The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization | 
 enlarge | Author: James Bamford
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 156695
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 656
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0140067485
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1206073
EAN: 9780140067484
ASIN: 0140067485
Publication Date: September 29, 1983
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Amazon.com
In 1947, the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand signed a secret treaty in which they agreed to cooperate in matters of signals intelligence. In effect, the governments agreed to pool their geographic and technological assets in order to listen in on the electronic communications of China, the Soviet Union, and other Cold War bad guys--all in the interest of truth, justice, and the American Way, naturally. The thing is, the system apparently catches everything. Government security services, led by the U.S. National Security Agency, screen a large part (and perhaps all) of the voice and data traffic that flows over the global communications network. Fifty years later, the European Union is investigating possible violations of its citizens' privacy rights by the NSA, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public advocacy group, has filed suit against the NSA, alleging that the organization has illegally spied on U.S. citizens. Being a super-secret spy agency and all, it's tough to get a handle on what's really going on at the NSA. However, James Bamford has done great work in documenting the agency's origins and Cold War exploits in The Puzzle Palace. Beginning with the earliest days of cryptography (code-making and code-breaking are large parts of the NSA's mission), Bamford explains how the agency's predecessors helped win World War II by breaking the German Enigma machine and defeating the Japanese Purple cipher. He also documents signals intelligence technology, ranging from the usual collection of spy satellites to a great big antenna in the West Virginia woods that listened to radio signals as they bounced back from the surface of the moon. Bamford backs his serious historical and technical material (this is a carefully researched work of nonfiction) with warnings about how easily the NSA's technology could work against the democracies of the world. Bamford quotes U.S. Senator Frank Church: "If this government ever became a tyranny ... the technological capacity that the intelligence community has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny, and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort to combine together in resistance to the government ... is within the reach of the government to know." This is scary stuff. --David Wall
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Groundbreaking and Definitive Public Look at the NSA - National Security Agency June 13, 2008
When this book came out (actually even before it came out), it caused a major stir within the secret world of eavesdropping and signals intelligence (SIGINT), and the cryptanalysis world.
A thorough study of the National Security Agency (NSA) and its activities, at a time when not many people even knew of the existence of the agency or what it did or how it did it.
The book shows how the U.S. government intercepted and decoding/decyphered radio and other transmissions of foreign governments and foreign militaries. And still does. An activity which is now widely known and in the popular press.
The book was and is groundbreaking. Any student of U.S. intelligence or international relations will definitely enjoy and gain from the in-depth historical research that is told through gripping stories. I highly recommend this book.
The author James Bamford is basically the open-source - public - expert on the history of the National Security Agency and signals intelligence.
James Bamford's Puzzle Palace June 23, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This was an interesting beginning book about the history and background of the National Security Agency, especially in light of the very damaging leak about the secret surveillance program ordered by President George W. Bush. The only problem is that this book is a bit dated, so it's hard to know how similar the early '80s Puzzle Palace compares with that of the early 21st Century NSA. What's clear is the NSA has been a special creature of the government, created by executive order and really not beholden to Congress like other agencies. I recommend people read this and Bamford's other book about the NSA.
Timeless non-fiction June 8, 2006
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This book was written back in 1982, but the information you get from it is still fresh and very relevant. Especially, after the revelation that President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans and others in the United States making contact with persons in other nations. More recently, "USA Today" reported that the NSA is operating "the largest database ever assembled in the world", containing call detail records of all calls (inbound and outbound) placed through AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth.
James Bamford has done a remarkable job in revealing the secrets of this agency. Something that is hard to imagine. However, he did keep a balance by not giving all the information, especially those that will concerns national security. No doubt, the more you know about NSA more you respect it. They have got some of the best cryptologists, technologists, and mathematicians working for them. It is amazing to see how Bamford collected and documented the information about the secret agency, not to forget that there was a time when its existence was not even acknowledged.
Having said that, I have to agree that this is one of the most interesting books you will find in the non-fiction category.
Dateline, America, Dec. 19, 2005 December 19, 2005
12 out of 17 found this review helpful
The recent revelation that President Bush authorized NSA spying on its own citizens (and the sad fact that the New York Times sat on this for a year, despite being a victim itself in the past) makes this book both incredibly timely and obviously, unfortunately, timeless.
The history of the National Security Agency and its predecessor organizations, along with the NSA's willingness to skirt, if not break, the law, should all be lessons for us today. For people younger than myself, not old enough to remember the Church Commission, unfortunately, these are lessons they never learned.
This book is a must-read for anybody concerned with the history of American civil liberties.
UPDATE, July 5, 2006: A lawsuit against the NSA has brought out the fact that the genesis, or at least the first feelers, toward this domestic snooping, were actually being pursued in 2000, under the Clinton Administration.
At least in some ways, it appears George Wallace was right with his "not a dime's worth of difference" comment about Republicans and Democrats.
 A paradox March 4, 2005
0 out of 22 found this review helpful
This book had interesting parts and some very dull parts. There was too much ink wasted on small details that were boring and contributed little to the overall story.
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