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The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America | 
 enlarge | Author: James Bamford
Creator: Paul Michael
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $15.44
You Save: $14.51 (48%)
New (37) Used (8) from $15.44
Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 658519
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 5.9 x 4.6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0739370731
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.1273
EAN: 9780739370735
ASIN: 0739370731
Publication Date: September 30, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“There have been glimpses inside the NSA before, but until now no one has published a comprehensive and detailed report on the agency . . . Mr. Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director’s safe.” –New York Times Book Review
Today’s National Security Agency is the largest, most costly, and most technologically advanced spy organization the world has ever known. It is also the most intrusive, secretly filtering millions of phone calls and e-mails an hour in the United States and around the world. Half a million people live on its watch list, and the number grows by the thousands every month. Has America become a surveillance state?
In The Shadow Factory, James Bamford, the foremost expert on the National Security Agency, charts its transformation since 9/11, as the legendary code breakers turned their ears away from outside enemies, such as the Soviet Union, and inward to enemies whose communications increasingly crisscross America.
Fast-paced and riveting, The Shadow Factory is about a world unseen by Americans without the highest security clearances. But it is a world in which even their most intimate whispers may no longer be private.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
 A Good 'Professional Witness' January 9, 2009
In his later novels, Robert A. Heinlein spoke for the need of the 'professional witness', a career where a person was trained, valued, and paid for reporting ONLY what happened. James Bamford has surely earned five stars for his 'professional witness' reporting of 9/11 and the resulting consequences to privacy law and eavesdropping. However, I am deducting a star for his refusing to be MORE than a 'professional witness'. I am more of a 'Smoke is billowing from every window; I can only conclude the house is on fire' - type of guy. So, I am going to excerpt key points from Bamford in order to show 'the fire'. First, to prime your taste buds:
---
"Atlantic" magazine (July 1948)
'Pearl Harbor in Retrospect'
by Sherman Miles
Page 3
"The last twenty-four hours in Washington before the bombs fell have come in for much scrutiny. Why did the President, with most of the Japanese final answer before him, conclude that it meant war and then, after a fitful attempt to reach Admiral Stark by telephone, quietly go to bed? Why was he in seclusion the following morning? Why was no action taken on the Japanese reply by the Secretaries of State, War, and Navy when they met on that Sunday morning? Why did they not consult the President, or he send for them? Where was everybody..."
--- and ---
"Reassessing the Presidency: The Rise of the Executive State and the Decline of Freedom" (2001)
by John V. Denson
p.510
"The transcript of the Joint Congressional Committee hearings in 1945-1946 shows that General Marshall testified he had been riding his horse during the early morning hours of December 7, and that he did not arrive at his office until about 11: A.M. at which time he was given the complete, fourteen-part message by two of his most senior intelligence officers, Brigadier General Sherman Miles and Colonel Rufus Bratton. Marshall also had a scrambler on his desk that would have allowed him to make a direct call to General Short [in Hawaii], but instead of making the call he slowly and deliberately read through the message while both Miles and Bratton frantically tried to tell him about the crucial delivery message and the time limitation of 1:00 P.M. Washington time. Finally, with the office clock showing nearly noon, Marshall wrote out a warning message in pencil in nearly illegible handwriting and then told Miles and Bratton that the message wad to be sent to Admiral Kimmel [in Hawaii] on a nonpriority basis. The message, therefore, went by normal Western Union telegram and arrived at Kimmel's office after the attack had occurred. General Marshall then returned the call to Admiral Stark, who had been waiting for about two hours to talk to him."
"Admiral J.O. Richardson, the original commander at Pearl Harbor who was relieved by Roosevelt, wrote his memoirs in 1956 but delayed publication until 1973, a year after his friend Admiral Stark died and a year before Richardson's own death."
"He gave his opinion that Stark and Marshall were under orders from President Roosevelt not to warn Kimmel and Short. Elsewhere Richardson has written:
'I am impelled to believe that sometime prior to December 7, the President had directed that only Marshall could send any warning message to the Hawaiian area. I do no know this to be a fact and I cannot prove it. I believe this because of my knowledge of Stark and the fact that his means of communications with Kimmel were equal to, if not superior to those available to Marshall for communication with Short. He made no effort to warn Kimmel on the morning of December 7, but referred the matter to Marshall.'"
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Now, with that as the background, let us set the stage for Bamford's latest book:
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"Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century - A Report of The Project for the New American Century" (September 2000)
Page 63
"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor."
(See Wikipedia for the list of authors and contributors, including Cheney and Rumsfeld.)
