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11 November 2014 Review: Another Snowden Spy Story
Another Snowden Spy Story November 11, 2014 By John Young "Cryptome" (New York, NY) This review is from: The Edward Snowden Affair: Exposing the Politics and Media Behind the NSA Scandal Michael Gurnow inches the Snowden story toward gripping journalistic fiction in concert with previous accounts and away from dull descriptions of specifically how NSA and its ilk accomplish their objectives. It will please readers of spy thrillers and disappoint searchers for clues to the means to stymie the spies. It valorizes spy stories with dramatic struggles and does nothing to hinder the spy industry. This has been the practice of all the Snowden accounts in newspapers, magazines, TV, documentary, film, books and talks. For this uplifting entertainment without adverse consequence the spy industry is most grateful, and foster the practice by providing a continous stream of Snowden-like material to media outlets which feature "national security" coverage and legal wrangling as headline leaders. Absent this coverage and wrangling is any useful detailed information, the sacrosant "means and methods of spies, which could help diminish public deception of what nations are up to under cloak of official and commercial secrecy. Lack of useful detail is characteristic of all the Snowden accounts, so few of his alleged documents have been released -- somewhere between .015% and 4.3% depending on the DoD or media number used. Without documents narrative fiction prevails in the tradition of the spy trade and ever accommodating national security media embellishment and lawfare simulated opposition. Snowden is reported to claim means and methods are off-limits due to potential harm to the nation and insists media obey this hoary restriction, and all have. Spies expect this national security obedience and get it by fueling the privileges of press, media, entertainment and law. This is the long-running story Gurnow retells as if written by spies as Snowden's spy tale.
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