REVIEW
“BODY OF SECRETS:
Anatomy Of The Ultra-Secret National Security Agency From The Cold War Through The Dawn Of The New Century” by James Bamford. Doubleday, 2001.
- Nicky Hager
It is a very rare event for reliable
and detailed information about spying activities to reach the public. More
often what we hear from news organisations and commentators are recycled
versions of decades-old ‘facts’, trustingly updated using official statements
from Intelligence sources. It serves these secretive agencies well to be so
free from scrutiny and informed criticism.
James Bamford’s 721 page new book on
the US National Security Agency (NSA) is one of those rare events. The NSA is
the most powerful Intelligence agency in the world, monitoring communications
of virtually every nation on earth; its spying has a large and invisible effect
on world politics. Yet this is only the second good exposé of the NSA, with the
first – also by Bamford – now almost 20 years old.
The first nine chapters of the book,
covering the 1940s to 1970s, are the most important and compelling. Focusing on
some of the key conflicts in that period, Bamford reveals highly secret details
of the sometimes dubious Intelligence achievements, the mess-ups and generally
the crucial but little acknowledged role secret intelligence plays in
international power politics
I did not find the last five chapters,
covering the 1980s to the present, as gripping a read. They provide an
encyclopedic account of the NSA’s structures, capabilities and staff, including
many revelations, but they have less inside detail about specific Intelligence
operations. Simply: the more recent the secrets, the harder they are to get.
Some memorable sections include US and
British Intelligence officers racing Russian troops to German codebreaking
secrets as the war ended in 1945 (gaining a major – but shortlived – Cold War
advantage); provocative and at times rash spy plane flights over the Soviet
Union in the 1950s (not unlike more recent ones over China’s Hainan Island);
and extreme anti-communist US military chiefs planning to create a “terror
campaign” against American warships, aircraft and citizens, blamed on Cuba, to
justify invading that country in the 1960s (‘the casualty lists in U.S.
newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation,’ a secret report
argued).
The historic chapters are ‘history’ in
the best sense of the term: they are so authentic and well documented that they
also help us understand how the world works today. The Intelligence operations
kept secret from the public under (ex-CIA Director) George Bush or his son’s
administrations will not be so different than those when Nixon.or Kissinger
were there.
Israeli State Terrorism Against US Spy Ship
The chapter that affected me most was the story of the Israeli attack on the US spy ship “Liberty” during the 1967 Six Day War. Israeli forces conducted close surveillance of the ship for six hours, then launched repeated air and torpedo attacks on the ship until most of the crew was dead or wounded and much of the ship destroyed. Life boats were shot at and sunk as soon as they were launched. Israel claimed the attack was a mistake and – although the NSA had evidence otherwise – the US government accepted this and never launched an inquiry.
Bamford makes a convincing case that
the Israelis were well aware that they were attacking a US spy ship. He
concludes that the reason for the attack was to avoid evidence being gathered
about military atrocities occurring only about 20km from the ship, in the Egyptian
town of El Arish, where Israeli soldiers were in the process of shooting
hundreds of civilians and bound prisoners.
The Pentagon ordered a total news ban
on the attack, the crew was threatened with jail if they talked about it and
President Johnson was reported as saying that “he didn’t care if the ship sank,
he would not embarrass his allies”. Bamford doesn’t hide his feelings about the
event, criticising the cynical disregard for life and truth shown by the
Israeli and US governments. This incident illustrates how important it is to
have independent investigative journalists like Bamford probing official
stories.
“Body of Secrets” is an outstanding
piece of investigation. The book deserves to be used as a case study of how
much a determined investigator can uncover (and how much needs to be uncovered) even on a dauntingly secret subject like
this. In 24 months of research and writing he located and interviewed many
insiders, acquired highly classified documents, located numerous useful but
scattered sources and made extensive use of the US Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA). For instance, he had the ingenious idea of requesting secret oral
histories recorded by past NSA staff, just as his 1982 book, “The Puzzle
Palace”, had uncovered many clues and details by targeting FOIA requests on
seemingly innocuous NSA staff newsletters. “Body of Secrets” is certain to be
the main source on the NSA for many years to come, and deservedly so.
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