---
Next, keeping in mind the Pearl Harbor facts, let us excerpt the pertinent quotes from Bamford (additions in brackets are mine for clarity):
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"The Shadow Factory"
by James Bamford
p19
"Doug Miller, one of three FBI employees at Alec Station [CIA's New Headquarters Building, Room 1W01], took one look at the [terrorist Midhdhar's Saudi passport and U.S. visa] faxes and became instantly alarmed." Then, "At 9:30 a.m., Miller started pecking out a message to alert his superiors at FBI headquarters, who could then put Midhdhar on a watch list to bar him from entry."
"But inexplicably, the message - known as a Central Intelligence Report (CIR) - was spiked by his CIA boss, Tom Wilshire, the deputy chief of Alec Station." Then, "There was no reason to kill the message."
p20
"Having forbidden Miller and Rossini [his FBI colleague] from notifying their headquarters about Midhdhar's planned travel to the U.S., the CIA then proceeded to lose Midhdhar and Hazmi when they took off for a brief visit to Bangkok, en route to the U.S."
p26
"Now Alec Station definitely knew that one and possibly two of the suspected terrorists linked to bin Laden's Yemen ops center had just flown to California following what appeared to be a terrorist summit. Still, Tom Wilshire never notified the FBI. Nor were any of the three FBI agents inside Alec Station even alerted to the cables."
p27
"Overly concerned about being accused of domestic eavesdropping, [NSA director General Mike] Hayden made a drastic decision. He secretly pulled the plug on intercepting all international communications to and from the U.S., even those involving terrorism. The ban apparently went even so far as to not reveal the fact that suspected terrorists were present in the U.S."
p31
"It ['Hayden's decision to secretly turn a deaf ear to nearly all international communications entering and leaving the U.S. - even when they involved known terrorists within the country'] would also be an area completely unexplored by the 9/11 Commission, which, astonishingly, virtually ignored the NSA in its investigation."
p32
"But the problem was that Hayden did not coordinate coverage with the [FBI] bureau either. leaving them largely in the dark and the international circuits to and from the U.S. largely unmonitored."
p77
"Despite the significance of the investigation, an FBI analyst simply gave the hunt for the terrorists a 'routine' precedence, the lowest of three..."
---
I will leave it to the Gentle Reader to contemplate ALL of the above and decide whether there was only asleep-at-the-switch complicity, only active protection of the Saudis to provide a 'false flag' attack, or involvement of the 'shadow government' in a larger plot. Also, contemplate the validity of the governmental 9/11 report.
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_____________
In addition, Bamford continues as a 'professional witness' in the post-9/11 eavesdropping ramp-up and safeguards ramp-down. He carefully steps around any analysis of who is truly benefiting from the intel, and what their long-term plans might be. I offer several alarming quotes from Bamford (additions in brackets are mine for clarity):
p236
"Closer to home, America's two major telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, have outsourced the bugging of their entire networks - carrying billions of American communications every day - to two mysterious companies [Narus and Verint] with very troubling foreign connections."
p238
"While such tools as DCS-1000 [ex-Carnivore] and CIPAV are used on a small number of select targets, Verint and Narus are superintrusive - conducting mass surveillance on both international and domestic communications 24/7. What is especially troubling, but little known, is that both companies have extensive ties to a foreign country, Israel, as well as links to that country's intelligence service - a service with a long history of aggressive spying against the U.S." Then, "Although there has long been Congressional oversight of the telecom industry, there is virtually no oversight of the companies hired to do the bugging."
p241
"Thus, by 2004, a large percentage of America's - and the world's - voice and data communications were passing through wiretaps built, installed, and maintained by a small, secretive Israeli company [Verint] run by former Israeli military and intelligence officers. Even more unnerving is the fact that Verint can automatically access the mega-terabytes of stored and real-time data secretly and remotely from anywhere, including Israel."
p242
"PerSay [an 'advanced voice mining' Verint spinoff] is an example of how close and interconnected these companies are with Israel's intelligence community - a factor of great concern considering how much of their bugging equipment is now secretly hardwired into the American telecommunications system."
p244
"The large Israeli firm NICE, like Verint and Narus, is also a major eavesdropper in the U.S., and like the other two, it keeps its government and commercial client list very secret. A key member of the Wiretappers' Ball, it was formed in 1986 by seven veterans of Unit 8200 [Israel's version of the NSA]."
p246
"Thus, virtually the entire American telecommunications system is bugged by two Israeli-formed companies with possible ties to Israel's eavesdropping agency - with no oversight by Congress."
p247
"This concern over the cozy relationship between the [FBI] bureau and Verint greatly increased following disclosure of the Bush administration's warrantless eavesdropping operations. At the same time that the tappers and the agents have grown uncomfortably close, the previous checks and balances, such as the need for a FISA [court] warrant, have been eliminated."
