The Shadow Factory - by James Bamford (Paperback)

About the Book

Bamford exposes the existence of the top-secret National security Agency in the bestselling "The Puzzle Palace," and in his follow-up bestseller "Body of Secrets." Now the author discloses inside, often shocking information about the NSA in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Book Synopsis

James Bamford has been the preeminent expert on the National Security Agency since his reporting revealed the agency's existence in the 1980s. Now Bamford describes the transformation of the NSA since 9/11, as the agency increasingly turns its high-tech ears on the American public.

The Shadow Factory reconstructs how the NSA missed a chance to thwart the 9/11 hijackers and details how this mistake has led to a heightening of domestic surveillance. In disturbing detail, Bamford describes exactly how every American's data is being mined and what is being done with it. Any reader who thinks America's liberties are being protected by Congress will be shocked and appalled at what is revealed here.

Review Quotes

A Washington Post Notable Book

"Important and disturbing. . . . This revealing and provocative book is necessary reading . . . Bamford goes where the 9/11 Commission did not fully go."
--Senator Bob Kerrey, The Washington Post Book World

"Fascinating. . . . Bamford has distilled a troubling chapter in American history."
--Bloomberg News

"At its core and at its best, Bamford's book is a schematic diagram tracing the obsessions and excesses of the Bush administration after 9/11. . . . There have been glimpses inside the NSA before, but until now no one has published a comprehensive and detailed report on the agency. . . . Bamford has emerged with everything except the combination to the director's safe."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Engaging. . . . Chilling. . . . Bamford is able to link disparate facts and paint a picture of utter, compounded failure--failure to find the NSA's terrorist targets and failure to protect American citizens' communications from becoming tangled in a dragnet."
--The San Francisco Chronicle

"The bad news in Bamford's fascinating new study of the NSA is that Big Brother really is watching. The worse news . . . is that Big Brother often listens in on the wrong people and sometimes fails to recognize critical information. . . . Bamford convincingly argues that the agency . . . broke the law and spied on Americans and nearly got away with it."
--The Baltimore Sun

About the Author

James Bamford is the author of Body of Secrets, The Puzzle Palace, and A Pretext for War, and has written on national security for The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, and the Los Angeles Times Magazine. His Rolling Stone article "The Man Who Sold the War" won the 2006 National Magazine Award for reporting. Formerly the Washington investigative producer for ABC's World News Tonight with Peter Jennings and a distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Bamford lives in Washington, D.C.