The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man
Luke Harding, 2014
Knopf Doubleday
352 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780804173520
Summary
It began with a tantalizing, anonymous email: "I am a senior member of the intelligence community."
What followed was the most spectacular intelligence breach ever, brought about by one extraordinary man. Edward Snowden was a 29-year-old computer genius working for the National Security Agency when he shocked the world by exposing the near-universal mass surveillance programs of the United States government.
His whistleblowing has shaken the leaders of nations worldwide, and generated a passionate public debate on the dangers of global monitoring and the threat to individual privacy.
In a tour de force of investigative journalism that reads like a spy novel, award-winning Guardian reporter Luke Harding tells Snowden’s astonishing story—from the day he left his glamorous girlfriend in Honolulu carrying a hard drive full of secrets, to the weeks of his secret-spilling in Hong Kong, to his battle for asylum and his exile in Moscow. For the first time, Harding brings together the many sources and strands of the story—touching on everything from concerns about domestic spying to the complicity of the tech sector—while also placing us in the room with Edward Snowden himself.
The result is a gripping insider narrative—and a necessary and timely account of what is at stake for all of us in the new digital age. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1968
• Where—Great Britain
• Education—Oxford University
• Currently—lives in London, England
Luke Harding is an award-winning British foreign correspondent with the Guardian. He studied English at University College, Oxford. While there he edited the student newspaper Cherwell. He worked for the Sunday Correspondent, Evening Argus in Brighton and Daily Mail before joining the Guardian in 1996.
He has reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has also covered wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is the author of Mafia State (2011) and co-author of WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War on Secrecy (2011). He also wrote The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken (1997, nominated for the Orwell Prize) and The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man (2014). The film rights to WikiLeaks were sold to Dreamworks and the film, The Fifth Estate, came out in 2013.
Harding has lived in and reported from Delhi, Berlin and Moscow and has covered wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. He currently lives in London, England, with his wife and their two children
Russian expulsion
His 2011 book Mafia State discusses Harding's experience in Russia and the political system under Vladimir Putin, which he describes as a mafia state. In February 2011 he was refused re-entry into Russia, becoming the first foreign journalist to be expelled from Russia since the end of the Cold War. The Guardian said his expulsion was linked with his unflattering coverage of Russia, including speculation about Vladimir Putin's wealth and Putin's knowledge of the London assassination of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
The director of Index on Censorship, John Kampfner, said "The Russian government's treatment of Luke Harding is petty and vindictive, and evidence—if more was needed—of the poor state of free expression in that country." Harding has said that during his time in Russia he was the subject of largely psychological harassment by the Federal Security Service, whom he alleges were unhappy at the stories he wrote.
Edward Snowden
Harding's 2014 book on Edward Snowden, The Snowden Files received positive reviews from the the Guardian and London Review of Books although a The Daily Telegraph review said, "complexity and nuance are banished. In particular, the real dilemmas of intelligence work are ignored." Michiko Kakutani wrote in her review for the New York Times that the book "reads like a le Carre novel crossed with something by Kafka."
The Snowden Files was initially criticised by Snowden associate, journalist Glenn Greenwald,* when he had only read extracts from Harding's book. Later, after reading the whole book, he conceded that it did not trash Snowden. Nontheless, on February 14, 2014 Greenwald told the Financial Times:
They are purporting to tell the inside story of Edward Snowden but it is written by someone who has never met or even spoken to Edward Snowden. Luke came here and talked to me for half a day without [my] realising that he was trying to get me to write his book for him. I cut the interview off when I realised what he was up to.
The Financial Times has since amended the article stating: "Harding insists that when he spoke to Greenwald in Rio, he made it very clear he was doing research for his book on Snowden." (Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 5/6/2014.)
* Greenwald's own book—No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State—was also published in 2014.
Book Reviews
Reads like a le Carre novel crossed with something by Kafka.... A fast-paced, almost novelistic narrative.... [The book] gives readers...a succinct overview of the momentous events of the past year.... Leave[s] readers with an acute understanding of the serious issues involved.
Michiko Kakutani - New York Times
[Snowden’s] story is one of the most compelling in the history of American espionage. . . . Although the book is billed as “the inside story of the world’s most wanted man,” there is no indication that Harding had direct contact with his subject. Instead, it reads more like the inside account of Snowden’s interactions with the Guardian. The details drawn from those encounters are fascinating, if not always illuminating.The book captures the drama of Snowden’s operation in often-cinematic detail. . . . Harding has delivered a clearly written and captivating account of the Snowden leaks and their aftermath.
Greg Miller - Washington Post
Engaging and lucid... A gripping read.... Harding is a gifted writer.... The strength of Harding's book is its ability to bring Snowden's story to life while elucidating the contours of a much larger set of issues.... In rendering the complicated comprehensible in an entertaining way, Harding's book provides an important public service.
San Francisco Chronicle
The Snowden Files, the first book on what British journalist Luke Harding calls ‘the biggest intelligence leak in history,’ is a readable and thorough account. The narrative is rich in newsroom details, reflecting Harding's inside access as a correspondent for the London-based Guardian newspaper, which broke the story.... The writer deserves unqualified praise for fueling the debate on privacy that Snowden so hoped to ignite.
Newsday
A super-readable, thrillerish account of the events surrounding the reporting of the documents. . . . Harding has done an amazing—and speedy—job of assembling material from a wide variety of sources and turning it into an exciting account.
London Review of Books
Recounts the incredible story of how Snowden becomes angry about the abuses he says he witnessed inside the system, resolves to pull off a stunning electronic heist by downloading the NSA’s and its partners’ most sensitive files, and gives them to journalists he has persuaded to meet him in Hong Kong. Harding captures nicely the moment when the Guardian pushes the button on its first Snowden story, an intense, adrenaline-filled cocktail of high-minded journalistic zeal and the sheer thrill of publishing sensitive information.”
Financial Times
The telling is sympathetic towards Snowden.... And while the story sometimes lacks in insight from those directly involved and in the analysis that will be possible as we get more temporal distance from the events, Harding provides crucial context and history for the story. His compilation and synthesis of the records is useful for a reader in need of a primer.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) A newsworthy, must-read book about what prompted Edward Snowden to blow the whistle on his former employer, the National Security Agency.... Harding closes with the thought that Snowden may have no other home for some time to come.... Whether you view Snowden's act as patriotic or treasonous, this fast-paced, densely detailed book is the narrative of first resort.
Kirkus Reviews
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