By Edward Snowden
I just finished the audio book since it was a book club selection for the Personal Development Book Lovers club. I didn’t get much new from it. Having already watched Citizenfour, read This is How They Tell Me the World Ends, and generally lived in the cybersecurity space for the last 15 years, the story was quite familiar. His personal story was not particularly remarkable. His childhood and attachment to technology resemble many other people I’ve known. It was a reminder of what an incredibly bold sacrifice he made. Antagonizing the most powerful spy apparatus the world has ever seen because he saw them abusing their power against ordinary citizens took guts that few have. After completing the book, I rewatched Citizenfour. He’s remarkably calm. I would have been barfing.
The crushing things are to be reminded that the friendly face of the Obama administration was no better about any of it. Also, how rigged the laws are. Regardless of the illegality, immorality, unconstitutionality of the information revealed, it would not be accepted as a defense for Snowden’s disclosures. In other cases, people were not permitted to sue over the programs because they “lacked standing.” So, his actions are deemed illegal, he can’t get a real trial to justify them, and there are no legal avenues to oppose the secret programs. What else could he do?
The sad thing is, it wasn’t very surprising, and I also don’t believe that it has decreased at all.
How could politicians oppose it? If they knew that the intelligence community has this information on them, and could effectively ruin them, they can’t be outspoken opponents of the machine.