Permanent Record by Edward Snowden. Ed’s story moves from his early childhood to his military service post 9/11, to his role implementing technology surveillance for the CIA and NSA.
After sustaining stress fractures in both legs during special forces training he left the military. In fact, Edward then joined the NSA as a contractor in 2006. The following year he was stationed at the CIA office in Geneva Switzerland with diplomatic cover.
Yet, after six years of work within our country’s intelligence communities Edward became a whistleblower by leaking files revealing a global surveillance network was being conducted not only against America’s enemies in the new war on terror, but also against American citizen.
However, his real message is in fact, the most advanced technologies leveraged by the government are used against America’s enemies AND against our fellow citizens. Edward certainly documents how the United States government was able to collect every single phone call, text message, and email from every US Citizen. This results in a new, unprecedented (and certainly mind boggling) mass surveillance across the entire globe.
Too Much Hype ?
There are indeed parallel lines to Yasha Levine’s Surveillance Valley, that trace electronic surveillance to DARPA within the military at the close of the second world war. The only difference is the amazing network of small wireless chipsets that allow data collection like never before.
There is, simply, no way to ignore privacy. Because a citizenry’s freedoms are interdependent, to surrender your own privacy is really to surrender everyone’s. You might choose to give it up out of convenience, or under the popular pretext that privacy is only required by those who have something to hide. But saying that you don’t need or want privacy because you have nothing to hide is to assume that no one should have, or could have, to hide anything—including their immigration status, unemployment history, financial history, and health records. You’re assuming that no one, including yourself, might object to revealing to anyone information about their religious beliefs, political affiliations, and sexual activities, as casually as some choose to reveal their movie and music tastes and reading preferences.
pgs. 361-362.
Life on the run
The story of his partner (now wife Lindsey Mills) and his Mom jumping through hoops when confronting the news that Edward was a whistleblower is intense. And initial threats from Hong Kong to Russia only continue as the US Government pursues him.
Ultimately, saying that you don’t care about privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different from saying you don’t care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say. Or that you don’t care about freedom of the press because you don’t like to read. Or that you don’t care about freedom of religion because you don’t believe in God.
pg. 363
Tell the hard truth first
In conclusion, Edward Snowden displayed loyalty to our country — not the political government — by understanding first hand the level of surveillance executed by the US Government against American citizens. We all learn hard truths, This is certainly no exception. Many hard truths indeed make this a must read.