Snowden, Sketched

National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden is a patriotic hero in Ted Rall's new nonfiction comic book Snowden (Seven Stories Press). The back cover tagline: "To save your country, betray your government."

The book outlines the NSA's vast unconstitutional domestic spying program as revealed by Snowden's leaks, excoriating both Presidents Bush and Obama for their complicity. In wondering why Snowden became the one out of thousands of people aware of these privacy violations who exposed them, Rall credits Snowden's burgeoning libertarian philosophy.

An avowed leftist himself, Rall writes: "NSA defenders say privacy was already dead, that we share our private lives with private corporations. But no corporation has ever kicked down people's doors, shoved them into trains, and shipped them to concentration camps. Only governments have done that." Rall concludes, "We need rules that limit our leaders' powers more than we need rules that limit our rights."