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Glenn Greenwald

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State Hardcover – May 13, 2014

by Glenn Greenwald (Author)

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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.

Print length

272 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Metropolitan Books
Publication date

May 13, 2014
Dimensions

6.31 x 0.92 x 9.48 inches
ISBN-10

162779073X
ISBN-13

978-1627790734
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of the Month, May 2014: In May of 2013, Edward Snowden, a young systems administrator contracting for the National Security Agency, fled the United States for Hong Kong, carrying with him thousands of classified documents outlining the staggering capabilities of the NSA.’s surveillance programs--including those designed to collect information within the U.S. There Snowden arranged a meeting with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, and so began the most explosive leak of classified material since the Pentagon Papers, over 40 years ago. No Place to Hide opens with Greenwald’s tense account of his initial cloak-and-dagger encounters with Snowden, then transitions into descriptions of the NSA’s vast information-collection apparatus, including a selection of the “Snowden files” with commentary on the alphabet soup of agencies and code names. And--in typical Greenwald style--the book is packed with his opinions on government snooping, its legality, and the impacts on our Constitutional freedoms. Whether you consider Snowden a whistleblower crying foul on government overreach, or a self-aggrandizing traitor who put national security at risk, Greenwald’s book is thrilling and enlightening, a bellwether moment in a crucial debate. --Jon Foro

Review

“Impassioned . . . gripping . . . Greenwald amplifies our understanding of the N.S.A.'s sweeping ambitions . . . and delivers a fierce argument in defense of the right of privacy.” ―Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“Rings with authority . . . vital for anyone interested in civil liberties . . . this book is an antidote to the common public perception that government spooks are only interested in ‘bad' people.” ―Chicago Tribune

“Incisive, slashing . . . Greenwald's pugilistic skills are on full display . . . If you want to get a handle on what was at stake when Snowden downloaded the government's most precious secrets onto a thumb drive, this book is your primer.” ―Slate

“Provides an excellent overview of the NSA's still-classified activities and lack of legal controls, putting the pieces together in a way that daily journalism cannot.” ―The Economist

“A vital discussion on Snowden's revelations.” ―Los Angeles Times

“Reads like a thriller . . . With heart-pounding suspense, John le Carre-like intrigue and Jeffersonian fidelity to the principles of human freedom . . . No Place to Hide 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.” ―Judge Andrew P. Napolitano, FOX News

“Shocking . . . It is hard to argue with Greenwald's contention that ‘the NSA is the definitive rogue agency.'” ―The Christian Science Monitor

“A fascinating read that adds much to the debate on national security and privacy.” ―Los Angeles Review of Books

“Pulse-pounding.” ―Wired

“A smart, impassioned indictment of what Greenwald calls ‘fear-driven, obsequious journalism.'” ―San Francisco Chronicle

“A compelling narrative that puts the most explosive revelations about official criminality into vital context . . . The book ends with a beautiful, barn-burning coda in which Greenwald sets out his case for a society free from surveillance. It reads like the transcript of a particularly memorable speech--an ‘I have a dream' speech; a ‘Blood, sweat, toil and tears' speech. . . . It's a speech I hope to hear Greenwald deliver himself someday.” ―Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

“Eloquent . . . powerful . . . Greenwald makes a persuasive case that this is a battle that has engulfed us all, and one that has not yet ended” ―VICE

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Metropolitan Books; 0 edition (May 13, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 162779073X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1627790734
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.31 x 0.92 x 9.48 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #66,292 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #17 in Politics of Privacy & Surveillance
- #27 in Civil Rights Law (Books)
- #50 in Privacy & Online Safety

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1,589 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Will reading/reviewing this book put you on the "terrorist watchlist"?

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016

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The answer to the question posed in the title of this review is a definite yes, and follows vacuously if, as the author of this book asserts, that the National Security Agency (NSA) collects data at the scale claimed. This scale covers every person on the planet, and therefore the NSA views everyone as a potential terrorist. Information on everyone is collected and then stored in the NSA’s data repositories, which indeed must be massive in order to store this magnitude of data. Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the company Booz-Allen-Hamilton (BAH), has revealed that the NSA is engaging in this activity. Snowden was placed by BAH in the NSA to engage in security work some of which was classified as Top Secret. As this book and ensuing documentaries reveal, because of moral and ethical reasons Snowden made the decision to abrogate the trust the NSA placed in him and put himself at risk for an extended prison term because of the information he chose to place in the public domain.

