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NSA's Transformation: An Executive Branch Black Eye Kindle Edition

by Edward Loomis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 8 ratings
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NSA's Transformation: An Executive Branch Black Eye represents an investigative report of NSA’s transformation program launched in 1999 and running through 2005 under the leadership of General Michael V. Hayden, USAF. Numerous related events occurring before the transformation program commenced and precipitating from it are also addressed in the report covering the period of 1996 through 2013.

NSA's Transformation: An Executive Branch Black Eye serves as an historical narrative of this critical period for our Nation’s Intelligence Community as well as its Law Enforcement Community, both of which had erred in ways that failed to evoke public comment from responsible government officials. The period covers related Executive Branch foibles occurring under the watches of Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barrack Obama. The report reveals piecemeal evidence of the existence of a plausible plan involving both government officials and private sector executives to privatize many essential intelligence production support functions without regard to cost, performance, or functionality and is an example of corporate welfare where no accountability has yet to occur.

The manuscript is a personal memoir of experiences and theories on events associated with Jane Mayer's "George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting" article entitled "The Secret Sharer." Mr. Loomis was the architect of a system central to The Secret Sharer case, a topic prominently aired on two occasions on CBS 60 Minutes. He was a party along with Bill Binney, Kirk Wiebe, and Diane Roark to a formal complaint filed in 2002 with the Department of Defense Inspector General citing apparent fraud and waste associated with the transformation program's centerpiece, TRAILBLAZER. For having done so, in what had all appearances of classic government retribution, each was raided by large contingents of FBI agents in 2007, under the guise of being “persons of interest” in leaking highly classified information regarding the President's Surveillance Program involving the domestic surveillance of U.S. Citizens.

As a NSA inside contributor to the Inspector General's investigation, Tom Drake underwent far more serious retaliation for his role in whistleblowing resulting in ten felony charges filed against him. The Government's case against Tom Drake is also addressed in detail.

Mr. Loomis is a retired Cryptologic Computer Scientist having worked his entire career at NSA for 37 years as a civil servant and an additional five years as a systems architect, private contractor. He appeared in the PBS Frontline documentary, United States of Secrets, Part 1 discussing his program, THINTHREAD, which may have been successful in avoiding the 9-11 terrorist attack, had NSA permitted it to be deployed operationally.

NSA's Transformation: An Executive Branch Black Eye was thoroughly reviewed by NSA, FBI, Department of Defense, Department of Justice, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and approval for publication was officially granted on March 7, 2014.
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  1. Print length
    279 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    September 1, 2014
  4. File size
    918 KB
  5. Page Flip
    Enabled
  6. Word Wise
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00N9BP6PG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Edward F Loomis; 1st edition (September 1, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 1, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 918 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 279 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 8 ratings

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4.4 out of 5 stars
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Libert
    5.0 out of 5 stars Recommended read
    Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    I found this book very interesting, but also deeply disturbing. Mr. Loomis opens with a discussion of how
    NSA ultimately chose TRAILBLAZER over THINTHREAD, a tale that is quite disturbing in itself. It is the latter part
    of the book, though, that makes me fearful for what America is becoming. Mr. Loomis did nothing wrong, yet paid a
    huge price, as he was targeted by the government for years. He was presumed guilty until proven innocent (which he
    ultimately was, but only after years of what I consider to be mental torture). There was a time in America when we thought that if we took care of the individual, society would benefit. But clearly the Executive Branch has rewritten the rules. Now, if the needs of society
    require the sacrifice of innocent individuals, so be it. In Mr. Loomis's case, it wasn't even the needs of society,
    but it appears he was tormented simply to lessen the embarrassment of politicos, and to send out a warning shot to
    whistleblowers. But who did this warning shot hit? An innocent individual.
    Mr. Loomis served his country honorably for many years, and helped to protect Americans. In the end, he was
    treated horribly. By Americans.
    I recommend this book.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Retired Reader
    3.0 out of 5 stars A Continuing Debate
    Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    This book presents a slice of the history of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the form of a personal memoir. It belongs in that Washington D.C. genre of defending a lost cause and settling old scores. As such it is not of much interest to the general reader nor is it a particularly accurate depiction of NSA history. Loomis actually does not clearly identify the really interesting part of the “Trailblazer-Thinthread” controversy namely the struggle that begin in NSA during the 1990’s over changing NSA collection philosophy.

    During the Cold War NSA dealt with a constant struggle to maintain sustained collection meaningful communications especially from what was then called the “Soviet Bloc.” Whatever else the Soviet Bloc had excellent communications security and a careless word or comment that even suggested the U.S. had information from a communications system meant that within days (sometimes hours) that system would be shut down for good. Because all this was before the age of digital communications it was quite feasible for NSA to do “full take” on any communications available (such as international telegraphic printer (TELEX) traffic) and avoid USSID 18 violations with software fixes and alert analysis.

    When digital communications and the “Global Network” (which Loomis does mention) became realities the practice of full take on anything collectable became an absurdity. Many argued that NSA would be overwhelmed with data that could be neither processed nor analyzed. Others argued that if NSA changed its collection strategy to targeted collection it was bound to miss important intelligence information. They argued that the rapidly developing field of information technology would provide the solutions for handling what now popularly called “big data.”

    The folks wanting NSA traditional collection of all available information to continue won this argument and “Trailblazer” was to be the program that would develop the collection, forwarding, storage, and information management resources that would efficiently manage the “big data” influx. “Thinthread” promised to eliminate the need for all this by what they clamed was a “foolproof” front end selection and filtering process that would ensure only relevant data would be processed and forwarded. In the end this argument undoubtedly is still going on with no resolution in sight.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Terry S
    4.0 out of 5 stars Your Tax Dollars Wasted
    Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2017
    Well worth the effort to navigate the government-eze acronyms and references. This story starkly illustrates an underlying and still ongoing problem of how the intelligence community can get caught up egos, bureaucracies and mis-communications to the detriment of their fundamental missions. In this case, the personal lives of hard-working patriot citizens are sacrificed to bury the incompetency of the powerful and politically connected. Innovation and efficiency is crushed by political expediency and the influence of industrial forces. As I write this review in January of 2017, it is even more evident that our intelligence community is politically driven and out of touch with their mission. Sadly, I suspect there are hundreds of such stories.
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  • Vienna, VA
    5.0 out of 5 stars A sad history of corruption
    Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    The book is a first person account of corruption and abuse of power that is truly shocking and disturbing. Every person concerned about the growing intelligence industrial complex should read this book. Then write their Senators and Representatives.
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  • John K. Wiebe
    5.0 out of 5 stars Author Loomis provides a degree of detail in this important ...
    Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Author Loomis provides a degree of detail in this important matter that is uncommon. Extremely valuable information for the true historian and those who prize truth.
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  • Nana Bishop
    4.0 out of 5 stars ... pray for healing for all those involved in this horrible event our government did to them and their families
    Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2016
    I pray for healing for all those involved in this horrible event our government did to them and their families. I also pray for all the servicemen and women who have experienced terrific events due to our government. May God bless you all.
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