| Taken from the book's dust jacket: A no-holds-barred examination of the National Security Agency packed with startling secrets about its past, newsbreaking revelations about its present-day activities, and chilling predictions about its future powers and reach. 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 the 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 on global personal communications. Like the breakout bestsellers on Cold War espionage The Sword and the Shield and Blind Man's Buff, Body of Secrets is must-reading for people fascinated by the intrigues of a shadowy underworld. As one of the most important works of investigative journalism to come out of Washington in years, it should be read by everyone concerned about the inevitability of Orwell's Big Brother. |
| James Bamford's book, "Body of Secrets" is available at Amazon.com |
| Read a Body of Secrets Book Review by Bruce Scheier at Salon.com |
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| The following excerpt from the book describes in vivid detail the work and sacrifices of the men of the 407th Radio Research Detachment, used here with James Bamford's permission: |
| Beginning on page 343 and concluding on page 346: By 1972, NSA also began "remoting" some of its more hazardous operations. Rather than having intercept operators sit in front of row after row of receivers, spinning dials to find enemy voices, now the agency could do much of its eavesdropping by computer. Codenamed Explorer, the system involved preprogrammed computers and receivers that would quickly scan for targeted and unusual frequencies carrying voice and coded communications. Once located, they would be uplinked to an aircraft or satelite and then, through a series of relays, downlinked to NSA or some other safe location away from the fighting. There, translators, codebreakers, computers, and traffic analysts could dissect the signals... Explorer was particularly useful in unusually dangerous areas - for example, just south of the DMZ. To capture those communications, the system was set up on several remote firebases located on high and isolated hills. One was Firebase Sarge and another was known as A-4. Although Explorer was highly automated, several people were nevertheless needed to maintain the equipment and keep it from being vandalized, a very hazardous job given the locations. The firebases just south of the DMZ were the most isolated and dangerous listening posts in the world. There, intercept operators were close enough to the dragon to count his teeth. Occasionally they would also feel its sting. Sarge sat on the top of a steep mountain. Near Con Thien, "From A-4 you could see the middle of the DMZ, it was that close," said an intercept operator stationed there. "It was the furthest northenmost outpost the Americans held in Vietnam. The DMZ looked like rolling hills; a no-man's-land with a river through it and scrub brush and that was about it for miles. There was no fence. The river separated it and over the river was a bridge and the NVA flew a big flag over it with a red star and you could see it through binoculars. We used to watch them infiltrate, you could watch them come across. At the time, there were no other Americans there." To continue reading the book excerpt: C L I C K H E R E |
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