The author of this book makes a good case for the morality behind Snowden’s decision, and therefore readers who formally viewed Snowden as a “criminal” or a “narcissist” may make a different assessment of his character after finishing the book. There is no doubt that Snowden did not view his decision as one of self-aggrandizement, and in fact exercised restraint in the sense he chose to not reveal information that could put people at severe risk. It might be a leap to call Snowden a “hero”, but he certainly possesses a level of intestinal fortitude that is unmatched by anyone in the government, whether the United States government or otherwise.

The details of some of the revealed information are included in this book as images, with some of them actually looking as though they originated in PowerPoint presentations. That this may be the case reflects the obsession that many, especially those connected with the Department of Defense (DoD), have in using PowerPoint to not only summarize ideas but also to codify the information in them as valid, authentic, or profound. Therefore it was difficult for the reviewer to accept the author’s (implicit) premise that the information in these images as reflecting anything of genuine importance to those readers who want to understand the extent of the NSA’s illegal surveillance. Typical government/DoD PowerPoint presentations, even though quite impressive from an artistic point of view, reflect a naiveté about scientific and technological matters in general. There is no reason to believe that this is not the case also for the NSA, in spite of the imputation of technical and mathematical competence given to it.

And this raises the further question as to the efficacy of the NSA in doing the analysis and data mining that would actually put individual privacy at risk. Many in the press have claimed that the NSA hires thousands of mathematicians and analysts and this is no doubt true. But what is not obvious from the press or from this book is the extent that this technical pseudo-army is able to extract damaging information about citizens or indeed any really useful information at all. The mere presence of thousands of analysts and mathematicians in a government agency may reflect the usual practice of patronage and other faulty and unethical governmental hiring practices rather than actual technical competence.
But one could also argue, and it seems to be the belief of the author, that the NSA is technically competent to use the gathered information to find individuals who it deems are “harmful” to the interests of the United States. Then since the NSA has no qualms in violating the constitutional rights of US citizens by collecting “metadata” then it would not be an unreasonable assumption that it would collect the actual content of phone calls, Email messages, and so on. It would also not be unreasonable to assume that the NSA would deliberately alter the content of messages and phone calls in order to embarrass certain individuals or groups as part of their security strategy or simply from just pure meanness. There is ample precedent in history for the meanness of governments.

65 people found this helpful

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A in Texas

Wake up!

Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2019

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It’s amazing how much people wanna fight for their Second Amendment rights but did nothing about the loss of our fourth amendment rights it’s gone unchecked and it’s just amazing to me. Republican Pres started with the patriot act and a Democrat president finished it with FISA court so here we are... complete loss of privacy

15 people found this helpful

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jjlaw

1984 in 2020

Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2020

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Dear N S A we humanoids love the Brave New World !! It’s wonderful and all laid out here in bright, efficient office memos, just like in Nazi Germany. Was the Tr@mp campaign spied on? - if you read this book it’s hard to believe not. Since 1978 the total F I S A court applications for N S A to spy on US citizens that have been REJECTED is: ZERO
I love it my phone absolutely spies on me, social media sites that not only give my data to N S A but also sell it (C@mbridge Analyt1cs) and I’m looking forward to Social and Health Cr@dit scores and a cash free, androgynous and loveless eugenics based utopia!! Yeah baby!!

4 people found this helpful

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Phillip Skaga

Privacy is a myth in the USA!

