National Security Agency

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), established by a memorandum dated October 24, 1952, by President Harry S. Truman, is "the organization within the U.S. Government responsible for communications intelligence (COMINT) activities." 

June, 2013, Revelations by Glenn Greenwald Based on Edward Snowden's Whistleblowing
Glenn Greenwald and his reporting dominated the news in June 2013 when he reported in the Guardian information provided to him by Edward Snowden exposing massive, secret, global spying via NSA acquisition of online data on hundreds of millions of people around the world.

NSA "cookies"
The NSA had been placing files called "cookies" on visitors' computers to track internet surfing activity "despite strict federal rules banning most of them," the Associated Press's Anick Jesdanun reported December 29, 2005. Following a privacy activist's complaint, the NSA acknowledged a mistake but "the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive amid reports of a secretive eavesdropping program in the United States."

"Until Tuesday [December 17th], the NSA site created two cookies that do not expire until 2035--likely beyond the life of any computer in use today," Jesdanun wrote.

Also see:
 * "NSA Web Site Uses Banned 'Cookies'," Associated Press (CBS News), December 28, 2005: "A senior official must sign off on any such use, and an agency that uses them must disclose and detail their use in its privacy policy."

NSA Overview
The NSA is "the Nation's cryptologic organization. It coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to protect U.S. information systems and produce foreign intelligence information. A high technology organization, NSA is on the frontiers of communications and data processing. It is also one of the most important centers of foreign language analysis and research within the Government."


 * Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)
 * Information Systems Security (INFOSEC) - "protecting all classified and sensitive information that is stored or sent through U.S. Government equipment."
 * R&D - Research and development programs: "cryptanalytic research led to the first large-scale computer and the first solid-state computer, predecessors to the modern computer."
 * NSA "employs the country's premier codemakers and codebreakers."

"Most NSA/CSS employees, both civilian and military, are headquartered at Fort Meade, Maryland, centrally located between Baltimore and Washington, DC. Its workforce represents an unusual combination of specialties: analysts, engineers, physicists, mathematicians, linguists, computer scientists, researchers, as well as customer relations specialists, security officers, data flow experts, managers, administrative and clerical assistants."

Contact Information
Website: http://www.nsa.gov/

Leadership

 * Director, National Security Agency Chief, Central Security Service: Keith B. Alexander, General, U.S. Army
 * Deputy Director, National Security Agency: Mr. John C. (Chris) Inglis
 * Former Director: Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden

SourceWatch Resources

 * Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
 * Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
 * Internet surveillance
 * U.S. Department of Justice
 * Electronic Frontier Foundation
 * Electronic Privacy Information Center
 * House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
 * Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
 * Central Intelligence Agency
 * Department of Homeland Security
 * domestic spying
 * James R. Clapper, Jr.
 * Michael V. Hayden
 * homeland defense
 * homeland security
 * National Security Council
 * Narus
 * Operations Coordinating Board
 * Russell Tice
 * psyops

Profiles

 * Wikipedia: National Security Agency.
 * BBC Profile of National Security Agency.
 * Defense Daily Biographies.
 * National Security Agency at intelligence.gov.
 * National Security Agency: "The largest and most secret of the intelligence agencies of the U.S. government, the National Security Agency (NSA), with headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland, has two main functions: to protect U.S. government communications and to intercept foreign communications."
 * Original Charter for the NSA.

Critical Books

 * Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry: The Untold History of the National Security Agency (Bloomsbury Press, 2009). Review by James Bamford.

Articles & Commentary

 * Rick Perlstein, "The NSA Doppelganger", The Nation, June 7, 2013.
 * David Jackson, Susan Davis and Kevin Johnson, "NSA surveillance pits liberty against security", USA Today, June 7, 2013.
 * Jim Galloway, "NSA leaker creates a rift between 'national security' and 'liberty' Republicans", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 12, 2013.
 * Editorial, "Revelations about NSA demand a close look by Congress", Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 12, 2013.
 * Jim Hightower, "Repeal the patriot act," JimHightower.com, June 19, 2013.
 * James Bamford, Five myths about the National Security Agency, The Washington Post, June 21, 2013.
 * Michael Kelley, "ORIGINAL NSA WHISTLEBLOWER: I Saw The Order To Wiretap Barack Obama In 2004", Houston Chronicle, June 22, 2013.
 * Allison Sherry, "Udall: NSA states "significant" errors about privacy protections", The Denver Post, June 24, 2013.
 * Ryan Gallagher, "Fact and Fiction in the NSA Surveillance Scandal", Slate, June 26, 2013.
 * John Dean, "Will Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Be Prosecuted for Lying to Congress Regarding the NSA’s Surveillance?", Justia.com, June 28, 2013.
 * Martha Mendoza - AP, "Broad coalition sues feds to halt electronic surveillance by National Security Agency", Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 16, 2013.
 * Ali Watkins, "Skeptical Congress turns its spycam on NSA surveillance", The Miami Herald, July 17, 2013.
 * Donna Cassata, "House rejects limits to NSA program", The Boston Globe, July 24, 2013.
 * David Kravets, "Lawmakers Who Upheld NSA Phone Spying Received Double the Defense Industry Cash", Wired, July 26, 2013.
 * Editorial, "Sending a message on NSA surveillance", Los Angeles Times, July 29, 2013.
 * Glenn Greenwald, "Major opinion shifts, in the US and Congress, on NSA surveillance and privacy", The Guardian, July 29, 2013.
 * Michael Kelley, "Surveillance critics face Obama in Oval Office", Houston Chronicle, August 2, 2013.
 * Glenn Greenwald, "Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA", The Guardian, August 4, 2013.
 * Editorial, "Keeping secrets secret", Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2013.
 * William Rivers Pitt, "You Are, In Fact, Being Watched ", truthout, August 7, 2013.
 * David Rothkopf, "The wrong approach to terror", The Chicago Tribune, August 8, 2013.
 * Steven Rosenfeld, "Your Government Spies on You and Lies About It: Now What?", Alternet, August 8, 2013.
 * Steve Chapman, "Obama's deceptions on Snowden", The Chicago Tribune, August 9, 2013.
 * Jay Stanley, "On the Prospect of Blackmail by the NSA", American Civil Liberties Union Blog, October 15, 2013.
 * Alfred McCoy, "Surveillance and Scandal", Tom Dispatch, January 19, 2014. "Tomgram: Alfred McCoy, It's About Blackmail, Not National Security."
 * Benjy Sarlin, "RNC condemns NSA spying in huge turnaround", MSNBC, January 24, 2014.
 * Charlie Savage, "Democratic Senators Issue Strong Warning About Use of the Patriot Act", New York Times, March 16, 2012.
 * Lolita C. Baldor, "Homeland Security and spy agency to work together", Boston Globe, October 13, 2010.
 * Shane Harris and Tim Naftali, "Tinker, Tailor, Miner, Spy. Why the NSA's snooping is unprecedented in scale and scope," Slate, January 3, 2006.
 * "A Half-Century of Surveillance," New York Times, December 16, 2005.
 * James Bamford, "The Agency That Could Be Big Brother," New York Times, December 25, 2005.