From Hong Kong to Russia: Edward Snowden and ‘No Place to Hide’

Henry Porter, reviewing Glenn Greenwald’s compelling account of NSA/GCHQ surveillance, No Place to Hide, quotes the writer: “A citizenry that is aware of always being watched quickly becomes a compliant and fearful one”, as well as one that is far less likely to express legitimate dissent, of course. The irony of Snowden’s actions is that he may have hastened the chill. This powerful account of the Edward Snowden case reveals the threat posed by spying.

Before Glenn Greenwald appeared on Newsnight last October to argue the case for the Snowden revelations on a link from Brazil, the presenter that evening, Kirsty Wark, popped into the green room to have a word with the other guests on the show, one of whom was Pauline Neville-Jones, formerly chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee. The interview, she apparently told them, would show that Greenwald was just “a campaigner and an activist”, a phrase she later used disparagingly on air.