NARRATOR: Halfway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., is a hidden city, the headquarters of the National Security Agency, NSA. Here, tens of thousands of mathematicians, computer scientists, analysts, linguists and voice interceptors work in absolute secrecy.
JAMES BAMFORD (Author, The Shadow Factory): For those in the know, the joke was that NSA stood for "no such agency." For those on the inside, the joke was that NSA stood for "never say anything."
NARRATOR: NSA's job? To secretly listen in on telephone conversations, email communications, anything and everything that might warn of plots to do harm.
ERIC HASELTINE (National Security Agency, Director of Research, 2002–2005): The scope of what happens at NSA is mind-boggling. I don't think the average person can even begin to conceive of the staggering depth and breadth of what they have to do.
NARRATOR: But was NSA doing its job before the 9/11 attacks? It's a question that has never been thoroughly investigated.
MICHAEL SCHEUER (Former Central Intelligence Agency Analyst): None of this information that we're speaking about this evening is in the 9/11 Commission Report. They simply ignored all of it.
NARRATOR: But author James Bamford has investigated and come up with a chilling tale of terrorists, living in San Diego, communicating with bin Laden's operations center in Yemen, moving freely about, and all the while, NSA is listening in.
JAMES BAMFORD: But the NSA never alerted any other agency that the terrorists were in the United States and moving across the country towards Washington.
NARRATOR: Since the 9/11 attacks, NSA's role has grown even bigger, along with its license to listen in on Americans here and abroad.
ADRIENNE KINNE (Former National Security Agency Voice Interceptor): It was incredibly uncomfortable to be listening to private, personal conversations of Americans. It's almost like going through and finding somebody's diary.
NARRATOR: But is this flood of information making America any safer? Looking into The Spy Factory, right now on NOVA. PBS Airdate: February 3, 2009
JAMES BAMFORD (Author, The Shadow Factory): For those in the know, the joke was that NSA stood for "no such agency." For those on the inside, the joke was that NSA stood for "never say anything."
NARRATOR: NSA's job? To secretly listen in on telephone conversations, email communications, anything and everything that might warn of plots to do harm.
ERIC HASELTINE (National Security Agency, Director of Research, 2002–2005): The scope of what happens at NSA is mind-boggling. I don't think the average person can even begin to conceive of the staggering depth and breadth of what they have to do.
NARRATOR: But was NSA doing its job before the 9/11 attacks? It's a question that has never been thoroughly investigated.
MICHAEL SCHEUER (Former Central Intelligence Agency Analyst): None of this information that we're speaking about this evening is in the 9/11 Commission Report. They simply ignored all of it.
NARRATOR: But author James Bamford has investigated and come up with a chilling tale of terrorists, living in San Diego, communicating with bin Laden's operations center in Yemen, moving freely about, and all the while, NSA is listening in.
JAMES BAMFORD: But the NSA never alerted any other agency that the terrorists were in the United States and moving across the country towards Washington.
NARRATOR: Since the 9/11 attacks, NSA's role has grown even bigger, along with its license to listen in on Americans here and abroad.
ADRIENNE KINNE (Former National Security Agency Voice Interceptor): It was incredibly uncomfortable to be listening to private, personal conversations of Americans. It's almost like going through and finding somebody's diary.
NARRATOR: But is this flood of information making America any safer? Looking into The Spy Factory, right now on NOVA. PBS Airdate: February 3, 2009
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