This book was a very interesting insight into the story of
Edward Snowden because it was written by Glenn Greenwald – the author who first
met with Snowden, got the files, and published the first articles, as well as
the video where Snowden identifies himself. He starts off by saying that the
motive for mass surveillance is always the same – suppressing dissent and
mandating compliance. Converting the internet into a system of surveillance
turns it into a tool of repression, threatening to produce the most extreme and
oppressive weapon of state intrusion that human history has ever seen.
Snowden was 29 years old at the time of their first meeting
in 2013 – I had no idea that he was that young – and seemed aware of all the
consequences of his actions. Obama’s administration has prosecuted more
government leakers under the Espionage act of 1917 (seven) – than all previous
administrations in U.S. history combined…in fact more than double that total.
The documents Snowden gave Greenwald left no doubt that the NSA was equally
involved in economic espionage, diplomatic spying and suspicionless
surveillance aimed at entire populations. Every day, the NSA works to identify
electronic communications that are not being collected and stored and then
develops new technologies and methods to rectify the deficiency. The agency
regards itself as needing no specific justification to collect any particular
electronic communication, nor any grounds for regarding its targets with
suspicion. They forced Verizon to give it access to all calls made inside the
U.S. and from the U.S. to other countries. They also gathered data from the
servers of all the big technology companies (Apple, Google, Skype, etc.) and
lied to congress about everything. All the companies denied involvement and
knowledge of the program known as PRISM, however it appears as if they all
cooperated (perhaps reluctantly).
The NSA is the largest intelligence agency in the world,
with the majority of its surveillance work conducted through the five eyes
alliance (Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.). It is a
military branch of the Pentagon, and was originally mandated to focus on
activities outside of the U.S. The NSA frequently collects far more content
that is routinely useful to analysts – more than 20 billion communication
events each day. There are 3 different types of foreign relationships: (1) with
the five eyes, the U.S. spies with these countries, but rarely on them, unless
requested to by those countries’ own officials, (2) countries the NSA works
with for specific surveillance projects while also spying on them extensively,
(3) countries on which the U.S. routinely spies but with whom it virtually
never cooperates. Its closest ally is the British GCHQ, however Canada is also
a very active partner and an energetic surveillance force in its own right
(CSEC=Communications Services Establishment Canada). The five eyes relationship
is so close that member governments place the NSA’s desires above the privacy
of their own citizens.
Greenwald explains that there are 2 types of information:
content and metadata. Content refers to actually listening to people’s phone
calls or reading their emails and online chats, while metadata refers to
amassing data about those communications, such as who emailed whom, when it was
sent, the location of the person sending it, etc. but not what the email actually
says. And while the NSA claims that the collection of large quantities of data
is necessary to stop terrorism, it is actually using this data for economic and
political purposes as well. The U.S. used the NSA to eavesdrop on the planning
strategies of other countries during trade and economic talks, gaining an
enormous advantage for American industry. It has also spied on international
organization such as the United Nations, to gain diplomatic advantage. The NSA
routinely receives or intercepts routers, servers and other computer network
devices being exported from the U.S. before they are delivered to international
customers. The agency then implants backdoor surveillance tools. All of this is
because the U.S. wants to maintain its grip on the world.
Greenwald says that authorities faced with unrest generally
have 2 options: to placate the population with symbolic concessions or fortify
their control to minimize the harm it can do to their interests. He believes
that the west seems to go with option 2. I don’t really understand his
characterization of the options – seemingly another option would be to actually
listen to the people and change things? He says that collective coercion and
control is both the intent and effect of state surveillance. Those who are
being watched affirm their endorsement of prevailing social norms as they
attempt to actively manage their reputations. The evidence shows that
assurances that surveillance is only targeted at those who ‘have done something
wrong’ should provide little comfort since a state will reflexively view any
challenge to its power as wrongdoing. The true measure of a society’s freedom
is how it treats its dissidents and other marginalized groups, not how it
treats good loyalists.
As for the people who say that the collection of this data
stops terrorists, Greenwald has several rebuttals. The Justice Department
failed to cite a single case in which analysis of the NSA’s bulk metadata
collection program actually stopped an imminent terrorist attack. The metadata
program was not essential to preventing attacks and could readily have been
obtained in a timely manner using conventional court orders. It has no
discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism. The best (worst?) example
of this is that for 9/11, the government was in possession of the necessary
intelligence but had failed to understand or act on it. This is one of the
problems with collecting so much data – you can’t possibly sort through it all
to figure out what is relevant.
As well, the NSA’s efforts to override the encryption
methods protecting common internet transactions – such as banking, medical
records and commerce – have left these systems open to infiltration by hackers
and other hostile entities. The risk of any American dying in a terrorist
attack is considerably less than the chance of being struck by lightning. After
these documents were released, the government was calling for Greenwald to be
arrested and charged – for doing his job. The worst part was that other
journalists started to agree with this. Greenwald says that Snowden denied
doing any interviews because he didn’t want to take away from the story, yet
the media called him a fame-seeking narcissist.
Obedience to authority is implicitly deemed the natural
state, whereas disobedience is portrayed as crazy, paranoid, mentally ill, etc. However, both observing and breaking the rules involves moral choices. In the face of
severe injustice, a refusal to dissent is the sign of a character flaw or
moral failure. The reflexive demonization of whistle blowers is one way that
the establishment media in the U.S. protects the interests of those who wield
power. The only leaks that the Washington media condemns are those that contain
information officials would prefer to hide. There is a double standard applied
to publishing classified information. A lot of people leak things, it’s only
considered bad when it doesn’t support the government and its narrative. Opinions
are problematic only when they deviate from the acceptable range of Washington
orthodoxy.
Greenwald says that the British government stormed in and
made the Guardian (newspaper that Greenwald works for), destroy all the hard
drives with information from Snowden. As well, Greenwald’s partner was
traveling and they held him in the UK airport for 9 hours, under supposed ‘terrorism’
charges. The government has shown itself as abusive and repressive, which means
the only proper response is to exert more pressure and demand greater
transparency and accountability.
He finishes off by talking about the changes that have
started, thanks to Snowden’s revelations. 2 members of congress jointly
introduced a bill to defund the NSA metadata collection program (a member of
the liberal party and a member of the tea party). House members stood up to
vehemently denounce the NSA program, scoffing at the idea that collecting data
on the calls of every single American is necessary to stop terrorism. The bill
failed by a small margin (205-217). The UN general assembly unanimously voted
in favour of a resolution affirming that online privacy is a fundamental human
right (introduced by Germany and Brazil). There are international efforts – led
by Germany and Brazil – to build new internet infrastructure, so that most
network traffic no longer has to transit the U.S.
Lastly, he emphasizes that the alternative to mass
surveillance is not the complete elimination of surveillance. It’s not one or
the other. An alternative to mass surveillance is targeted surveillance, where
the NSA only targets people they believe to be a threat. I think this is a
reasonable suggestion.
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