Sometimes I wish I had time to do nothing but just sit down and read. Unfortunately, my schedule doesn't permit it, since there always seems to be something else that needs to be done. However, I do manage to squeeze in some time here and there. And thankfully, it was not wasted while reading Body of Secrets by James Bamford, which I only recently finished.

In case you're not familiar with the book, Body of Secrets is the latest expos� of the National Security Agency by Bamford, who in 1983 authored the book The Puzzle Palace, which is also about the NSA.

Body of Secrets is an incredibly fascinating read, whether you are interested in espionage operations or not. The well-documented book details various intelligence gathering missions around the world, from the end of WWII to the present. Incidents such as the shootdown of Francis Powers in his U2, the Cuban missile crisis, the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, and the fall of Saigon and evacuation of the US embassy are discussed in detail with information you've never seen before.

Bamford also discusses the "Echelon" program, in which the NSA monitors international telephone conversations which are carried via satellite. Echelon has gotten a lot of attention the past few years, and it has been suspected by many that the NSA has the ability to monitor every telephone conversation, fax, and email that is made every day. In actuality, the NSA doesn't routinely monitor the communications of US citizens, but does monitor foreign communications in order to find terrorists, people aiding countries hostile to the US, and other hot information of interest to the US government. This makes the NSA an extremely powerful agency.

Bamford also goes into detail about the day-to-day operation of "Crypto City," as the NSA headquarters is unofficially called. The annual budget, amount of electricity used per day, amount of classified waste generated daily, and amount of food consumed by Crypto City inhabitants is staggering. It's also interesting to learn that Crypto City has its own police force.

An interesting point brought up in the book details the problems faced by the NSA by rapidly changing communications. No longer is shortwave radio the only means of international communications. Now satellites, email, faxes, and other forms of communications have taken over as the main means of communication. However, in third-world and other countries not as technologically advanced as western countries, shortwave radio still remains a viable and important means of communications. What this means to the NSA is that they have to hold on to the old ways of gathering intelligence, plus they have to keep developing new technology to keep up with the ever-rapid pace of changing technology. Unfortunately, they don't have the budget to do both.

The last chapter in the book gives a detailed look at the various supercomputer systems in use by the NSA over the past 40 years or so. The supercomputers, of course, are used for codebreaking. The chapter also explains how supercomputers have become mainly obsolete because now many inexpensive, slower computers can be networked to do the same job at a fraction of the cost. On the other hand, research into faster computers is still continuing with scientists looking at using biological material for faster electrical connections than can be had with silicon components.

At the end of the book, there is a list of various crypto job titles & descriptions at the NSA. I was pleased to see that my old military job, Morse Collector, was listed.

In all, this is a very good, interesting book and I would highly recommend it to everyone interested in intelligence work.

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