In their annual July 4th protest, Plowshares activists target the NSA for its role in wars from Vietnam to Iraq.

Plowshare activists including some from Jonah House in Baltimore gathered near the National Security Agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland to protest the organization’s role in the invasion of Iraq.

Although it gets little attention compared to the CIA, the National Security Agency is the more powerful, more expensive and more secretive of the two.

Much of what known about the organization comes from the work of James Bamford. Over 20 years ago he wrote the first book ever on the NSA. It was titled, The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America’s Most Secret Agency. The government threatened to prosecute him for a breach of national security. Two years ago he wrote a follow-up, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency.

Today we talk to Bamford about the NSA’s role in providing intelligence that led to the invasion of Iraq.

• James Bamford, author of Body of Secrets and The Puzzle Palace.