The Edward Snowden Affair: Exposing the Politics and Media Behind the NSA Scandal

The Edward Snowden Affair: Exposing the Politics and Media Behind the NSA Scandal is a 2014 non-fiction book by American author Michael Gurnow. It was released March 28, 2014 in eBook format before its hard copy debut on April 1, 2014. Published by Blue River Press, it details the global surveillance disclosures as revealed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. The text contains 905 sources, was an Amazon.com bestseller and received substantial coverage by national media, especially radio, most notable of which was the author's interview on the ABC Network.
Synopsis
The Edward Snowden Affair: Exposing the Politics and Media Behind the NSA Scandal explores the first 62 mass surveillance disclosures while providing a historical and legal framework for the documents. In the process, Gurnow interviews Phillip Dorling, the first Australian journalist to obtain copies of the classified documents and report on Australia's involvement in the Five Eyes spying partnership, which includes the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Great Britain.
In the text's conclusion, Gurnow divides people's post-disclosure responses and approaches to technology into three groups:
* Those who support tighter, self-directed security measures, such an anonymous browsing and encrypted email, computer and cell phone use. He refers to these individuals as "Information Lockdown" advocates.
* "Clapper's Children," named for James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence. This coalition believes that any measures to protect one's privacy are too time consuming and argue they are ultimately futile.
* The last faction, the neo-luddite "Levisons"—named for Lavabit founder Ladar Levison who, once his encrypted email service was shut down by the Department of Defense, chose to forgo email—opt to restrict all electronic communication and return to a more personable manner of exchange, such as hand-written letters.
The book climbed into the top 1,000 bestsellers before peaking at No. 4 on Amazon.com's Civil Rights category on March 4, 2014. It was also a bestseller in History, Privacy, National and Intelligence & Espionage.
Print Media Reception
Shortly after the book's release, Homeland Security Today did an extended, multi-page centerpiece expose on The Edward Snowden Affair .
Online Media Reception
Howie Klein, editor of the political blog site Down with Tyranny, conducted weekly examinations of the text from from July - September, 2014.
In his review for the political website, Pure Politics, editor Dr. Wilson Trivino stated, "The book reads like a political thriller and would make an ideal movie, with all type of James Bond plots, but it gives the reader a good foundation to make a judgment on the current state of the evolving technological revolution."
Robert Gleason, author of End of Days and The Nuclear Terrorist , called it "Sharply written and meticulously researched, The Edward Snowden Affair provides a fascinating look at the breaking of the NSA scandal and its implications. A must read."
The book has also been cited in The Next Web and Mint Free Press.
Radio Coverage
Erskine Payton, host of Phoenix's Erskine Overnight (Genesis Communications Network ), called The Edward Snowden Affair a "vital book" during his hour-long interview with the author.
The author was also interviewed on Chicago's (Genesis Communications Network) with Mancow Muller, Boston's The Howie Carr Show (WRKO 680 AM) with Howie Carr, The Edgington Post (Liberty Broadcasting System) with Mark Edge, New Orlean's Ringside Politics (WGNO - ABC Network 990 AM) with Jeff Crouere and The Mark Johnson Show (WDEV 96.1 FM/550 AM) with Mark Johnson.
Other Media Recognition
The American Book Center chose it as a Top Ten pick in the category of Political Science.
The political website Dissident Voice placed the book on its recommended reading list.
Table of Contents
* Prologue: A Busy Day for Washington
* Introduction
* Chapter 1: The Man Holding the Rubik's Cube - a brief biography of Edward Snowden.
* Chapter 2: How to Blow a Whistle - a history of contemporary whistleblowing and the models Snowden chose to follow and how he amended them. It is here the author explains how and why Snowden chose the journalists he did to present the disclosures to the public.
* Chapter 3: The Whistle Blows - an examination of the first week of disclosures, from the Verizon expose to the first televised Guardian interview (including The Washington Post's rewrite of its first report).
* Chapter 4: Pearl of the Orient - Snowden's time in, and retreat from, Hong Kong after being formally brought up on charges and having his passport revoked.
* Chapter 5: Polar Bear in a Snowstorm - a look into the Morales plane incident after Snowden files multiple asylum requests and the G9 meeting the NSA leaker holds at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow.
* Chapter 6: From Russia, With Love - Snowden's arrival at, and the 38 days spent in, Russia awaiting his asylum requests to be reviewed and Lon Snowden's reluctant entrance into the media circuit.
* Chapter 7: Black Rain - a discussion of the political fallout that occurred as a consequence of the disclosures, GCHQ commandeering The Guardian's Snowden files and detention of Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda, and the first failed attempts by Capitol Hill to pass regulatory legislation.
* Chapter 8: The Band Played On - the media's unrelenting barrage of disclosure reports that followed Snowden's Russian asylum, ending with Laura Poitras's iSpy report on the NSA's covert technique of wiretapping smartphones.
* Afterword
* Appendix: Chronology of disclosures supplied by Snowden
* Sources

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