James Bamford life and biography

James Bamford is an American bestselling author and journalist who writes about United States intelligence agencies, most notably the National Security Agency.

He was born on September 15, 1946 and raised in Natick, Massachusetts. He spent three years in the United States Navy as an intelligence analyst during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts.

His first book, The Puzzle Palace (1982), was the first book published about the National Security Agency (NSA). The book was researched through extensive use of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). As a super-secret agency, NSA was quite concerned about their unveiling to the world and accordingly, the government reclassified certain documents in an effort to stop publication.

He published Body of Secrets (also about the NSA, 2001), and A Pretext for War (2004). Bamford lectures nationally and was a distinguished visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. He also spent nearly a decade as the Washington Investigative Producer for ABC's World News Tonight.

In 2006, he received the National Magazine Award for Reporting, the top prize in magazine writing. Most recently, he published his new book The Shadow Factory, once again about the NSA, but about its involvement in the 9/11 investigations and intelligence failures. The PBS show "The Spy Factory" was based on this book.

Author of books:

The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America's Most Secret Agency (1982, nonfiction)
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (2001, nonfiction)
A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies (2004, nonfiction)

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