National Security Agency

Everything you've always wanted to know about NSA ... well no, probably not everything, but a LOT ... maybe not a WHOLE lot, but some pretty interesting and jaw-dropping stuff about the size and scope of the Agency and its mission. I read Bamford's THE PUZZLE PALACE so many years ago that I've forgotten what was in it. With BODY OF SECRETS the author obviously had better access to both data and people at NSA, especially to one-time NSA Director General Michael Hayden, who was responsible for opening the Agency doors a bit wider to the media and the public. Not a book to whiz through. Took me a couple weeks. I'm glad I finally read this book, which has been gathering dust on my shelf for several years. Highly recommended.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER… (altro)

The Puzzle Palace suffers because it is locked in time. First published in 1984, it was no doubt a revelatory expose of the NSA, following on the Church Commission reports, but it really pales compared to what is happening today. The book does a great job of laying out the history of the organization going back to the work of original cryptologist, Herbert Yardley, in the early Twentieth Century, following through the Agency’s official establishment by President Truman in 1952, and the years of growth and public deception, as its employees happily eavesdropped on telegrams, telexes, and phone calls from all over the world. The narrative bogs down quite a bit with sections that just seem to list name after name after name of people who occupied this office or that in an alphabet soup of organizations. It’s not James Bamford’s fault, but what is really needed is a Puzzle Palace 2.0, which picks up on the government funding of Google in the 1990s and follows through the establishment of the 1.5 million square foot NSA Data Center in Utah.… (altro)

This was a frustrating book to read at times! Body of Secrets is a strangely two-tone book: the first 60% or so is historical, covering the National Security Agency's involvement in conflicts past. The last 40%, on the other hand, mostly covers the current-day (~2001) agency.

This is partially a practical melding—Bamford wanted to update his picture of the agency due to the long time since he published The Puzzle Palace, the first significant look at the NSA published in 1982—but it means the book gets a lot less interesting after the first 350 pages or so.

Quite simply, reading about the internal politics of the agency is far less interesting than studying how they've flitted around in the margins of history, occasionally reaching in to make a big mark but mostly trawling for understanding. Bamford is pretty great at cultivating sources and deploying FOIA requests strategically, so a lot of these accounts are much fuller than I'd seen before: the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the near-sinking of the USS Liberty by Israel to cover up war-crimes, etc. Those historical accounts are fascinating, and would be almost five-stars on their own.

But then there comes the accounting for the present day organization. Bamford discovers an obsession with a mountain of factoids, telling us again and again how many acres of computers there are, how much wiring there is, how many miles of roads there are in Crypto City. Quite frankly, it's un-revelatory and boring as hell, and seems to be included simply because Bamford got present-day access from then-Director Hayden.

And as a larger issue, sometimes Bamford's writing is mostly workable, but sometimes falls flat. Could have used some more editing, and a few less metaphorical descriptions. Diagnosis: Thomas-Friedmanitis.

But if you skip over the boring shit, it's a great book if you want to learn more about the Cold War!… (altro)