(1.1.2001) James Bamford’s new book on the US National Security Agency (NSA) is one of those rare events. The NSA is the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, monitoring communications of virtually every nation on earth; its spying has a large and invisible effect on world politics. Yet this is only the second good exposé of the NSA, with the first – also by Bamford – now almost 20 years old.