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2015

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This book is not primarily about Edward Snowden. It is deeper than Snowden’s technical talents, work with NSA intelligence information systems, personal life and motives for his actions. His commitment placed him in a position jeopardizing the rest of his life and liberty. Now a man without a country! The discoveries he reveals summarize patent threats to every citizen of the USA from our ‘security state’. Snowden just happens to be more informed about this source of threat and now a fugitive because of his actions to expose how much our privacy is a myth. The threat to privacy is compounded by a combination of our powerful information systems technology and duplicity of federal government in collecting massive amounts of data about each of us. Though expressed intentions may be plausible practical results of collection and use eliminates privacy of our communications. So far there is no documented case of collected data having been used to intercept a terrorist threat!
The first four chapters are prelude to serious observations found in chapter 5 and the epilogue. It begins in 2012 when the author received a strange email from someone calling themselves ‘Cincinnatus’. This refers to a Roman emperor who behaved in a manner as paradym for all since then, but to which level exceptionally few rise. He fulfilled his mission to serve the people, gave up all his power and retired with a reputation for honest service fully intact.
The story begins with this email from a source unknown to the author. The following four chapters trace the story, originating with this email, unusual in all the author’s experience as a journalist. The story he relates bears the mark of his journalistic experience as well as his work as a litigator. In other words experience dealing with the public through media and government bureauacracies when reporting on or challenging their actions. The other main actor in the story is the Manchester Guardian newspaper its employees and affiliates.
The first chapters trace minutiae of how Snowden collected data from the massive NSA files of information. What they covered, in what form they were stored for his use outside the NSA, where he traveled initially and how secret contact was made with the author without alerting law enforcement authorities of the US government. In all these first chapters we learn about Snowden’s techniques of handling such highly sensitive data. More importantly altruistic motives for his actions are discussed. These chapters are important to establish that his motives were of the highest order of concern. Readers may doubt his motives but it would be difficult to find, in what is provided, anything but most honorable reasons for his actions. Of course, the incontrovertible fact was that he, though young, had jeopardized his entire future as a citizen of the USA by his action. They guarantee to leave him stateless and sought by agents of the most powerful government in the world. Though he moved to temporarily safe havens he is now ‘a man without a country’.
All Snowden’s story to this point is almost beyond belief. His statelessness is result of his commitment to do the ‘right thing’ by way of warning citizens of the USA how ‘online’ privacy, in any form, is a farce. The final chapter and epilogue turn from Snowden to the point he was trying to make about privacy of every citizen’s information from the eyes of our federal security bureauacracy. Nothing is private as far as use of electronic systems are concerned. We are all threatened to an extent about which the average person never thinks seriously.
Some choice excerpts:
“Objectivity” means nothing more than reflecting the biases and serving the interest of entrenched Washington. Opinions are problematic only when they deviate from the acceptale range of Washington orthodoxy.”
“He (journalist Seymour Hersh) said the New York Times spends so much time ‘carrying water for Obama’. The administration lies systematically, he argued yet none of the leviathans of American media, the TV networks or big print titles’ pose a challenge.”
“The Obama administration, which has brought more prosecutions against leakers than all prior presidencies combined, has sought to create a climate of fear that would stifle any attempts at whistle-blowing.”
That Obama is named is only because Snowden happened on his watch. The book makes clear he is no exception from those presidents preceding him.
But there is hope as described in the book. Legislation was introduced in Congress to defund NSA. The vote was a surprising bipartisan 205-217. Additional actions are being taken by other countries to disconnect themselves from the worldwide web whose stations and cabling is so severely compromised by ‘taps’ of our government. In other words our ‘enthusiasm’ for collecting every piece of data for security reasons will eventually find us locked out of these worldwide hardware connections. Thus, we will be increasingly subject to undiscoverable threats.

16 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Charles

Inside account of NSA spying scandal

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2014

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This book is about the current scandal involving the NSA's (National Security Agency, American government agency that spies on communications ) mass spying on the global communications (phone and computer) of the entire world. It is written by journalist Gleen Greenwald who was leaked many documents about what was going on by NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The fact the NSA is spying on global communications is not anything new, it's the size, scope and illegal nature of the spying that is causing the scandal, for example they were tracking every phone call made by users of AT&T (without needing to get a warrant) and were intercepting routers been sent abroad to put spying devices on them.

This book follows Glenn's first meeting with Edward Snowden, basic information about what is in the documents, the release of the documents, the response to the leaking and what this means politically and philosophically.

It is interesting to read about how the media handle the revealing of government secrets.
"Worse, I knew that the Post would dutifully abide by the unwritten protective rules that govern how the establishment media report on official secrets. According to these rules, which allow the government to control disclosures and minimize, even neuter, their impact, editors first go to officials and advise them what they intend to publish. National security officials then tell the editors all the ways in which national security will supposedly be damaged by the disclosures. A protracted negotiation takes place over what will and will not be published. At best, substantial delay results. Often, patently newsworthy information is suppressed. This is most likely what led the Post, when reporting the existence of CIA black sites in 2005, to conceal the identities of those countries in which prisons were based, thus allowing the lawless CIA torture sites to continue. "

"This same process caused the New York Times to conceal the existence of the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program for more than a year after its reporters, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, were ready to report it in mid-2004. President Bush had summoned the paper's publisher, Arthur Sulzberger, and its editor in chief, Bill Keller, to the Oval Office to insist, ludicrously, that they would be helping terrorists if they revealed that the NSA was spying on Americans without the warrants required by law. The New York Times obeyed these dictates and blocked publication of the article for fifteen months--until the end of 2005, after Bush had been reelected (thereby allowing him to stand for reelection while concealing from the public that he was eavesdropping on Americans without warrants). Even then, the Times eventually ran the NSA story only because a frustrated Risen was about to publish the revelations in his book and the paper did not want to be scooped by its own reporter."

