Length: 9 hours 53 mins

Incredibly interesting book.  Would highly recommend this.  Its read a bit like a fast-paced novel, but of course it is not fiction.

It gives a greater depth of understanding into how the Snowden files came to be, but it also greatly delves into the power of governments to hide such truths and the linkage between the media and the government.

For example the Washington Post that before publishing leaked government files…apparently clears it first with the government.  What the hell right?

This book also explains to some degree Snowden’s intentions in making such a leak, and the sacrifice he made but also doesn’t want to be seen to have made, for him it is all about the content the such revelations provides.

The exploration into how the government effectively controls the media, and the sway they have in turning the public against investigative journalists, for which they are investigating the crimes of particular governments is quite worrying.

We are used to this kind of stuff happening in places like China, but not in the USA, or at least no one is ready to admit that it happens there, especially, might I add…as this book certainly does, under the Obama administration.

I know a lot of us who may not be Republican in thinking  (even if you’re not American, you probably know you wouldn’t support the Republican agenda)  probably think that Obama is the greatest thing to happen to USA politics for a long time… however his administration is also responsible for large pervasive crimes against its own people.  Maybe not directly responsible, because the NSA and gov-media closeness has existed before he came into power, however the act of not changing such things also makes that administration responsible.

Anyway, for a non-fiction book it is still quite fast paced, and it is a pleasure to listen to.

Since listening to this book I am definitely more interested in this topic.  I have studied such topics before for my degree, even writing a paper on the ‘5 Eyes’ security surveillance monitoring capabilities, which before this story was broken was known as Echelon.  I have had my own opinions about such a system and how it worked, and being from Australia (1 of the 5 eyes country members) I believed I had a good theoretical understanding of how it worked and the limitations as well….and more importantly the reason why such a program exists.

However from this new perspective I can see that there is definitely more depth as compared to what I studied.  That the USA also doesn’t completely trust its 5 eyes partners, let alone the rest of the world, and that all of this is simply for maintaining American economic superiority.  It truly is insane.

Makes you happy that a group of countries (China etc) want to balance against the USA.

Before I get lost into the thought provoking and opinion influences factors of this book…..would I recommend it?

Yep definitely.  Here’s the link on audible, go and have a listen to a sample ,and read some of the other reviews

http://www.audible.com/pd/Nonfiction/No-Place-to-Hide-Audiobook/B00MEL9RTI

Oh it also comes with a pdf which I’ve yet to read…. Because you know… audio books…that’s kind of the whole point… that I don’t actually have to read.  But I think it gives you a bit of background information on all the programs that were leaked.

It is quite content heavy, so while the book is fantastic, it’s not like you can listen to it all in one go. You are happy to listen to it, but also I think if it were any longer and only stayed on 1 topic for more time… you could lose interest.   Happily though, it doesn’t do that

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Happy listening!

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