No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald - Part 1

Sitting here at lunch typing with greasy fingers on my tablet while trying to keep my meal down as I plow through "No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald".

I am about 1/3 of the way thru this book, trying to finish it before next Saturday's Google+ Hangout and so far I am not impressed.  I was kind of expecting some sort of examination of the issues but really all I am getting so far is Glenn Greenwald talking about how great he (Greenwald) is.  I guess I shouldn't be surprised- I used to read his blog and his Salon column and there was a great deal of that sort of thing in them too, and when he was sock-puppeting all over the internet he always started out by praising his own great intelligence.  To be fair he also gives a nod to Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras and notes that they are also intelligent, brave, dedicated and fierce fighters for truth, justice and the American way:  Just not as much as him.  Anyway that is pretty much the defining characteristic of the book so far.

Some of the other things I have noticed:

1.  This story occurs rather conveniently.  Both Poitras and Greenwald were looking to do stories on the NSA, specifically mass surveillance, and Snowden just happens along.

2.  Snowden is a great Mary-Sue for Greenwald.  Every trait that Greenwald sees himself as possessing is present in and probably amplified in Snowden.

3.  I still have trouble reconciling some of the details with the way I know things to work.  A reporter asks for proof about some of the details in Snowden's story and he pulls out his old (he left their employ a couple years before) CIA ID card and Diplomatic Passport.  Both of these items are things that the Government makes an effort to keep track of and Snowden has both?  Possible I guess.

4.  The perfection of everything - That makes me suspicious in and of it self.  Any question that arises there is always the perfect document to prove it.  Everything is always perfectly organized. etc. etc.

5.  Snowden's claims about his background.  I still have trouble believing that in less than 6 years he managed to establish himself as both the CIAs top man on cybersecurity and a senior lecturer on cybersecurity at the DIA and a senior whatever at NSA.  Again possible I guess but I find it doubtful.

The list goes on.  None of this means that Snowden is not a whistleblower or that his documents aren't genuine (I have other concerns about those) but it makes me question Greenwald's veracity (even more than I normally would).

Edit:  I typed Nowhere vs. No Place as the title  Duh!!
Also:  +Chris Stoddard and +Wade Byrd I better not be the only one reading this.