NOVA's documentary about the NSA, "Spy Factory", aired last night. The production quality lived up to NOVA's usual excellence. Surprising, because they didn't have much first-hand information. It will no doubt be rerun and turned into a DVD if you missed it.
I did, however, walk away thinking this was a bit misleading. A true documentary about the NSA would have focused on history, organizational structure, people and explaining specific jobs. It would also have presented a balanced historical assessment of successes and failures.
This documentary left me feeling like I was watching a caged animal being teased. Lots of finger pointing and poking at something that was not allowed to defend itself, yet it continues to defend its pokers.
The focus was narrow; NSA's 9/11 role. The main criticism; NSA did not share information it gleaned; thus 9/11 was somehow their fault.
While building their point, NOVA conveniently glossed over some pieces of foundation information:
• The laws which limited NSA's scope and ability to share, in 2001.
• The inane turf protectionist mentality which permeated the entire Intelligence Community, in 2001. (There was very little inter-agency sharing of anything back then.)
• Osama bin Laden was not exactly an NSA pre-9/11 secret. The U.S. indited him in 1998.
Heck, you even read about him here in Kevin's Security Scrapbook in January 2001...
SPECIAL SECTION -- Osama bin Laden
He's famous; his days are numbered, and you still don't know him. Sound really smart on capture day. Stoke your sound bite file now... CIA Biography - Osama bin Laden - "the cave-dwelling lunatic suspected of ordering the August bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania..." (and USS Cole)
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Meanwhile... on an Arab satellite channel...
Osama bin Laden appeared happy and smiling at his son's wedding...
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But... nobody likes mingy...
"...a Saudi millionaire ... is tight with cash... says a former employee..."
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