EXCLUSIVE: Now it's Edward Snowden the comic book - man who stole 1.7 MILLION classified documents and revealed NSA's monitoring program is subject of 'graphic novel' 

  • Edward Snowden leaked the National Security Agency's secrets then went on the run and is now in Russia 
  • He started storm over eavesdropping on emails, texts and phone records and said he was acting as a whistleblower
  • Spy chiefs say he betrayed his country and that terrorists now use encryption - putting lives at risk
  • Pulitzer nominated Ted Rall has drawn 'Snowden' with graphic novel versions of the leaker, and other figures including Obama

By Daniel Bates For Dailymail.com

Published: 14:32 EST, 31 July 2015 | Updated: 16:50 EST, 31 July 2015

Leaker: Edward Snowden stole the largest haul of secrets in history from the NSA

Leaker: Edward Snowden stole the largest haul of secrets in history from the NSA

You've seen the film, read the book - now read the Edward Snowden comic.

A comic book artist is to publish a graphic novel telling the story of the man behind the biggest intelligence leak in military history.

'Snowden' by Pulitzer-nominated Ted Rall claims that the former contractor for the National Security Agency stole 1.7 million classified documents because he was angry at President Obama.

Snowden supposedly became frustrated that the President did not close Guantanamo and 'deepened and expanded several abusive programs'.

Rall writes: 'Snowden soon saw that his faith had been misplaced.

'Disgusted, Snowden took matters into his own hands...he took his data and fled the United States'.

Among the more colorful cartoons in the book where Rall has taken some artistic license is one of President Obama telling an aide: 'This Snowden situation is intolerable! Get this kid into custody'

At one point former vice President Dick Cheney says: 'I think he's a traitor'.

On another page a frustrated President Obama tells an aide: 'God damn it, I want that kid back here'.

Told in graphic form: Snowden features comic book versions of himself (top left); Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic senator and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor (bottom left) and 

German chancellor Angela Merkel, who was spied on by the NSA, also compares the them to the Stasi, the Cold War era Secret Police.

The book, which is sympathetic to Snowden, charts his story from growing up in Maryland where he was a Boy Scout which made a big impact on him with its emphasis on honesty and integrity.

In his late 20s Snowden joined the NSA but a stint working in Switzerland during which he saw how it really worked made him realise he was 'part of something that was doing far more harm than good'.

Rall writes that Snowden was inspired by the case of Chelsea Manning, the former Army private who leaked classified cables to Wikileaks, but felt she did not have enough impact.

What Snowden would go on to expose was that the NSA was carrying out a program of mass surveillance that sparked national debate about the limits of spying.

He fled the US and went to Hong Kong where he met with journalists from The Guardian newspaper before fleeing to Russia, where he remains to this day.

Rall compares the NSA to George Orwell's 1984 and claims that we are already living in Oceania, the fictional country in the dystopian novel.

Rall says that the NSA collaborated with GCHQ, or 'Britain's NSA', which 'uses NSA data to dodge laws that supposedly protect the privacy of Britons'.

He writes: 'Edward felt confident that he was doing the right thing.

'Yes, he had violated his employment contract, but in doing so he had sided with the greater good trying to prevent his country from devolving further in the 1984 without public debate.'

Snowden is still in exile in Russia but remains wanted in the US for espionage charges.

In an interview with comedian John Oliver earlier this year he said that he wanted to come home at some point but is refusing to serve time in jail.

Former Attorney General Eric Holder said earlier this month that Snowden may get a pardon but that negotiations were ongoing.

Snowden's story has been turned into the subject of a clutch of films including the Oscar-winning Citizenfour by Laura Poitras, the filmmaker who he initially contacted to leak his information.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is due to play him in a forthcoming Oliver Stone directed feature called 'Snowden'.

Snowden's story has also been turned into numerous books, but this is the first graphic novel.

Publishers Seven Stories Press say that 'Snowden' is a 'portrait of a brave young man standing up to the most powerful government in the world and, if not winning, at least reaching a stand-off'.

It is also supposed to be an 'incitation to us all to measure our courage and listen to our consciences in asking ourselves what we might have done in his shoes'.

Seven Stories says 'As many as 1.4 million citizens with security clearance saw some or all of the same documents revealed by Edward Snowden.

'Why did he, and no one else, decide to step forward and take on the risks associated with becoming a whistleblower and then a fugitive?

'In a way, the book tells two stories: Snowden's and a larger one that describes all of us on the threshold of tremendous technological upheaval and political change.'

Rall has twice won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award whose work has appeared in the correspondent whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Snowden is out on August 25th in the US and September10th in the UK.

 

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