James Bamford

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James Bamford in a publicity photo

James Bamford is a bestselling author and journalist who writes about the world of United States intelligence agencies. He was raised in Natick, Massachusetts, spent three years in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War, and used the GI Bill to earn his law degree.

Mr. Bamford's 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, the NSA was quite concerned about their unveiling to the world and accordingly, the government acted to stop publication. He published Body of Secrets (also about the NSA, 2001), and A Pretext for War (2004). Bamford lectures nationally and is 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.

Mr. Bamford's fans praise his ability to gather previously classified information through inside sources and FOIA requests. Among his most recent honors is the 2006 National Magazine Award for Reporting, the top prize in magazine writing.

James Bamford can be reached at JamesBamford@BookWriters.Org

[edit] Authorship

BOOKS

ARTICLES

1/31/07 The New York Times: "Bush Is Not Above the Law"

12/12/06 The Washington Post: "'Curveball' And A Slam Dunk"

10/10/06 The New York Times: "Looking Beneath the Surface of a Terrorism Case"

8/20/06 The New York Times Book Review: "Intelligence Test"

8/10/06 Rolling Stone: "The Next War: Iran"

4/1/06 The Atlantic Monthly: "Big Brother is Listening"

1/9/06 The New York Times: "Where Spying Starts and Stops"

12/25/05 The New York Times (Week in Review Section): "The Agency That Could Be Big Brother"

12/1/05 Rolling Stone: "The Man Who Sold The War"

3/28/05 The American Conservative: "Breeding Terror: The Intelligence Community Analyzes a Counterproductive War"

2/20/05 The Washington Post Book World: "We’re Watching Them"

6/13/04 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "This Spy For Rent"

5/9/04 The Los Angeles Times Book Review: "Secret Warriors: The Great Game"

2/29/04 The Washington Post Book World: "Sowing the Whirlwind"

7/4/03 The New York Times: "The Labyrinthine Morass of Spying in the Cold War"

4/27/03 The Washington Post Book World: "A Look Over My Shoulder: Richard Helms at the CIA"

3/23/03 Los Angeles Times Book Review: "Ike as Spymaster: Secrets on High"

12/15/02 The Washington Post Book World: "Shadow Warriors"

11/24/02 The New York Times (Week in Review Section): "How To (De-)Centralize Intelligence"

10/24/02 USA Today (Op Ed Section): "Maintain CIA’s Independence"

9/17/02 USA Today (Op Ed Section): "Untested Administration Hawks Clamor for War"

9/14/02 The Guardian (London): "What Big Ears You Have"

9/8/02 The Washington Post Book World: "Strategic Thinking"

9/8/02 The New York Times (Week in Review Section), War of Secrets

8/29/02 USA Today (Op Ed Section): "Bush Wrong to Use Pretext as Excuse to Invade Iraq"

8/27/02 The New York Times (Week in Review Section): "Washington Bends The Rules"

7/19/02 USA Today (Op Ed Section): "Linguist Reserve Corp Answers Terror Need"

6/2/02 The Washington Post (Sunday Outlook Section): "Intelligence Failures"

Spring/02 Espionage: An Encyclopedia of Spies and Secrets by Richard M. Bennett (Forward) (London: Virgin Books, Ltd, 2002).

Spring/02 Harvard International Review

2/7/02 The New York Times: "A Former CIA Cowboy and his Disillusioning Ride"

1/20/02 The Washington Post Book World: "The Wrong Man"

12/01 [Harvard] Nieman Reports: "Is The Press Up to The Task of Reporting The Stories of September 11?"

9/18/01 The New York Times: "Of Atomic Secrets, Loyalty and Bitter Deceit"

8/28/01 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "Guard the Secrets, Then Catch the Spies"

8/9/01 The Guardian (London): "The Cover-Up"

8/8/01 The Guardian (London): "Attack on the USS Liberty"

3/18/01 The New York Times Magazine: "My Friend The Spy: Robert Hanssen is Accused of Deceiving the FBI. If so, He Deceived Me Too."

