Book Review: The Secret Sentry by Matthew Aid (read via physical book)

A good non-fiction about the history of the NSA. I do say it is heavily referenced -almost half the pages in the book go to the reference section. The book starts out in the dawn of the computer era/NSA and comes throughout the decades and gives a good timeline on the achievements and blunders of this very much secretive agency.

What I read was nothing new, but I did get a better perspective of operation of the agency both since the new millennium and throughout histoy. The Domestic Wiretapping story that got written up a few years ago has much deeper roots and it was not just one operation. PBS did a nice piece on it.

The most disturbing part of the book on how little oversight there was over the last decade with the NSA. Things were so tight lipped there, not even NSA’s own lawyers had access to the policies to even evaluate if they were legal.

Overall a good read - I give it a solid 8/10.

-Kevin