No Place to Hide
Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
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4.2 • 192 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A groundbreaking look at the NSA surveillance scandal, from the reporter who broke the story, Glenn Greenwald, star of Citizenfour, the Academy Award-winning documentary on Edward Snowden
In May 2013, Glenn Greenwald set out for Hong Kong to meet an anonymous source who claimed to have astonishing evidence of pervasive government spying and insisted on communicating only through heavily encrypted channels. That source turned out to be the 29-year-old NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, and his revelations about the agency's widespread, systemic overreach proved to be some of the most explosive and consequential news in recent history, triggering a fierce debate over national security and information privacy. As the arguments rage on and the government considers various proposals for reform, it is clear that we have yet to see the full impact of Snowden's disclosures.
Now for the first time, Greenwald fits all the pieces together, recounting his high-intensity ten-day trip to Hong Kong, examining the broader implications of the surveillance detailed in his reporting for The Guardian, and revealing fresh information on the NSA's unprecedented abuse of power with never-before-seen documents entrusted to him by Snowden himself.
Going beyond NSA specifics, Greenwald also takes on the establishment media, excoriating their habitual avoidance of adversarial reporting on the government and their failure to serve the interests of the people. Finally, he asks what it means both for individuals and for a nation's political health when a government pries so invasively into the private lives of its citizens—and considers what safeguards and forms of oversight are necessary to protect democracy in the digital age. Coming at a landmark moment in American history, No Place to Hide is a fearless, incisive, and essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S. surveillance state.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The government's secret spying on just about everyone is laid bare in this exciting if overwrought expos . Journalist Greenwald (With Liberty and Justice for Some) broke the story of the National Security Agency's vast warrantless surveillance operations last year after receiving top-secret documents from NSA contractor Snowden, who is briefly profiled here. Greenwald's breathless narrative is itself a spy story, complete with encrypted messages, cloak-and-dagger in Hong Kong, a possible CIA break-in at his house, the detainment of his partner on trumped-up terrorism suspicions, and furious wrangles with the mainstream press, which he denounces for its chumminess with officialdom. His involved, though sometimes confusing, rundown of NSA surveillance programs, illustrated with the agency's own incriminating graphics, details extraordinary abilities to record billions of emails and phone calls daily, follow who is communicating with whom, track individuals' web searches and page visits, plant devices in servers and routers, and even use private cell phones to eavesdrop on their owners. He also demonstrates through Foucauldian history, the FBI's COINTELPRO program, and current crackdowns on activist groups how mass surveillance attempts to stifle dissent. Greenwald's great reporting highlights the collusion of government, corporations, and media to undermine notions of privacy and democratic participation. Photos.
Customer Reviews
Disturbing & Spellbinding
After reading this book I still don't know how I feel about Snowden. He is portrayed here as a man of uncommon integrity who faced a difficult moral dilemma. Is he a hero or a criminal? I'll leave that to the reader to decide but this is an important subject that everyone should give thoughtful consideration to.
How much privacy are you comfortable seeding to you government? How much confidence do you have that the powerful people of our society will use the vast amount of information that's been and continues to be collected on ordinary citizens responsible?
I warn you, this book is hard to put down and more than a little disturbing but, I think it should be required reading for everyone.
A Must Read!
Every American (in fact, the World) owes a debt of gratitude to Greenwald for his determined pursuit in exposing the frightening transformation of the United States into a National Security State. Without his, Edward Snowden's and others courage, we may have never known the full extent of the U.S. governments pernicious surveillance programs.
You need to read this book and become better informed on what your government is doing without your knowledge or consent. Greenwald also exposes the mainstream media as Imperial scribes doing little more than regurgitating the talking points of the National Security Apparatus that has hijacked America.
Snowden is f'real?
The first part of the book, the personal story with the step-by-step, tenous personal interactions, is worth the price of the book. It is here that Greenwald's writing shines brightest. The rest of the book, the important part, the meat of it, the game-changing revelations of governmental arrogant over-reach, is less personal and less engaging (for my feeble Snowden-obsessed mind). After the book was published, Frontline aired a program that rounded out the back story and may have made it less likely that Greenwald will be prosecuted by the same cold, arrogant, overreaching suits. Truly a bold and heroic tale by our best defender.