Review of History Channel's NSA documentary

[Declan McCullagh]

[The documentary aired again twice this morning on the History Channel, and 
it's a fair bet it'll show again later this week. --Declan


http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41063,00.html

    History Looks at the NSA
    by Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)

    2:00 a.m. Jan. 9, 2001 PST
    WASHINGTON -- As anyone who watched Enemy of the State knows, the
    National Security Agency is a rapacious beast with an appetite for
    data surpassed only by its disregard for Americans' privacy.

    Or is the opposite true, and the ex-No Such Agency staffed by ardent
    civil libertarians?

    To the NSA, of course, its devilish reputation is merely an
    unfortunate Hollywood fiction. Its director, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden,
    has taken every opportunity to say so, most recently on a History
    Channel documentary that aired for the first time Monday evening.

    "It's absolutely critical that (Americans) don't fear the power that
    we have," Hayden said on the show.

    He dismissed concerns about eavesdropping over-eagerness and all but
    said the NSA, far from being one of the most feared agencies, has
    become one of the most handicapped.

    One reason, long cited by agency officials: Encryption. The show's
    producers obligingly included stock footage of Saddam Hussein, saying
    that the dictator-for-life has been spotted chatting on a 900-channel
    encrypted cell phone.

    That's no surprise. The NSA, as Steven Levy documents in his new
    Crypto book (which the documentary overlooks), has spent the last 30
    years trying to suppress data-scrambling technology through export
    regulations, court battles, and even personal threats.

    Instead of exploring that controversial and timely subject that's tied
    to the ongoing debate over privacy online, "America's Most Secret
    Agency" instead spends the bulk of an hour on a history of
    cryptography starting in World War II. Most of the documentary could
    have aired two decades ago, and no critics are interviewed.

    One of the few surprises in the otherwise bland show is the NSA's new
    raison d'etre -- infowar.

    [...]