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The Infamous NSA Contractor Turned Whistleblower Tells His Side of the Story
A review of Edward Snowden’s memoir “Permanent Record”
Without the Internet, life today would be highly inconvenient for most people and almost inconceivable for anyone under the age of 40. In this fascinating memoir, Edward Snowden, ex-CIA and NSA whistleblower, and one of the “under 40s,” explains how he was smitten by that technology at an early age, but naïve initially about the Internet’s vulnerability to widespread misuse.
If Permanent Record has a subtext, it could be summed up by one word: sadness. Sadness, disillusionment, and regret permeate much of the narrative. It’s not so much sadness for having to abandon a comfortable lifestyle and go into exile, or for having to betray his government and his employers, or for deceiving his family and girlfriend. It’s the sadness of realizing that the government he swore allegiance to is betraying the country he loves.
As the Internet grows from humble beginnings in the late 1980s, early adopters, those who take the first online baby steps, experience in awe what seems like a new wonder of the world. Snowden recounts how his father, an engineer in the U.S. Coast Guard, introduces him as a child to early computer games and shows him how to repair the consoles whenever they…
