If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this interview with Ed Snowden, the 29-year old whistleblower who publicly admitted that he is the source who leaked top secret documents exposing how the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly collecting and storing all of our phone records for years, and tapping into the computer systems of major Internet companies.

Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor, says, “I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.” Snowden is risking a lot with his act of conscience. Like Bradley Manning, he will be made an example of if he is caught, and could spend the rest of his life in prison.

We are hearing the usual statements from officials that secrecy is necessary in order to keep the terrorists from knowing what the US is doing to thwart them. In the case of the phone records at least, this explanation is laughable. The real reason is to keep it hidden from the American public who otherwise would never go along with it. As with Obama’s drone wars, the strategy has been to put these programs into practice without the public’s knowledge, and to keep them secret for as long as possible. Then when it finally does become known, it is a fait accompli that is difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.

We are now seeing a full-scale effort by the Obama administration and its supporters to spin the story in their favor, with cooperation from their media allies. Yet there are figures in the corporate media, and across the political spectrum, who are challenging the administration’s justifications and letting dissenting voices be heard.

The question now is: Will the government’s determination to build and operate this huge surveillance capability in secret continue to succeed, or is it beginning to fall apart? There are an increasing number of insiders who have been willing to take the risk to expose government abuses, several of whom appear in Seizing Power. Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who published the original story in The Guardian, says that he has more revelations yet to be released. We are likely to see more insiders willing to make the sacrifice to protect our Constitutional rights. We owe them a lot.

-David Kasper