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The Puzzle Palace

Inside the National Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization

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The Puzzle Palace

By: James Bamford
Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
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About this listen

In this remarkable tour de force of investigative reporting, James Bamford exposes the inner workings of America's largest, most secretive, and arguably most intrusive intelligence agency. The NSA has long eluded public scrutiny, but The Puzzle Palace penetrates its vast network of power and unmasks the people who control it, often with shocking disregard for the law. So sensitive was the information uncovered that the agency twice attempted to suppress the book, threatened the author with prosecution, and even raided one of the libraries he used.

This is a brilliant account of the use and abuse of technological espionage.

©1982 V. James Bamford (P)2018 Tantor Law Military Political Science Politics & Government

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Profile Image for Peter M.

Dreadful book

A very disappointing book, and appallingly read by Paul Boehmer, who has a delivery similar to that of an AI voice.

This book is really only a roll call of the people that headed up the NSA and when, with an occasional interesting fact drop in from time to time.

Having listened to other books about the secret service recently, I had high hopes for this book. But sadly, this book is just awful and I really can’t make myself finish it. Such a shame as the topic, the US NSA, should have been a fascinating book.

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