- 593 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
The first book ever written on the National Security Agency from the
New York Times bestselling author of
Body of Secrets and
The Shadow Factory.
In this groundbreaking, award-winning book, James Bamford traces the NSA's origins, details its inner workings, and explores its far-flung operations. He describes the city of fifty thousand people and nearly twenty buildings that is the Fort Meade headquarters of the NSA—where there are close to a dozen underground acres of computers, where a significant part of the world's communications are monitored, and where reports from a number of super-sophisticated satellite eavesdropping systems are analyzed. He also gives a detailed account of NSA's complex network of listening posts—both in the United States and throughout much of the rest of the world. When a Soviet general picks up his car telephone to call headquarters, when a New York businessman wires his branch in London, when a Chinese trade official makes an overseas call, when the British Admiralty urgently wants to know the plans and movements of Argentina's fleet in the South Atlantic—all of these messages become NSA targets. James Bamford's illuminating book reveals how NSA's mission of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) has made the human espionage agent almost a romantic figure of the past.
Winner Best Investigative Book of the Year Award from Investigative Reporters & Editors
" The Puzzle Palace has the feel of an artifact, the darkly revealing kind. Though published during the Reagan years, the book is coolly subversive and powerfully prescient."— The New Yorker
"Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director's safe."— The New York Times Book Review
In this groundbreaking, award-winning book, James Bamford traces the NSA's origins, details its inner workings, and explores its far-flung operations. He describes the city of fifty thousand people and nearly twenty buildings that is the Fort Meade headquarters of the NSA—where there are close to a dozen underground acres of computers, where a significant part of the world's communications are monitored, and where reports from a number of super-sophisticated satellite eavesdropping systems are analyzed. He also gives a detailed account of NSA's complex network of listening posts—both in the United States and throughout much of the rest of the world. When a Soviet general picks up his car telephone to call headquarters, when a New York businessman wires his branch in London, when a Chinese trade official makes an overseas call, when the British Admiralty urgently wants to know the plans and movements of Argentina's fleet in the South Atlantic—all of these messages become NSA targets. James Bamford's illuminating book reveals how NSA's mission of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) has made the human espionage agent almost a romantic figure of the past.
Winner Best Investigative Book of the Year Award from Investigative Reporters & Editors
" The Puzzle Palace has the feel of an artifact, the darkly revealing kind. Though published during the Reagan years, the book is coolly subversive and powerfully prescient."— The New Yorker
"Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director's safe."— The New York Times Book Review
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription.
At the moment all of our mobile-responsive ePub books are available to download via the app. Most of our PDFs are also available to download and we're working on making the final remaining ones downloadable now. Learn more here.
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1 million books across 1000+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn more here.
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more here.
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS or Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access The Puzzle Palace by James Bamford in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Index
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
A
Abner computer, 99–100
Abrams, Creighton W., 186
Abzug, Bella, 302–5
Abzug Subcommittee. See Government Information Subcommittee
academic community: relations with NSA, 338–44, 347–50, 357–60; assists intelligence community through IDA-CRD, 341–44; debate within, over Lucifer, 347–49; cryptologic research of, 349–50, 352–54, 359; Inman calls for dialogue between NSA and, 359–60; provides defenses to technotyranny, 379
Acheson, Dean G., 52, 55
Ackerman, John B., 86
acquisition of intelligence, defined, 372–74
Act for the Preservation of Government Records (Public Law 37), 25–26
Ad Hoc Requirements Committee (ARC), 187
Adleman, Leonard, 350, 361–62
Administration, Office of, 104–9
Admiralty, British, 330
Advanced Language Program (ALP), 344
Advanced Soviet (ADVA; operational division of PROD), 90
Aerojet Electrosystems, 193
Aetna Insurance Company, 376–77n
Africa 212, 214, 320
airborne radio direction-finding platforms (ARDF), 185–86
air defense radar, Soviet, 180
Air Force: COMINT activities of, 45, 47, 51; and the EC-130 incident, 180–81; forms NRO with CIA, 187–88, 204; German intercept stations of, 161; launches Samos satellites, 188; participates in AFSA, 47, 48, 50, 51; represented on intelligence boards, 47–51, 187–88, 204; supports the Nicolai secrecy order, 355
Air Force Electronic Security Command (AFESC), 157
Air Force Intelligence (A-2), 49–51
Albert, A. Adrian, 342
Albright, O. S., 18
Aldridge, Edward C., 192
Alexander, C. H. O’D., 130
Alice Springs, 204–6
All-American Cable Company, 12
Allen, Lew, Jr., 192–93, 250 n, 293, 353; becomes director of NSA, 79–80, 291; briefed on NSA’s procurement policy, 110–12; and Operation Shamrock, 236, 303; testifies before Pike Committee, 297–98; and Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, 299–302; and the Government Information Subcommittee hearing, 303–5
All Others (ALLO; operational division of PROD), 90, 153–54, 320
Alvarez, Luis, 340 n
“A” machine (later Red), 34
America, 224–25
American Banking Association, 349 The American Black Chamber (Yardley), 1722, 282
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 212
American code, 281–82, 284–85
American Council on Education, 359
American embassy, Tehran, 200
American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), 174, 303, 377
American Thermogen Corporation, 66
Anagram Inn. See National Security Agency
Analog, 356
ana...
Table of contents
- Title Page
- Contents
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Acknowledgments
- Birth
- Prelude
- Anatomy
- Penetration
- Platforms
- Targets
- Fissures
- Partners
- Competition
- Abyss
- Appendix
- Notes
- Acronyms and Abbreviations
- Index
- About the Author
- Connect with HMH
- Footnotes