A common defence for government spying is if your doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear, but unfortunately anybody that pisses off the authorities becomes the target for spying, both Martin Luther King and John Lennon were spied on by American government agencies and just knowing that authorities may be listening causes people to be more likely to accept the status que rather than risk attention by speaking out against injustice. And the files leaked show the information was been used for economic spying as well.

It is also interesting to read about the character attacks unleashed on Greenwald and Snowden with all manner of name calling ( this a logical fallacy known as "ad hominem" because even if those claims are true it does not make any difference to the fact that the NSA are illegally spying on people). Government intimidation and bullying of journalists involved with the case is also covered.

"Internet freedom-- the ability to use the network without institutional constraints, social or state control, and pervasive fear-- is central to the fulfillment of that promise. Converting the Internet into a system of surveillance thus guts it of its core potential. Worse, it turns the Internet into a tool of repression, threatening to produce the most extreme and oppressive weapon of state intrusion human history has ever seen. That's what makes Snowden's revelations so stunning and so vitally important. By daring to expose the NSA's astonishing surveillance capabilities and its even more astounding ambitions, he has made it clear, with these disclosures, that we stand at a historic crossroads. Will the digital age usher in the individual liberation and political freedoms that the Internet is uniquely capable of unleashing? Or will it bring about a system of omnipresent monitoring and control, beyond the dreams of even the greatest tyrants of the past? Right now, either path is possible. Our actions will determine where we end up."

22 people found this helpful

Jippu

More Greenwald than Snowden, but very disturbing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 20, 2014

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This is, as the title says, a book about Edward Snowden and the surveillance state in the US. The first part tells the story how Snowden got through to Greenwald (and Laura Poitras) and how he succeeded in getting the NSA papers published in the Guardian against heavy odds. In Greenwald's view, this was done by Snowden in a very rational and effective way, where he wanted to maximize the effect of the NSA's activities, not his own person. The only hitch in the plan was that Snowden got stuck in Russia instead of South America where he would have liked to go. After this, highly gripping and interesting part (but mostly already known) Greenwald immerses in the activities of the NSA and the role of the Obama administration in advancing surveillance in the US. The main impact of the Snowden leaks is surely that we know now in which ways the United States is following its own citizens and foreigners who are in some ways in contact with the US (as most of us who use internet, are). But the most disturbing thing is that the NSA program which was started in long ago and which got a big boost from the 9/11 attacks, has been actively and and enthusiastically been pursued by the Obama administration, which was supposed to be curbing these activities. Even the revelations have done nothing to restrain the US mass spying programs. Greenwald describes the recent activities to justify the spying and the possible consequences of mass spying. The final part of the book is the one not mentioned in the title and which probably accounts for the relative silence about the book in the media, at least in the media most directly criticized by Greenwald. In his opinion, the US news media is beholden to the government and the leading stars are now so close to the political and economic power that they have forgotten the basic role the the media as an independent and critical watchdog. A good example is that Washington Post (one of the worst lapdogs, together with New York Times) only published its story about the Snowden revelations when they got a tip form their government sources that Greenwald was about to publish the story (concerning the use of the big internet companies in the spying). And then Greenwald's story was more cautious, because they had been threatened by criminal prosecution... In any case Greenwald does not endear himself with the so called leftist liberal media (he does not even bother much to discuss Fox and its likes) .
In the book, Greenwald does his best to make us ordinary people understand how pernicious the NSA spying is. I believe that most of us think that the US are just wasting their effort by collecting data about our more or less trivial activities, but the thing is that IF we get by chance caught in a web of suspicion, the data can be used to build up a case against almost anybody. As long as we are in the great swarm of small fish,we are safe, but who knows what can happen? When the swarm disappears and you are left alone, then the data concerning you can prove fatal.
So this is a very dark book which leaves one very much disturbed and worried! Is Greenwald paranoid, am I becoming paranoid, or should I really worry about this? You choose,after reading the book!

