Dark Mirror: Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State by Barton Gellman

Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State by Barton Gellman takes an in-depth look at the whistleblower and his courageous battle to expose the growing power of the U.S. surveillance system. The book is a captivating portrait of one man’s fight against a corrupt government, a fight with immense consequences to our freedom. Snowden’s story serves as a cautionary example, uncovering the facts behind an ever-expanding security state that monitors citizens’ behavior and is a stark reminder of how easily governments’ power can be abused.

Edward Snowden began his story in 2004 as an isolated computer systems administrator at the Central Intelligence Agency. After a series of law school classes and military training in mission planning, he moved to the U.S. National Security Agency where he found a vast and clandestine data-mining program known as the XKeyscore program. He was horrified by what he discovered – secret networks seizing personal data from innocent citizens without their knowledge or consent, often in violation of the Constitution. Snowden’s moral outrage drove him to release huge caches of classified documents to journalists and unfurl them to the public.

In Dark Mirror, Barton Gellman explains Snowden’s story in detail, discussing the post-9/11 expansion of U.S. surveillance and the creation of the “Dark Mirror.” This term reflects the total sum of information obtained by the NSA and other U.S. agencies, a world we are all prisoners too even though we are the ones who feed it. This collection is made up of our emails, browsing histories, phone calls, texts, photographs and so on. With the intention of uncovering terrorist connections, this program allowed the NSA and other agencies to monitor every corner of the Internet.

Gellman discusses how Snowden eventually legally acquired access to classified documents, then reacted to what he found. He attempted to find help within the government and after being denied, set out to publish them himself. Gellman paints an emotionally charged picture of what Snowden’s life was like during this time, from the pressures of having everyone in the government searching for him to facing jail time for his actions if caught. The intense psychological journey of Snowden cannot be overstated.

The bulk of the book covers the period of time before and after Snowden’s defiance. It is an object lesson in the power of an individual’s choices to affect positive change and the need for government to operate with greater transparency. Gellman places the events within an historical context, arguing that the Snowden leaks became a “uniquely powerful lens through which to examine the secret life of surveillance". Through Snowden’s eyes, the reader is given an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the security state’s operations and the surveillance tactics used to keep citizens under their control.

Dark Mirror is a must-read for those who care about their civil liberties, for those who are appalled by the level of opacity of the government, and for those simply wanting to understand the real story behind Edward Snowden. It is a thrilling account of one whistleblower’s courage and his fight to defend our freedom from the all-seeing eye of the surveillance state. Snowden’s story is one of inspiration, a reminder that one person’s actions can still make a difference even in the face of a powerful and oppressive system.