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The Secret Sentry

The Untold History of the National Security Agency

Bloomsbury Press, June 2010
ISBN: 978-1-60819-096-6, ISBN10: 1-60819-096-X,
5.5 x 8.25 inches, 432 pages, B&W Inserts,
Trade Paperback, $19.00

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Biography

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Categories and Subcategories

See All Categories History United States: 1945 to Present Political Science United States & Canada

In February 2006, while researching this book, Matthew Aid uncovered a massive and secret document reclassification program—a revelation that made the front page of the New York Times. This was only one of the discoveries Aid has made during two decades of research in formerly top-secret documents. In The Secret Sentry, Aid provides the first-ever full history of America’s largest security apparatus, the National Security Agency.

This comprehensive account traces the growth of the agency from 1945 to the present through critical moments in its history, from the Cold War up to its ongoing involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Aid explores the agency’s involvement in the Iraqi weapons intelligence disaster, where evidence that NSA officials called “ambiguous” was used as proof of Iraqi WMD capacity, and details the intense debate within the NSA over its unprecedented role, pressed by the Bush-Cheney administration, in spying on U.S. citizens.

Today, the NSA has become the most important source of intelligence for the U.S. government, providing 60 percent of the president’s daily intelligence briefing. While James Bamford’s New York Times bestseller The Shadow Factory covered the NSA since 9/11, The Secret Sentry contains new information about every period since World War II. It provides a shadow history of global affairs, from the creation of Israel to the War on Terror.

Praise

"The most impressive aspect of Aid's account of NSA is the way in which it connects the secret business of signals intelligence with the broader narrative of US foreign policy and the American presidency."—Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Indispensable."—Secrecy News

"Tigerishly researched."—Bloomberg News

"This, very simply, is the most informative book ever written on the inside bureaucratic struggles and the outside operations of the National Security Agency. Matthew Aid is our reigning expert on the NSA."—Seymour M. Hersh, author of Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib

"For over fifty years the signals intelligence collected by the National Security Agency has been the most sensitive source of intelligence available to U.S. presidents, their diplomats, and military commanders. In The Secret Sentry, Matthew Aid has provided a fascinating and revelatory account of U.S. signals intelligence successes and failures—from the earliest days of the Cold War to the battles against al Qaeda and the Iraqi insurgents."—Jeffrey T. Richelson, senior fellow at the National Security Archive and author of Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea

"NSA analysis now comprises as much as 60 percent of the president’s daily intelligence briefing, and Aid provides a critical history of the agency that has the ear of the leader of the free world . . . [A] revealing look at a powerful, shadowy agency of the American government."—Kirkus Reviews

"Electronic signals/communications intelligence (SIGINT) is a vital part of the information-gathering efforts of intelligence agencies. The National Security Agency (NSA) is the primary eavesdropping and code-breaking arm of the U.S. government. Aid goes over its operations during the crises of the 1950s and 1960s and the Vietnam War era, much of which was covered by James Bamford's The Puzzle Palace. But what is new and more important here is the evaluation of NSA activities since 2000. Using interviews with those in positions to know, the author discusses NSA's troubled bureaucratic working relations with the CIA and FBI, how its product was used before, during, and after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the massive domestic spying operation directed by the White House. This book provides useful background for the current national security debate, with the author generally siding with the NSA as a misused agency that needs still more resources."—Daniel K. Blewett, College of DuPage Library, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, Library Journal

About the Author(s)

Matthew M. Aid

Matthew M. Aid is a leading intelligence historian, expert on the National Security Agency, and regular commentator on intelligence matters for the New York Times, the Financial Times, the National Journal, the Associated Press, CBS News, NPR, and many other media outlets. He lives in Washington, D.C.