The Puzzle Palace: A Report on America's Most Secret Agency

Rating:
Summary: A Little Too Comprehensive
Review: While the book was incredibly in depth, there were too many desciptions of internal positions. However, this IS the only comprehensive book on the NSA. If you are curious, then check it out. Due to the fact that the NSA releases so little material, interesting information was difficult to come by. Overall a slow but exacting read.

Rating:
Summary: Ahead Of It's Time
Review: While the NSA has come to light over the last several years, thanks largely to the Discovery Channel and a few news networks, Mr. Bamford beat them all to the punch. This is not a new book, but yet it reads as though it is in tomarrow's paper. Outlining not only the bizarre beginnings of the American cryptology experience, but the incredible shifts in commitment and organizations that have come since. There is quite a bit of paper devoted to the technology end of it as well for you technophiles as well. The book contains so many interesting tidbits that are outshoots of the efforts of the NSA, such as the Cray Supercomputer story, among others. After reading it so much you have heard in the past starts to make perfect sense. This is worthwhile reading for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: History Lesson
Review: Years ago, when I was working with and around Naval communications, in the course of conversations I would sometimes ask them questions about the work they were doing, not being nosy, but just trying to gain some knowledge about communications in general. Being good security conscience people, they basically told me that they couldn't talk about it. But, they suggested I read the Puzzle Palace for some insight. So a number of years later I did. It was interesting. Working around communications for the better part of 30 years plus growing up around D.C., I was very familiar with some of the NSA, Army and OGA sites, which are written about in the book and could take you to those sites today. But, time and technology has marched on. Many of the sites from the 60's, 70's and 80's have been abandoned, and in Northern Virginia's march to cover the landscape with urban sprawl, are now shopping centers, housing developments or just plain abandoned. Even a CG Base in California is the former location of the site where the Army intercepted Japanese communications regarding Pearl Harbor. So, to me the book was great. It yielded the type of history in communications that marked WWII and the ensuing Cold War years. Well, with advances in communications, satellites etc... much of the former infrastructure is outmoded and other technologies have taken their place. For instance... Norfolk Virginia, once home to a large communications center at the Naval Operations Base, employing hundreds of Navy Radiomen, is now a very large room occupied with a rack or two of computer gear. Communications are no longer the labor-intensive operation it once was. Computers do the routing and relaying, computer networks, uplinks and downlinks to satellites have replaced the Radio Communications of the past. Quite a change from just 30, even 10 to 20 years ago. The puzzle palace documents specific uses of that telecommunications system, in that it shows the reader the organization of secure communications, electronic intelligence gathering and associated operations. I liked the book, yes it did read like a text, but I wasn't looking for a novel or a fiction. As for the writers who claim this was pure fiction. I believe they are flawed in their "expert" assessments.