Dark Mirror
Edward Snowden and the American Surveillance State
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Narrated by:
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Barton Gellman
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By:
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Barton Gellman
About this listen
From the three-time Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the New York Times best seller Angler, the definitive master narrative of Edward Snowden and the modern surveillance state, based on unique access to Snowden and groundbreaking reportage around the world.
Edward Snowden touched off a global debate in 2013 when he gave Barton Gellman, Laura Poitras, and Glenn Greenwald each a vast and explosive archive of highly classified files revealing the extent of the American government’s access to our every communication. They shared the Pulitzer Prize that year for public service. For Gellman, who never stopped reporting, that was only the beginning.
He jumped off from what Snowden gave him to track the reach and methodology of the US surveillance state and bring it to light with astonishing new clarity. Along the way, he interrogated Snowden’s own history and found important ways in which myth and reality do not line up. Gellman treats Snowden with respect, but this is no hagiographic account, and Dark Mirror sets the record straight in ways that are both fascinating and important.
Dark Mirror is the story that Gellman could not tell before, a gripping inside narrative of investigative reporting as it happened and a deep dive into the machinery of the surveillance state. Gellman recounts the puzzles, dilemmas, and tumultuous events behind the scenes of his work - in top secret intelligence facilities, in Moscow hotel rooms, in huddles with Post lawyers and editors, in Silicon Valley executive suites, and in encrypted messages from anonymous accounts. Within the book is a compelling portrait of national security journalism under pressure from legal threats, government investigations, and foreign intelligence agencies intent on stealing Gellman’s files. Throughout Dark Mirror, Gellman wages an escalating battle against unknown adversaries who force him to mimic their tradecraft in self-defense.
With the vivid and insightful style that is the author’s trademark, Dark Mirror is a true-life spy tale about the surveillance-industrial revolution and its discontents. Along the way, with the benefit of fresh reporting, it tells the full story of a government leak unrivaled in drama since All the President’s Men.
©2016 Barton Gellman (P)2016 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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“Engrossing...Gellman [is] a thorough, exacting reporter...a marvelous narrator for this particular story, as he nimbly guides us through complex technical arcana and some stubborn ethical questions...Dark Mirror would be simply pleasurable to read if the story it told didn’t also happen to be frighteningly real.” (Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times)
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As cyber attacks dominate front-page news, as hackers join the list of global threats, and as top generals warn of a coming cyber war, few books are more timely and enlightening than Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Slate columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Fred Kaplan.
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Best narrator - Malcolm Hillgartner
- By Greg Davis on 07-20-16
By: Fred Kaplan
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Sandworm
- A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers
- By: Andy Greenberg
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2014, the world witnessed the start of a mysterious series of cyberattacks. Targeting American utility companies, NATO, and electric grids in Eastern Europe, the strikes grew ever more brazen. They culminated in the summer of 2017, when the malware known as NotPetya was unleashed, penetrating, disrupting, and paralyzing some of the world's largest businesses—from drug manufacturers to software developers to shipping companies. At the attack's epicenter in Ukraine, ATMs froze. The railway and postal systems shut down. Hospitals went dark.
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Thru the eyes of the Sandworm's hunters and prey
- By ndru1 on 11-12-19
By: Andy Greenberg
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The Perfect Weapon
- War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age
- By: David E. Sanger
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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The Perfect Weapon is the startling inside story of how the rise of cyberweapons transformed geopolitics like nothing since the invention of the atomic bomb. Cheap to acquire, easy to deny, and usable for a variety of malicious purposes, cyber is now the weapon of choice for democracies, dictators, and terrorists. Two presidents - Bush and Obama - drew first blood with Operation Olympic Games, which used malicious code to blow up Iran’s nuclear centrifuges, and yet America proved remarkably unprepared when its own weapons were stolen from its arsenal.
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mix of information and propaganda
- By Inthego on 06-14-19
By: David E. Sanger
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Cyber Wars
- Hacks That Shocked the Business World
- By: Charles Arthur
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Cyber Wars gives you the dramatic inside stories of some of the world's biggest cyber attacks. These are the game-changing hacks that make organisations around the world tremble and leaders stop and consider just how safe they really are. Charles Arthur provides a gripping account of why each hack happened, what techniques were used, what the consequences were and how they could have been prevented. Cyber attacks are some of the most frightening threats currently facing business leaders, and this book provides a deep insight into understanding how they work.
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For the security professional and average joe
- By Quella on 01-11-19
By: Charles Arthur
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Russians Among Us
- Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies
- By: Gordon Corera
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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With intrigue that rivals the best le Carre novels, Russians Among Us tells the urgent story of Russia’s espionage efforts against the United States and the West from the end of the Cold War to the present.
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Should be required reading for every citizen
- By Amazon Customer on 02-27-20
By: Gordon Corera
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The Plot Against the President
- The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History
- By: Lee Smith
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Investigative journalist Lee Smith's The Plot Against the President tells the story of how Congressman Devin Nunes uncovered the operation to bring down the commander-in-chief. While popular opinion holds that Russia subverted democratic processes during the 2016 elections, the real damage was done not by Moscow or any other foreign actor. Rather, this was a slow-moving coup engineered by a coterie of the American elite, the "deep state," targeting not only the president, but also the rest of the country.
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Nunes is a national treasure.
- By Chip Atkinson on 01-30-20
By: Lee Smith
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The Hacker and the State
- Cyber Attacks and the New Normal of Geopolitics
- By: Ben Buchanan
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 11 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Packed with insider information based on interviews, declassified files, and forensic analysis of company reports, The Hacker and the State sets aside fantasies of cyber-annihilation to explore the real geopolitical competition of the digital age. Tracing the conflict of wills and interests among modern nations, Ben Buchanan reveals little-known details of how China, Russia, North Korea, Britain, and the United States hack one another in a relentless struggle for dominance.
