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

Rating:
Summary: Worth Reading
Review: Body of Secrets provides a great overview of the electronic side of intelligence and its role in US foreign policy. The research is well done. Despite occasional one-sentence editorials revealing the authors views on his subject, he remains detached enough not to get in the way. Some critics "can't decide" if he's pro or con, but I see that as a strength rather than a weakness.

The book also includes information, disturbing information, that if correct should change how history has recently judged the Eisenhower administration.

The last chapter is a little dry, however, offering an overly-detailed description of the NSA campus that isn't relevant or interesting. But, overall, Body of Secrets is worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: How does he do it?
Review: I don't know how James Bamford gets into this secret world and comes back out with all this intriguing information but I'm glad he does. In one sense this is like a Puzzle Palace 2, but it goes beyond that to explore some philosophical questions that are worth examining. I doubt if few Americans have even a glimmer of the enormous intelligence power this country has, this book will open your eyes.
While we take great pride in that, and we should, it raises some significant questions about what this power might mean in the future in terms of our privacy and protection.
This is a great read, but it also raises some important questions we all need to ponder.

Rating:
Summary: Body of Secrets
Review: Body of Secrets is a very well written; book that detailing a lot of information about US information gathering tactics and technology. There is a reason you will never see a book from the other side of the Cold war like this. If you believe that the American government should not have any secrets for the public read this. Hopefully it will probably change your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Body of secrets doesnt add much over puzzle palace
Review: I read Bamford's "Puzzle Palace" a couple of years ago and was fascinated. "Body of Secrets" falls flat compared to its predecessor. While Puzzle really unravelled many layers off the NSA puzzle, this book is drab and full of boring detail. There is good coverage of the USS Liberty and Pueblo incidents but again in too much detail. He goes into pages and pages of how directors dealt with members of congress etc. There is some duplication of content with Puzzle Palace also. Overall, I felt let down by Bamford compared to his previous effort. If you havent read it yet, buy or borrow Puzzle Palace. Skip this one.

Rating:
Summary: Good book for intelligence professionals
Review: A great inside look into the NSA. It gives you how intellignece affects National and Military decisions on time of war and peace. Gives readers an awareness how intelligence offcials can easily exploit assets for their own personal interest. Offers the reader a background on what intelligence does and does not do. A must-have book for intelligence profesionals.

Rating:
Summary: Maybe more than you wanted to know
Review: This is an important but scarey book. I am glad I read it because now I understand what our government is about. I had no idea that we listen to, potentially every communication that is made around the world. Some of the plans our past governments have made to create public opinion and get us in to wars sound very familiar. Bamford seems to genuanly respect the NSA and has gathered testamony of many past employees who obviously valued their chance to be a part of that huge operation.

Rating:
Summary: A very negative book
Review: Bamford must have some something out for the NSA. He is extemely negative in his approach to just about everything they do and all the personalities involved. After 400 pages I gave up trying to deal with it. I am sure they aren't perfect, have made their share of mistakes, as well as there were people that had their own agendas. But I have to believe that there must have been some huge victories and that there are some terrific people who have contributed significantly to this country's successes. It would have been a much better book if he had tried to balance it.

Would welcome others thoughts at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: For fans of THE PUZZLE PALACE.....
Review: James Bamford has outdone himself once again with this latest tell-all of SIGINT city. This book reads like any of his other fact-based books regarding the NSA. I felt that this book had SOOO many facts, that you can't help but wonder if it's all true or BS....It feels like it's to much information to all be true of the NSA. Possible misinformation?!? Maybe we'll never know....Although, it makes one speculate of what is true & what isn't of SIGINT city, apparently THE MOST SECRET PLACE ON EARTH. Yeah right! We're not even supposed to know of this place and here he is publishing a book on the most secure place in the known universe. Well, I have to admit, it's such a thrilling read, once you realize what you're really reading about, that it makes you want it to be fiction because it doesn't seem like it could be true, but it is....or is it? Read it if you liked THE PUZZLE PALACE or are interested in Surveillance, remote-sensing, or National Security & you want to know what Fort Meade's up to. Or even if you're just curious about where the State-of-the-Art, as far as technology is concerned, is going. The NSA IS the state of the art. Remember, NSA stands for No Such Agency!

Rating:
Summary: James Bamford--NSA Cheerleader or Detractor?
Review: I have not read "Puzzle Palace" James Bamford's first and much acclaimed work on the inner workings of the National Security Agency (NSA) so I come to his work with an open mind and hoping for an expose of this most undemocratic of federal super-secret agencies. I was hoping for what I might write--a book utilizing and publishing a plethora of primary source documents showing NSA for what it is--an anomaly in a supposedly democratic society.

Based on pre-publication publicity exposing a crack-brained plot by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962 to create false pretexts for an invasion of Cuba--including fake terrorist attacks on Washington--whetted my appetite.

Yet, when it came down to it, I could not tell whether Bamford was a cheerleader or detractor for NSA. In some places, he exposed their participatory malfeasance as a voyeur and participant in many cold war events. In other places, he criticizes them.

Bamford writes with a certain aura of respect for the work done by NSA and the deprivations endured by employees to fulfill the covert espionage missions assigned to them. He states that many important discoveries of activities by Amerika's enemies would never have been uncovered had it not been for the work of NSA.

Any criticism of the agency is, I think, nothing more than a mild rebuke. The tone of the book does not indicate that he questions their place in a supposedly democratic society, the need to spy on friend and foe. Like many in the corporate media, he fails to question the assumptions underlying American foreign policy. I certainly would have begun this ponderous tome by questioning the need for, or basis for, the existence of NSA. He does cover briefly the history of Truman signing the National Security Act of 1947 which began both NSA and the CIA. One has to wonder whether his failure to question their existence and to provide copies of interesting primary source documents was done at the behest of his publishers or because of fear of alientating his NSA sources.

I do recommend reading this book but am disappointed at the lack of outrage at the conduct of NSA and its consequences to American foreign policy and the perception of Americans worldwide.

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This book is sort of like Bamford's Inside the Puzzle Palace. Some of the events are covered in both books (that is why i give it 4 stars instead of 5). All in all, its a good read and the slow parts are kept to a minimum.