Body of Secrets
{{Infobox book
| name = Body of Secrets
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = Body of Secrets.jpg
| caption =
| author = James Bamford
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = United States
| language = English
| series =
| subject = National Security Agency
| genre = Non-fiction
| published = 2001 (Anchor Books)
| media_type =
| pages =
| isbn = 978-0-385-49907-1
| dewey= 327.1273 21
| congress= UB256.U6 B36 2001
| oclc= 44713235
| preceded_by = The Puzzle Palace
| followed_by = A Pretext for War
}}
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency is a book by James Bamford about the NSA and its operations. It also covers the history of espionage in the United States from uses of the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system to retrieve personnel on Arctic Ocean drift stations to Operation Northwoods, a declassified US military plan that Bamford describes as a "secret and bloody war of terrorism against their own country in order to trick the American public into supporting an ill-conceived war they intended to launch against Cuba."{{cite book
|title=Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency
|author=James Bamford
|date=2002-04-30
|publisher=Anchor
|isbn=0-385-49908-6
|url-access=registration
|url=https://archive.org/details/bodyofsecretsana0000bamf
}}{{Cite journal |last=Cohen |first=Eliot A. |date=2001 |title=Review of Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20050282 |journal=Foreign Affairs |volume=80 |issue=5 |pages=164 |doi=10.2307/20050282 |jstor=20050282 |issn=0015-7120|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Zaleski |first1=Jeff |last2=Abbott |first2=Charlotte |last3=Gold |first3=Sarah F. |last4=Rotella |first4=Mark |date=2001-04-23 |title=BODY OF SECRETS (Book Review) |journal=Publishers Weekly |volume=248 |issue=17 |pages=67}}
For the book, NSA director Michael Hayden gave him unprecedented access. In contrast, his previous book, The Puzzle Palace, was almost blocked from publication by the agency.
USS ''Liberty'' incident
One of the chapters in Body of Secrets is titled “Blood” and is about the 1967 USS Liberty incident. {{Cite book |last=Bamford |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqY4Wr3T5K4C |title=Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency |date=2007-12-18 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42505-8 |language=en}} In this chapter, Bamford details the attack and its immediate aftermath. He dedicates part of this chapter to discussing U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Marvin E. Nowicki, a linguist aboard a Navy EC-121 that was flying overhead during the attack. {{Cite web |title=USS Liberty: Cover Up {{!}} History News Network |url=http://hnn.us/articles/191.html |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=hnn.us}} {{Cite web |title=USS Liberty: Cover Up {{!}} History News Network |url=https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/191 |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=historynewsnetwork.org}} CPO Nowicki had commented that he and another linguist onboard the aircraft had intercepted Israeli communications that seemed to indicate they knew or suspected the ship they were attacking was American.
Bamford posits that the motivation for the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was to cover-up the Ras Sedr massacre, which occurred the same day as the Liberty attack. Bamford postulates that the Israeli Defense Forces grew concerned that the USS Liberty, a signals intelligence collection ship, may have collected evidence of the massacre and was thus attacked in an effort to suppress the evidence. {{Cite book |last=Bamford |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VqY4Wr3T5K4C |title=Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency |date=2007-12-18 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-42505-8 |language=en}} {{Cite news |last=Risen |first=James |date=2001-04-23 |title=Book Says Israel Intended 1967 Attack on U.S. Ship |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/23/world/book-says-israel-intended-1967-attack-on-us-ship.html |access-date=2023-06-15 |issn=0362-4331}} {{Cite web |title=CNN.com - Israel's 1967 attack on U.S. ship deliberate, book says - April 23, 2001 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2001/US/04/23/liberty.attack/ |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=www.cnn.com}} {{Cite web |last=Pensack |first=Miriam |date=2017-06-06 |title=Fifty Years Later, NSA Keeps Details of Israel's USS Liberty Attack Secret |url=https://theintercept.com/2017/06/06/fifty-years-later-nsa-keeps-details-of-israels-uss-liberty-attack-secret/ |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US}} {{Cite web |last= |date=2014-06-04 |title=Remember the USS Liberty? The US and Israel wish you didn't |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140604-remember-the-uss-liberty-the-us-and-israel-wish-you-didn-t/ |access-date=2023-06-15 |website=Middle East Monitor |language=en-GB}} {{Cite magazine |last=Oren |first=Michael B. |date=2001-07-23 |title=Unfriendly Fire |magazine=The New Republic |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/61217/unfriendly-fire |access-date=2023-06-15 |issn=0028-6583}}
Bibliographic data
- James Bamford, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency,
- Doubleday; 1st edition (April 24, 2001) {{ISBN|978-0-385-49907-1}}
- Anchor; Reprint edition (April 30, 2002) {{ISBN|978-0-385-49908-8}}
- Bamford, James (2002), Body of Secrets: How America's NSA & Britain's GCHQ Eavesdrop On The World (New ed.), London: Arrow, {{ISBN|978-0099427742}}
See also
{{Portal bar|Books|United States|Politics}}
Notes
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.c-span.org/video/?166048-1/national-security-terrorism Interview with Bamford on Body of Secrets], Booknotes September 16, 2001
- C-SPAN interview held April 26, 2001 with James Bamford on his book Body of Secrets: https://www.c-span.org/video/?164213-1/body-secrets-national-security-agency
Category:2001 non-fiction books
Category:Books about the National Security Agency
Category:History of the Arctic
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