With heart-pounding suspense, John le Carre-like intrigue and Jeffersonian fidelity to the principles of human freedom, Glenn Greenwald has just published “No Place to Hide.” The book, which reads like a thriller, is Greenwald’s story of his nonstop two weeks of work in May and June of 2013 in Hong Kong with former CIA agent and NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden. Greenwald was the point person who coordinated the public release of the 1.7 million pages of NSA documents that Snowden took with him in order to prove definitively that the federal government is spying on all of us all the time.
The revelations constituted for Greenwald the scoop of the century; for Snowden, the exposure of massive government violations of basic constitutional principles by his former bosses; for the NSA and the Bush and Obama administrations, the revelation of criminal wrongdoing orchestrated by two presidents themselves; and for the American public, a painful realization that the Constitution is only as valuable a restraint on the government as is the fidelity to uphold it of those in whose hands we have reposed it for safekeeping. As Greenwald makes clear, it is not in good hands.
“No Place to Hide” not only tells of Snowden’s initially frustrating and anonymous efforts to reach out to Greenwald and the others; it not only carefully explains the insatiable appetite of the NSA to learn everything about everyone (“Collect it all” was a continuously posted NSA motto); it is also a morality tale about the personal courage required of Snowden and Greenwald and his colleagues to expose government wrongdoing and the risk to their lives, liberties and properties in doing so.
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While he did violate his oath to his superiors and government, he did provide this information to the public not to the enemy of the state (although frequently the public is treated as the enemy of the state).
ReplyDeleteInasmuch as our founding fathers violated their oath to the monarchy in England, they are heroes to the current state as they fought the original tyranny at their own great expense.
Not stating that his actions are heroic - he did provide information to the public against the tyranny of the state which had been hidden for so long.
Washington, Jefferson, and company would have been hanged by the king for their actions - Snowden would be prosecuted for his also.
Time from now will tell if his actions eventually cause the tyranny to be reduced or increased and history will judge his actions as heroic or treacherous.