p307
"But with the [2008] elections coming up and Democrats worried about being labeled weak on national security, the Bush administration largely got its way on July 9 when the Senate went along with the House and passed the FISA Amendments Act. The new law provides what amounts to legal immunity to the telecoms, weakens the authority of the FISA court, and gives freer range to NSA in targeting suspected terrorists abroad."
p319
"Even without the warrantless powers granted by President Bush, obtaining personal information has become much easier with the passage of the Patriot Act and the frequent use of 'national security letters', which do not require probable cause or court approval." Then, "The revised CALEA not only makes it a crime for any company, such as Microsoft, to refuse to cooperate, it also makes it a crime for company officials to disclose such cooperation."
p345
"There is now the capacity to make tyranny total in America. Only law ensures that we never fall into that abyss - the abyss from which there is no return."
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Again, I will leave it to the Gentle Reader to contemplate the above and decide on the level of intrigue - whether there was only benevolent purposes from our agencies and executive branch, or just business doing its own thing, or hidden involvement of a foreign government's spy branch only to protect themselves, or a larger plot to dominate the human race.
Bamford has done an incredible amount of work. This book should be on the bedside table of every Congressman (or woman) and Justice Department official. But, THINK while you read it...
 The Shadow Factory reviewed by Larry Ver Hage January 4, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Mr. Bamford displays an intricate knowledge of the workings of the NSA and the book is a commendable explanation of its function and structure. Anyone wishing to understand what is going on in the field of signals intelegence today will find his research fascinating and informative. He has developed the subject matter very well and has built on his previous work of the subject. Unfortunately his anaylsis of the facts is colored by his own ideology this detracts from his objectivity and credibility. Mr. Bamford seems to have a notion of privacy that is out of proportion with reality both factually and jurisprudentially
It would be helpful to develop a more balanced anaylsis of the role NSA plays in providing security for the continued existence to this constitutional Republic. Maybe it is time to ask what is privacy and where does personal privacy impinge on public deception. The Republic cannot last if the people dedicated to its demise are shielded by an exagerated and lochnerized notion of constitutional privacy.
 Curtailment of Rights? December 28, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a book that is important to read to understand the slippery slope `logic' used that has led to a curtailment of some civil liberties within America--this opinion I expect will generate some opposing opinions. The author tells the story of how various government agencies were aware of the activities of some 9-11 terrorists, but the agencies were unable or unwilling to communicate internally and externally with each other--turf wars run amuck describes the situation. This inability to communicate ensured a failure to connect the dots thus ensuring the success of the terrorist attack.
The simplified solution generated by the professionals was to propose and initiate changes to allow for the surveillance of all Americans instead of fixing the communication problems and targeting the bad guys. The solution appears to be more of a power grab at the expense of overall individual Constitutional and legal rights. This book provides a discussion about the telecommunication laws in America and how they were used and abused in the past, primarily by the NSA. Some historically unsavory figures in U.S. history (for example, Admiral Poindexter of Contra-gate fame) reappear with connections to some of the most potentially intrusive surveillance projects imagined. But the information generated and stored is so vast that the NSA has admitted difficulty storing it much less processing or reviewing it for intelligence information and operational information with all its advanced super computers, technology and expertise. General Hayden (head of the NSA and then the CIA) is the key figure to follow due to his leadership position, and I'm not sure he was up to the task despite his promotions and continued service.
This book is upsetting at the least, but is important to understand where America may be headed (i.e. less free with "Big Brother" listening and watching). I do not argue with the need for the intelligence agencies to operate in a covert matter but it has to be within the law. This book should be read in conjunction with Jane Mayer's "The Dark Side" to see where America has lost its mythical moral high ground.
Fascinating or fascism? December 6, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I found this book to be fascinating and repellent at the same time. The author opens up the shadowy world of the NSA in a clear and detailed way. I'm surprised that he was able to obtain and write about all the details without coming under NSA surveillance or pressure himself.
I found myself repelled by the overreach of the NSA in terms of their obvious unconcern about civil rights. I'm sure that Bamford probably knows more than he's revealed here, and that is truly scary.
Very slow going in spots. Way too much detail about company profiles and the like that didn't move the narrative along.
Definitely worth a read if you wonder what the NSA actually does.
The Shadow Factory December 5, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Quite an eye-opener into the "vacuum cleaner" methodology for monitoring the world's communications. Completely engrossing from start to finish. James Bamford provides wonderful insight into the workings of NSA, and the changes in collection techniques necessitated by our constantly evolving technology. Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in the business of intelligence gathering methods, and for understanding the magnitude of the analysis task of the "take."
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