Body of Secrets
"The NSA is the largest, most secretive, and most powerful intelligence agency in the world. With a staff of thirty-eight thousand people, it dwarfs the CIA in budget, manpower, and influence. Recent headlines have linked it to economic espionage throughout Europe and to the ongoing hunt for the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.". "James Bamford first penetrated the wall of silence surrounding the NSA in 1982, with the much-talked-about bestseller The Puzzle Palace. In Body of Secrets, he offers shocking new details about the inner workings of the agency, gathered through unique access to thousands of internal documents and interviews with current and former officials. Unveiling extremely sensitive information for the first time, Bamford exposes the role the NSA played in numerous Soviet bloc Cold War conflicts and discusses its undercover involvement in the Vietnam War. His investigation into the NSA's technological advances during the last fifteen years brings to light a network of global surveillance ranging from on-line listening posts to sophisticated intelligence-gathering satellites. In a hard-hitting conclusion, he warns that the NSA is a two-edged sword. While its worldwide eavesdropping activities offer the potential for tracking down terrorists and uncovering nuclear weapons deals, it also has the capability to listen in on global personal communications."--BOOK JACKET.
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What Hacker News says
- Dark Territory, by Fred Kaplan. Same topic as this thread.
Also either Puzzle Palace or Body of Secrets by James Bamford. Topic: NSA.
- I instantly thought of this when reading the headline:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
I remember reading about this around 20 years ago in James Bamford's excellent NSA book Body of Secrets.
- I just started Bamford's The Puzzle Palace a couple of days ago. I'm only about 1/4 of the way through, but it's extremely interesting already. From what I've already seen, I'd have no problem recommending it to other HN readers who are interested in the history behind the NSA.
I'm guessing his other books (Body of Secrets and The Shadow Factory) are also going to be great reads.
- They don't have to scan them all. Only the ones uploaded by the people on their target list. As for access, I'm sure they have it. Regarding computational power, the NSA is generally reputed to have enough supercomputers to fill a football field. I'm sure their new data center in Utah will be greatly enlarging their capabilities.
I'd suggest you read James Bamford's three books on the NSA for further insight. (The Puzzle Palace, Body of Secrets, and The Shadow Factory.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bamford#Books
- I've had a quick look and it's mentioned in a number of places, Matthew Aid's "The Secret Sentry" mentions it briefly, Bamford has a page or two in "Body of Secrets", and for honorable mention Jeffrey Richelson's "Wizards of Langley" doesn't have it but does cover the entire KH series across a span of around 250 pages. It may be in a few more books but it'd be a pile to go through.
- Apart from that he was a warmonger and presumably a shit person overall.
“In his book, Body of Secrets, James Bamford, who spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst, writes that the primary purpose of the Maddox "was to act as a seagoing provocateur”
