Snowden, Ted Rall, Seven Stories Press, 2015

In the form of a graphic novel, this book looks at the life and motivation of Edward Snowden, one of the most famous or infamous people in the world.

Snowden grew up in Maryland, just a few miles from the headquarters of the National Security Agency, or NSA. It was the kind of community where you learn not to ask your neighbor, or your spouse, what they do for a living; it’s probably secret. An attempt to join the army after 9/11 was unsuccessful. As a CIA employee, he was stationed for a time in Switzerland. He was exposed to other value systems and began to wonder if America was really the “good guys.”

He left the CIA and joined the NSA, eventually becoming a sysadmin or sysadmin. He spent some time in Japan, which further removed any notion that America was on the side of the angels. As a systems administrator, he had access to all sorts of classified files detailing US surveillance plans. Every chance he got, he would download file after file onto flash drives.

Here are a couple of examples. An NSA program called “Captive Audience” allows them to track you through your smartphone and listen in on conversations in your home, even if your phone is turned off. “Gumfish” allows the NSA to take a photo of you, at any time, using your laptop’s camera. Smart TVs, those that allow streaming of web content, have a camera that the government can activate at any time to see anyone (like the telescreens in Orwell’s “1984”).

Now working in Honolulu for an NSA contractor, Snowden took a taxi to the airport one day with his flash drives. His next stop was Hong Kong, where he leaked his information to a couple of journalists. After the worldwide bombing, he planned to fly to Latin America to request asylum. While he was in the air, his passport was revoked. He also knew that if he flew through the airspace of a US ally, the ally would force the plane to land. Snowden would be arrested, turned over to US authorities, and “disappeared” (like Bradley/Chelsea Manning). Snowden made it as far as Moscow, where he remains today.

Say what you want about Edward Snowden (is he a hero or is he a traitor), this is an excellent, and very easy to read, look at why he did what he did. He is highly recommended.