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A good overview of hacking influence on government
- By Eric Jackson on 08-05-20
By: Ben Buchanan
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The Spy in Moscow Station
- A Counterspy's Hunt for a Deadly Cold War Threat
- By: Eric Haseltine
- Narrated by: Eric Haseltine
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In the late 1970s, the National Security Agency still did not officially exist - those in the know referred to it dryly as the No Such Agency. So why, when NSA engineer Charles Gandy filed for a visa to visit Moscow, did the Russian Foreign Ministry assert with confidence that he was a spy? Outsmarting honey traps and encroaching deep enough into enemy territory to perform complicated technical investigations, Gandy accomplished his mission in Russia but discovered more than State and CIA wanted him to know.
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Dull Dull Dull
- By DVN on 09-02-19
By: Eric Haseltine
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American Injustice
- My Battle to Expose the Truth
- By: John Paul Mac Isaac
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of how I tried to get the Hunter Biden laptop evidence to the authorities.
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Need a tissue?
- By Michael L. Galligan on 12-01-22
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@War
- The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex
- By: Shane Harris
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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The United States military currently views cyberspace as the "fifth domain" of warfare - alongside land, sea, air, and space - and the Department of Defense, National Security Agency, and CIA all field teams of hackers who can - and do - launch computer virus strikes against enemy targets. In fact, as @War shows, US hackers were crucial to our victory in Iraq.
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The short history of the US and Cyber War
- By Greg on 02-06-15
By: Shane Harris
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Countdown to Zero Day
- Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon
- By: Kim Zetter
- Narrated by: Joe Ochman
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
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The virus now known as Stuxnet was unlike any other piece of malware built before: Rather than simply hijacking targeted computers or stealing information from them, it proved that a piece of code could escape the digital realm and wreak actual, physical destruction—in this case, on an Iranian nuclear facility.
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Amazingly detailed, sober and above all, damning
- By Greg on 11-22-14
By: Kim Zetter
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Ghost in the Wires
- My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
- By: Kevin Mitnick, William L. Simon
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 13 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Kevin Mitnick was the most elusive computer break-in artist in history. He accessed computers and networks at the world’s biggest companies—and however fast the authorities were, Mitnick was faster, sprinting through phone switches, computer systems, and cellular networks. He spent years skipping through cyberspace, always three steps ahead and labeled unstoppable.
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For a smart guy, Mitnick was an idiot
- By Joshua on 09-17-14
By: Kevin Mitnick, and others
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In Spies, Lies, and Algorithms, Amy Zegart separates fact from fiction as she offers an engaging and enlightening account of the past, present, and future of American espionage as it faces a revolution driven by digital technology. Drawing on decades of research and hundreds of interviews with intelligence officials, Zegart provides a history of US espionage, gives an overview of intelligence basics and life inside America's intelligence agencies, and explores the vexed issues of traitors, covert action, and congressional oversight.
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What listeners say about Dark Mirror
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- YK
- 06-19-24
Great book. Jerky reading
The book and story are fantastic. The narrator tends to have a jerky reading flow. Also the volume and tone of reading changes at each recording cut giving a non linear flow feel. But overall great story.
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- Bill
- 11-16-20
Sheds light on the fragile state of our democratic-republic
Extremely well written. Difficult to put resulting emotions and concerns into meaningful words.
With regard to surveillance .... Fascinating, Terrifying, Disappointing. Trace the timeline of how we arrived here ... in such a short period of time. Raises the questions .... What is going on now? What’s next?
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- Lazer L. Lazer
- 05-28-20
Excellent
Unbelievable perspective on one of the most pivotal stories in American history. Phenomenal narration. Should be required reading for all Americans, especially right now.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JL
- 08-26-20
Read well by author.
Thank you to Bart Gellman for taking time to read his book. The book is a tour de force of ideas, explanation of complex topics and personal odyssey in which the author back traces his journey while taking us along with him.
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- Heather E
- 06-23-20
Best Book About Snowden and the NSA Yet
Much better than Glenn Greenwald’s book No Place to Hide. Thorough review of Snowden’s background and his mindset and how that led to his decisions to become a whistleblower. This book has the benefit of more hindsight - No Place to Hide was published in 2014. Author is an excellent narrator.
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4 people found this helpful
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- clayton neely
- 07-03-20
Eye Opener
Great and insightful book.
thank you!
As I seat in my garage during this Pandemic. I'm listening to this fantastic journey that reveals facts. it's a mouse and cat voyage to the belly of the world of secrecy and espionage.
btw I was in my garage working on protective masks to give away & be protected from #covid19
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dreux
- 06-07-20
Amazing blindspot
Great book but disappointed Gellman continues to beat the Russian hoax drum. He discusses at length his worries about the Trump administration abusing intelligence resources and never once mentions the FBI’s FISA abuses, or the Obama Administration’s weaponizing the intelligence community to spy on a rival political opponent and work with a discredited foreign agent who received bogus information from Russian sources. Clearly a TDS victim.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Jan ÿstergaard
- 12-08-22
Open eyed book about a Regimes survivalance!
And yes, Trump was guilty in collusion.
Wake up please.
Snowden is no Spy or traitor. His new citizenship tells everything about why US can be considered a regime.
No real justice, no real freedom all about carrying weapons and thousands of incident people die or is harmed for life.
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1 person found this helpful
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- LP
- 05-25-20
Captivating and Informative
I bought this book after reading the Wired article. I thought it was a well-researched and articulated. I learn something new everyday.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dad
- 01-31-23
Exceptional detail and facts
Very well done story with exceptional facts and detail. interesting perspective coming from a very qualified Journalist.
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1 person found this helpful