How America Lost Its Secrets

How America Lost Its Secrets

Edward Snowden, the Man and the Theft

Book - 2017
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A groundbreaking exposé that convincingly challenges the popular image of Edward Snowden as hacker turned avenging angel, while revealing how vulnerable our national security systems have become--as exciting as any political thriller, and far more important.

After details of American government surveillance were published in 2013, Edward Snowden, formerly a subcontracted IT analyst for the NSA, became the center of an international controversy: Was he a hero, traitor, whistle-blower, spy? Was his theft legitimized by the nature of the information he exposed? When is it necessary for governmental transparency to give way to subterfuge? Edward Jay Epstein brings a lifetime of journalistic and investigative acumen to bear on these and other questions, delving into both how our secrets were taken and the man who took them. He makes clear that by outsourcing parts of our security apparatus, the government has made classified information far more vulnerable; how Snowden sought employment precisely where he could most easily gain access to the most sensitive classified material; and how, though he claims to have acted to serve his country, Snowden is treated as a prized intelligence asset in Moscow, his new home.
Edition: First edition
ISBN: 9780451494566
Branch Call Number: 327.1273 EPSTEIN
Characteristics: x, 350 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm


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Jan 22, 2019

This author is obviously an intelligence agency supporter or receiving $$, that supports the illegal violation of our civil rights & privacy, and following the US media/intelligence propaganda story of deception. Intelligent Americans understand very well that the US Media, US Govt, US Intelligence Agencies, US Military can NOT be TRUSTED to EVER disclose TRUTH on any event in the past, present, future. These elite criminals hide behind the bogus NATIONAL SECURITY phrase, which has NOTHING to do with Citizen Security, but only protecting the US CORP crimes and Agencies that continually violate the Constitution and Laws 24/7/365, and hide their war crimes. These phrases National Security, Top Secret are used to conceal and hide the crimes committed by the US CORP for over 7 decades now, but most Americans are blind, dead, and easily deceived, it's embarassing. Intelligent citizens should know better than to ever believe the official story on the US Media, seeing how the NSA/CIA/PENTAGON/DIA control the US media on both sides, only allowing the propaganda & disinfo to make the headlines, while covering up the actual truth of what the US is doing in the secret against US citizens and the world.

If you give this book anything more than 0 stars, than you are truly classified in the ignorant, brainwashed class, and the US govt loves intellectually challenged people like you, or pays you very well to tell lies. The intelligent ones question everything, do their own research, utilize their own brains & logic to narrow down fiction from truth, but most Americans love their TV Programming and consider it Truth, not knowing it's all Entertainment & Fiction.

Being a whistleblower and speaking the Truth to power, has become the new crime in the US. Edward Snowden risked his life to reveal violations against the Constitution, and he's labeled as a espionage traitor and NS risk, that's what they say about people that know too much, or you're an Enemy of the State, but knowing & speaking truth already makes you an enemy of the criminal state.

Aug 07, 2017

Obviously well researched book. If you've seen the fantasy movie Snowden or the CitizenFour self-promotion doc clear your brain out for something closer to the truth.

One of the most interesting pieces of info in the book was that Snowden quit high school and never returned; never finishing high school, or any college or university. You don't get into the CIA with that resume. Most likely his grandfather who was an admiral pulled strings to get him a low level job in IT.

In the Snowden movie they have him being courted on the golf course by high level managers. No way this would have happened. Likewise that the CIA had him involved in real espionage. Snowden never had any high level position, just low level system admin positions.

He stole far more military secrets than whistle-blower revelations. There is pretty clear evidence these secrets have been handled over to the Russians and the Chinese. The author investigates at what point did Snowden become a Russian asset. Was he working with another Russian agent embedded in the NSA ? etc.

Jul 25, 2017

This book should be a must-read for anyone who thinks Edward Snowden is an angelic hero -- and I was one of them. There's no doubt that Snowden, in his public role as whistle-blower, exposed to the American public the potential danger of surveillance and data-collection technology regarding personal privacy, and the security dangers in outsourcing computer servicing to private contractors.
But the vast majority of the more than 1 million files Snowden took from the NSA had nothing to do with this whistle-blower activity relating to domestic surveillance. Snowden compromised more U.S. intelligence capability than any spy in U.S. history, and specifically determining how potentially both China and Russia benefited from this information is unknowable.
Snowden's actions also had an uglier side: they contributed to the rampant growth of the public's distrust of the institutions of government. In this culture of distrust, any claim that any of the secrets that Snowden disclosed could have caused any harm is preemptively dismissed as government propaganda.
At the very least the details provided by the author regarding actions taken by Snowden both before and after June 2013 compel the reader to question their understanding of what really happened and why. Great reading.

Apr 25, 2017

A carefully researched book which makes a very good case that Snowden, for unknown reasons, deliberately revealed top secret sources and methods by which intelligence agencies, specifically NSA, monitor hostile states and entities. It's hard not to draw the conclusion that his revelations helped make all of us less safe. He's no hero! Very little of what he revealed had to do with strictly domestic surveillance of American citizens.

Apr 22, 2017

This reports not only how Snowden achieved his famed theft (with more than a few suppositions by the author), but precisely why it was so disastrous, and how it reveals American national security flaws, technological and otherwise. This book asserts that, with a certain level of knowledge, which most people do not have, one must come to the conclusions that 1) pro-Snowden individuals are naive; and 2) Snowden must not have worked alone. This is a chilling and fascinating read.

Apr 07, 2017

A dismal and poorly-researched book. It starts by repeating the false and discredited claim that there were "11 missing days" in May 2013, after Snowden left the US, and before he checked into the Mira hotel in Hong Kong. The author, Epstein, spends the whole prologue worrying about this trivial detail.

Glenn Greenwald demolishes the claims (fake news) of "11 missing days". Snowden originally checked into the hotel Mira on May 21 2013. The reservation was originally for 10 nights, checking out on May 30. The hotel records confirm he arrived and checked-in on May 21, staying continually for the full reservation. Once that reservation ended, he extended it for one more day, then made another 10-day reservation through with a check-out date of June 10, and stayed continually through then, when he checked out.

Idiots like Epstein have spread the lie about "11 missing days", implying Snowden used the time to for something nefarious, like a side trip to Moscow or Beijing. It's a false accusation. Here's Glenn's takedown of Epstein's lie.

I don't recommend this book at all. It's written from a tendentious perspective. Shunning integrity, the author serves up a dark brew that mixes a pinch of truth with a truck load of nonsense. If this book is your only source, you will come away misguided. Shun it.

Mar 24, 2017

Putin was the big winner from this fiasco

Mar 12, 2017

Remember Glenn Greenwald coming to "help" Mr ? Better read this book.

Dec 15, 2016

Epstein's earlier work, a pretty good book on Hollywood economics, but a really lousy one on the Warren Commission, should give much pause to the reader. I have yet to read this, but the very fact that IPS/IDS programming for government are routinely offshored, makes the entire book irrelevant. Right now the Fake News [CNN, CBS, NPR, PBS, et cetera] are broadcasting that the WikiLeaked emails were hacked by Russia, even though zero evidence has been presented, and there is much to suggest they were provided by an HRC insider to WikiLeaks, so no hacking involved! I'm afraid Epstein's book sounds along the same lines as the Fake News. As long as the government and Corporate America offshore technology, jobs and investment, this entire area of discourse is a non-starter!


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