Verax: The True History of Whistleblowers, Drone Warfare, and Mass Surveillance: A Graphic Novel

From a prize-winning journalist and the co-author of the best-selling Zahra's Paradise, a sweeping graphic history of electronic surveillance from the War on Terror to the latest drone strike

In a wholly original and engaging telling, Verax ("truth-teller" and one of Edward Snowden's code names) recounts the full story of American electronic surveillance post 9/11, in brilliant comics form. 

We follow Pratap Chatterjee, journalist sleuth, as he dives into the world of mass surveillance and introduces its cast of characters: companies, users, government agencies, whistleblowers, journalists, and, in a leading role, the devices themselves. He explains the complex ways governments follow the movements and interactions of individuals and countries, whether by tracking the players of Angry Birds, deploying "Stingrays" to listen in on phone calls, or weaponizing programs to remotely guide the U.S. missiles used in drone killings. He chronicles the complicity of corporations like Apple, Verizon, and Google, and the daring of the journalists and whistleblowers—from Snowden to the lesser-known NSA Four—who made sure that the world would know. Finally, he gives a prognosis for the future of mass surveillance, and for the fate of those who resist it.

Condensing the broad, complex history of 21st-century surveillance into a compact and vivid work, Verax is a valuable contribution that is certain to last.