19 people found this helpful

Scriptwriter

An informative book about the biggest whistle-blower of all time, written by one of the main characters.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 11, 2015

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Glenn Greenwald (along with The Guardian journalist Ewen MacAskill) was the person who first broke the story about Edward Snowden, a young National Security Agency contractor who exposed the massive, illegal, international spying operation that was covertly being conducted, at first by the George W. Bush administration and then hugely expanded by President Barack Obama.

Your interpretation of this book will therefore depend very much on what you think of its subject: is Edward Snowden a brave, whistle-blowing patriot, who forfeited a lucrative career in Hawaii and had to sever links with his girlfriend and family and risk a potential lifetime in prison, all to expose how anybody who uses mobile phones or the Internet, has no privacy whatsoever and that everything they do and say, every website they visit, message or email they send, every phonecall they make and social media they interact with, is all being hoovered up and stored by an organisation that has little effective oversight; or, is Snowden a cowardly traitor who illegally stole secrets and publicised them for the world to see and has therefore impeded the "war against terror", jeopardising the public's security for the sake of his own ego and personal agenda, taking refuge in that bastion of openness and democracy, Russia?

Regardless of your take on this matter, the importance of the story itself is beyond debate and this is where the value of Greenwald's book lies. Greenwald breaks the story down into three highly readable sections: the first details how Snowden at first made contact with Greenwald and they met up in Hong Kong. This facet reads in some respect like a spy story: all encrypted communications and surreptitious meetings.

The second section and perhaps the driest to read, covers the revelations themselves, illustrated with NSA PowerPoint presentations. This part covers what is actually happening, in terms of a global eavesdropping mission. The targets are not only the predictable bogeymen (Iran et al) but friendly countries like Germany and Mexico, along with spying on economic targets (oil businesses that rival US businesses) and diplomat targets such as the United Nations, all to give the US the upper hand when it comes to international negotiations.

The third part of the book - and for me the most interesting - is Greenwald's analysis of the mainstream mass media's reaction to his revelations. In this part, Greenwald accuses a complacent media of taking a deferential position to power as their default setting and that those that challenge this convention are "irresponsible" "naive" or at worst, giving help to terrorists and therefore treasonous.

No Place to Hide is a hugely important book that deserves the widest possible audience - perhaps Oliver Stone's forthcoming film will help raise it's profile. It is well written and highly engaging in most respects, even if the middle section loses its way somewhat. Author Glenn Greenwald's background is as a former litigator and as a consequence, the book has a certain courtroom, accusatory touch to it, which elevates it above mere dry reportage. Regardless of your position on this controversy, No Place to Hide will be extremely informative for you - a crucial book on the biggest national security leak in the history of the United States.

7 people found this helpful

Andrew Howell

... is no way that I would call this a perfect book but it is very enlightening

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2014

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There is no way that I would call this a perfect book but it is very enlightening. Even if you have followed the Snowden case closely it is very useful to have the account laid out like this. Sometimes the author's style can grate a little — he refers to a past book on the subject not just as as book but as a "bestseller" — he is not a man to undersell!

It does sometimes feel like a screenplay waiting to be produced but aside from the style (possibly the ego) of the writer this is well worth reading.

The implications of such mass surveillance are worth thinking about properly and this book lays bare the scope of US ambition. It also is quite frightening in the way it documents how the US administration has lied about surveillance when specifically asked by those authorities to whom it is supposed to be accountable!

2 people found this helpful

Ronald W. Kenyon

Should be required reading for every American

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2014

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Glenn Greenwald collates all the various revelations that were published by The Guardian and the Washington Post and adds his own eloquent commentary.

Not only should this book be required reading for every Amercian, every high-school student in America should be promptly provided with a copy, because it is only the younger generation who will be able to return America to constitutional government.

Edward Snowden reminded Americans that every Federal government employee, from the President on down, and every member of the armed services takes an oath to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” not to follow unconstitutional orders or perform unconstitutional acts, even when they are law of the land.

Therefore, in order to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, if may sometimes be necessary to break the law or disobey orders. That is because the “supreme law of the land” as defined in the Constitution is the actual laws within the Constitution of the United States itself.

The "supreme law of the land" means that no other law within the United States of America trumps or surpasses the power of the laws within the Constitution.

Therefore, Edward Snowden may have broken the law, but he definitely did not violate the Constitution of the United States of America; instead, he defended the Constitution, just as his oath of office required.

4 people found this helpful