Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency | James Bamford

Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency | James Bamford | Good Book, Not Just SIGINT Though

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Body of Secrets: A...

	Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency James Bamford Anchor, 2002 - 784 pages average customer review:based on 145 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The National Security Agency is the world?s most powerful, most far-reaching espionage. Now with a new afterword describing the security lapses that preceded the attacks of September 11, 2001, Body of Secrets takes us to the inner sanctum of America?s spy world. In the follow-up to his bestselling Puzzle Palace, James Banford reveals the NSA?s hidden role in the most volatile world events of the past, and its desperate scramble to meet the frightening challenges of today and tomorrow.

Here is a scrupulously documented account?much of which is based on unprecedented access to previously undisclosed documents?of the agency?s tireless hunt for intelligence on enemies and allies alike. Body of secrets is a riveting analysis of this most clandestine of agencies, a major work of history and investigative journalism.

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Follow-on to The Puzzle Palace. Both are required reading if you are interested in the NSA or Intelligence.

This book is, like the author's previous book about signals intelligence and the National Security Agency (NSA), simply excellent, well researched, and very interesting.

It explores the U.S. government's intelligence activities as it relates to the acquisition of foreign government and foreign military communications and signals. It discusses Echelon, and the USA, UK, and New Zealand partnership to collectively acquire/intercept, collect, decode/decypher, and interpret communications and signals.

It is the definitive open-source study on signals intelligence and the NSA. It is by the foremost public expert on the NSA and signals intelligence (SIGINT).

If you are interested in learning about the NSA, cryptology, cryptanalysis, codebreaking, the U.S. governments interception of signals, and fascinating tour-de-force of world-wide signals interception, then this book (as well as the author's previous book The Puzzle Palace) are required reading.

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Good Book, Not Just SIGINT Though

This was a worthwhile read. It covers several of the key intelligence operations that were spearheaded by the NSA during the close of the cold war and during the beginning of the middle-eastern anti-terrorism campaign. While this book is informative and entertaining, it is not about just the NSA. Many of the intelligence missions detailed in this work can be accredited to other agencies. But that isn't a major issue. Overall it is a very interesting read that should be required for anyone interested in the basic foundations of the field of modern SIGINT or the broad impacts of signals intelligence analysis.

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Good INsight to Sigint History

Jeffrey W. Bennett, author of ISP Certification-The Industrial Security Professional Exam Manualand Under the Lontar Palm

This book is well written and an easy read of one of the most fascinating agencies of all time. Mr. Bamford has performed exhaustive research into the workings of the super-secret NSA. Personally, I have a long history as a intelligence analyst during the Cold War and reading this book brings back a lot of memories of the history and working of the world at the time. Thanks for putting this work together.

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Pretty Good...

I would hardly call it an anatomy but nevertheless it provided great insight for those without a clue on what the NSA does. The book focused primarily on the years between 1960-1975 on gathering of intelligence aboard on foreign nations particularly Russia and Vietnam. Bamford is sometimes controversial and comes to conclusions that to me warranted a much more careful examination; for instance, the claim the USS Liberty was purposely ambushed by Israel (rather than a mistake) and U.S. administration knew but in short let it slide. Other times the author examines how officials in U.S. administration(s) would be willing to clandestinely kill its own in plots that would rally the people and justify war.

Only in the last couple chapters does the reader get a glimpse of the inside of the NSA. And it is merely a glimpse. This book is much more focused on history and operations of gathering intelligence without getting technical. Certainly worthwhile for those never privy to the NSA.

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A ringing indictment v. the Establishment War Machine!

The author, an intelligence expert, has
written this book on the National Secur-
ity Agency that contains a lengthy and
very detailed section on the Israeli at-
tack on the USS Liberty, the 41st anniv-
ersary of which has just past. It shows
that Israel clearly, deliberately inflic-
ted the brutal assault on the 172 man
crew that killed 34 of the US sailors, 5
of which were jewish Amer-I-cans! Israel,
the UN'S 'lil pet country, has a terrible
human rights record since 1948. It is usually
not easy to find such frank discussion by an
established figure on these matters, but aut-
hor Bamford lets it all hang our for the pub-
lic to see. Pick up on this winner!

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