The fundamental problem, Gellman says, is that after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks, the national security community assumed hugely expanded powers under surveillance programs established without public knowledge, let alone debate. government - in a meeting with Executive Editor Marty Baron, whom he had never met. Gellman had to explain the story - and the likely fight it would provoke with the U.S. When Snowden reached out, Gellman turned to the Washington Post, the newspaper where he had worked for two decades but had left three years earlier. 'I think Snowden did substantially more good than harm, even though I am prepared to accept (as he does not) that his disclosures must have exacted a price in lost intelligence,' Gellman writes. But throughout, Gellman offers a much broader perspective, rather than just one-sided advocacy. Seven years after they first made contact, Gellman remains sympathetic to Snowden's crusade to expose surveillance programs previously unknown to the American public. Snowden handpicked Gellman as one of three journalists to tell his story originally. Gellman offers the most detailed, comprehensive and balanced take on the impact of Snowden's 2013 revelations and what they mean today, as the debate on national security versus individual privacy keeps evolving. Yet Barton Gellman's new book, Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden And The American Surveillance State, makes a major contribution largely absent in the earlier efforts. How?Įdward Snowden's story on disclosing some of the National Security Agency's most sensitive surveillance programs has by now been oft told, by Snowden himself, among others. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.

Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Dark Mirror Subtitle Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State Author Barton Gellman

Edward snowden book