyo metropolitan area." [...]
Rebuttal from David McNeillThe Economist, Feb. 4, 2014: [...] I'm
puzzled by this criticism. It seems to suggest that we should outweigh
or dismiss the views of Japan's sitting prime minister at the time of
the disaster in favor of those of some U.S. officials in Washington.
It also seems to ignore the growing body of evidence to the contrary.
To cite only the latest intervention into this debate that I know of,
Kyle Cleveland of Temple University Japan has written a well-sourced
essay this year revealing that U.S. officials in Japan were concerned
enough in March 2011 about the possibility of evacuation to have
destroyed thousands of documents at military and diplomatic
facilities. Mr. Blustein may also be aware that Kevin Maher, former
director of the Office of Japan Affairs also said in his 2011
(Japanese) book, The Japan That Can't Decide, that U.S. officials in
Japan planned to evacuate 90,000 citizens from Tokyo during the
disaster. [...]

See also: Study: Contamination in Tokyo suburb 3 times higher than
area 1 mile from Fukushima Daiichi -- Nuclear Scientist: Significant
contamination in Tokyo, a serious problem (AUDIO) - (wonder who the
"nuclear scientist is, Busby, Gundersen or someone else?)

Christina MacPherson | February 10, 2014 at 12:23 am | URL:
http://wp.me/phgse-gpS

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