National Security Agency: Difference between revisions

{{tropeUseful Notes}}

The '''National Security Agency'''/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is a communications intelligence agency of the United States government, administered as part of the United States Department of Defense.

The NSA is rumored to run the [[Sinister Surveillance|ECHELON communications-monitoring system,]] together with equivalent signals-intelligence agencies in Britain (GCHQ) and Australia DSD). The system's capabilities are suspected to include the ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's telephone, fax and data traffic, according to a December 16, 2005 article in the ''[[American Newspapers|New York Times]]''. As of the Edward Snowden revelations of 2013-2014, this is no longer rumor; the NSA is now known to have been and continues to be conducting vast data-acquisition programs against practically every form of communication known to man, with very little oversight. The head of the NSA was actually caught lying to Congress about the staggering scope of the NSA's various programs. At the time of this writing they are rapidly gaining a reputation as a rogue agency that believes its mission puts it above the law and the United States Constitution.

As of 2008, NSA has been directed to help monitor U.S. federal agency computer networks to protect them against attacks.

By law, NSA's intelligence gathering is limited to foreign communications, although there have been numerous reports that the agency does not always abide by these laws. [[George W. Bush]] famously removed most of the limits on the NSA, even though it was illegal. Some, but not all, of this illegal activity was made legal after the fact when he pushed Congress to modify the laws. Whether or not [[Barack Obama]] has reined in the illegal activities is still in doubt. Given his public actions, it is unlikely [[Donald Trump]] has.

The creation of NSA was authorized in a letter written by President [[Harry Truman|Harry S. Truman]] in June 1952. The agency was formally established through a revision of National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 on October 24, 1952, and officially came into existence on November 4, 1952. President Truman's letter was itself classified and remained unknown to the public for more than a generation.

Before the NSA proper was The Black Chamber, so called in part because of [[The American Black Chamber|the book about it]]. It was established in [[World War OneI]] and had a cover as a civilian coding agency. During the 20's funding was pulled because the secretary of state considered decryption to be unfair. Denied funding, the head of it wrote a book about it and tried to keep it open.

For a long period of time, the U.S. government denied the existence of the NSA, thus the "No Such Agency" moniker.<ref> The NSA was listed in the 1957 and subsequent editions of the U.S. Government Manual, which was available in most public libraries</ref>

Because of this mystery, the NSA has become the agency of choice for many [[Government Conspiracy]] and Hollywood spy types, and is one of the most widely misrepresented government agencies in fiction. In late 2013, this turned out to be [[Truth in Television]] when whistleblower Edward Snowden began releasing a steady stream of documents revealing that the NSA had, since the early 2000s, managed to compromise just about every communications channel on the planet, and was [[Sinister Surveillance|collecting petabytes of data on virtually ''every'' conversation or communication in the world]].

Certain movies or TV series will play up inter-department rivalry between the NSA and their better known sister-agencies, the [[CIA|Central Intelligence Agency]] and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Sometimes a movie or TV show will haphazardly blur these agencies together into "generic government conspiracy Men in Black". In reality, the rough difference between them is that the NSA handles "SIGINT" (signals intelligence: wiretapping, cryptography, etc.) while the CIA handles "HUMINT" (human intelligence: actually sending in human operatives for face-to-face contact). For example, if at the end of a movie the bad guy's right-hand lieutenant shoots him and reveals that he was an "NSA double-agent" the entire time, that's an anachronism: its the CIA that sends in human information gathering agents. In terms of structure, the NSA is part of the Department of Defense, while the FBI is part of the Department of Justice. The CIA is an independent agency answering directly to the Director of National Intelligence.

* The 1984 film ''[[Starman (Filmfilm)|Starman]]'' features a USG agent with an NSA badge (among others).

{{quote| "So you're the guys I hear breathing on the other end of my phone."<br />

"No, that's the FBI."<br />

"Oh, so you overthrow foreign governments and set up friendly dictators."<br />

* The 2008 film ''[[Harold and& Kumar Go to White Castle]] Escape from Guantanamo Bay'' has the Vice Chairman of the NSA providing a rational counterpoint to a rabid Homeland Security agent.

* ''[[The American Black Chamber]]'' wasIS thea 1931 book by Herbert O. Yardley about the Cipher Bureaus, the NSA's precursor organization existing before [[World War Two]].

* One of the former special forces operatives hired by Mike Harmon (no, not [[JAG|that one]]) to serve as the head of intelligence for the Keldara, in the ''[[Paladin of Shadows (Literature)|Paladin of Shadows]]'' series, is mentioned to have previously worked for the NSA.

== Live -Action TV ==

* In the 1968 ''[[Star Trek: TOSThe Original Series]]'' episode "Assignment: Earth", Agent Gary Seven has an ID card from the NSA.

* In the third episode of the ''[[The X -Files]]'', titled "Conduit,", NSA Agents break into Mulder's hotel room.

* In season three of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Vaughn's wife Lauren Reed is an NSA agent. Naturally, she's {{spoiler|a [[MataSeductive HariSpy]] working for the Alliance}}.

{{quote| Your IP address has been noted, logged, and cross-referenced to identify you. Have a nice day.}}

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