The CIA’s Review Of Glenn Greenwald’s Snowden Book Is Hilarious

Earlier this year, journalist Glenn Greenwald released a book titled No Place to Hide, chronicling the Snowden leaks, and breaking new ground on the NSA itself. The book garnered a grip of positive reviews upon publication, and has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon. Not bad, all told.

But the most recent review of the book is by far the best. Hayden Peake, listed by the CIA’s website as the “curator of the CIA Historical Intelligence Collection,” reviewed three books on Snowden for the agency. His take on Greenwald’s tome — read the full review here for complete fun — is accidentally hilarious.

Three highlights [Bolding: TechCrunch]:

Greenwald is appalled at the concept implied in the chapter’s title and analyzes it with the presumption of illegality while dismissing without comment the intelligence issues that led to its adoption. […]

Greenwald also ignores other interpretations regarding the legality of the NSA’s collection programs—for example, the views of retired admiral Michael McConnell, former director of the National Security Agency and national intelligence. […]

Greenwald sums up the common themes of these three books: Snowden’s acts were justified because he chose to seek “reform of the surveillance state,” (248) and journalists have the absolute right to be the final arbiters of what to publish. Greenwald’s often bitter ad hominem rationale for this is unlikely to be the last word on the subject.

Bitter and ad hominem final arbiter indeed. Actually that would make a great ad for a journalism gig.

I’m actually quite excited to see what the “last word on the subject” will be. Perhaps Greenwald will see the error in his ways and write a positive, complimentary book that follows the government’s own PR-approved narrative, ensuring that he arbitrates nary a thing.

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