4/12/01 USA Today (Op Ed Section): "Rethink Spy Missions"

4/5/01 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "The Danger of Spy Planes"

11/14/99 The Washington Post (Sunday Outlook Section): "Loud and Clear: The Most Secret of Secret Agencies Operates Under Outdated Laws"

8/26/99 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "Spy Stories"

8/20/98 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "Our Best Spies are in Space"

3/3/96 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Has a 30-Year Mystery Unraveled?"

1/29/95 The New York Times Book Review: "The View From the KGB"

2/9/92 The New York Times Book Review: "Of Cabals and Coups"

9/9/88 The New York Times (Op Ed Section): "Reagan’s Done Nothing to Stop the Spies"

8/7/88 The New York Times Book Review: "A Mole Without Portfolio"

7/3/88 The Washington Post Book World: "Where Secret Armies Clash By Night"

6/26/88 Los Angeles Times (Op Ed Section): "A Pentagon of Impurity"

6/88 U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Book Review: "Merchants of Treason"

5/29/88 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Fighting the Drug War, Congress Opens door to Intelligence Misdeeds"

3/6/88 Los Angeles Times Magazine: "Taking on The Mob"

2/21/88 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "FBI: If It’s Under Cover, It May Be Out of Control"

11/29/87 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Carlucci: Big Man About Intelligence"

10/18/87 The Washington Post Book World: "The Nugan Hand Affair: Banking on Espionage"

10/11/87 Los Angeles Times Magazine: "They Also Serve Who Watch and Listen"

6/14/87 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Ghosts of CIA Haunt Hearings"

2/8/87 The Washington Post Book World: "Bankrolling International Murder and Extortion"

2/8/87 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "An Aspirin for the CIA, But Major Surgery Needed"

1/18/87 The New York Times Magazine: "Carlucci And The N.S.C."

1/4/87 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Reagan CIA: Arrogance Instead of Oversight"

11/9/86 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Satellites Show a World of Secrets, to Rival Powers and Now the Press"

10/5/86 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "CIA Gets Billing Again in Nicaragua, as Covert Action Becomes the Norm"

9/28/86 Los Angeles Times Book Review: "Shootdown, The Target is Destroyed"

8/3/86 The New York Times Book Review: "When Ideology Was Thicker Than Money"

7/13/86 The New York Times Book Review: "Keeping Intelligence Smart"

7/6/86 Los Angeles Times (Sunday Op Ed Section): "Searching for Security, Casey Fires at the Press"

5/24/86 The Boston Globe (Op Ed Section): "U.S. Satellite Photos of Plant Should Have Been Released"

5/86 U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Naval Review Issue: "The Walker Spy Case: Navy Medicine, Maritime Terrorism"

4/6/86 The Washington Post Book World: "The Spy Plane That Flew Into History"

6/9/85 The Washington Post Book World: "Stansfield Turner and the Secrets of the CIA"

4/21/85 Los Angeles Times Book Review: "Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers; KAL Flight 007: The Hidden Story"

1/13/85 The New York Times Magazine: "America’s Supersecret Eyes in Space"

1/8/84 The Washington Post Magazine: "The Last Flight of KAL 007: How the U.S. Watches The Soviets in the Far East"

12/4/83 The Washington Post Magazine: "Big Brother is Listening"

10/83 Boston Observer: "How We Know What We Know About KAL 007"

9/83 The Chinese Black Chamber by Herbert O. Yardley (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983): Forward

9/9/83 The Boston Globe (Op Ed Section): "Victim of the Long Electronic War"

12/82 The New York Times Book Review: "On the Trail of a Mole"

11/6/82 The Nation: "How I Got the NSA Files . . . How Reagan Tried to Get Them Back"

8/9/82 Newsday (Viewpoints Section): "The UN: A Gold Mine for U.S. Intelligence"

[edit] References

Kahn, David. The Codebreakers ISBN 0-684-83130-9
Random House: James Bamford

[edit] External links

By Bamford

Report on a James Bamford talk at Berkeley, Lew Rockwell.com, February 11, 2002.
James Bamford. Washington Bends the Rules, New York Times, August 27, 2002.
Scott Horton. James Bamford's interviews, The Weekend Interview Show.
James Bamford. The Man Who Sold the War, Rolling Stone Magazine, November 17, 2005.