Tonight on NOVA: The Spy Factory - How Smart Is the U.S. Intelligence, Anyway? Reviewed by NY Times

[groovedaddy]

'NOVA: THE SPY FACTORY'

It was not an intelligence failure that permitted the Sept. 11 attacks, it was a lack of imagination. The C.I.A., the F.B.I. and the National Security Agency had a lot of data but they failed to connect the dots — or share information.

The Soviet Union doesn’t even exist anymore, so it’s not really surprising that the government didn’t anticipate that the convicted C.I.A. mole Harold Nicholson would stand accused of continuing to sell secrets to the Russians from jail by using his son as a go-between.

And, oddly enough, it’s not an absence of information that mars “The Spy Factory,” a “Nova” documentary about the National Security Agency to be shown on Tuesday on most PBS stations, it’s a failure of imagination.

The film, written and co-produced by James Bamford, the author of a number of books about the intelligence establishment, including “The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret N.S.A. From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America,” buries interesting insights in an old and hackneyed documentary format, with ominous voice-over narration and spooky sound effects.

At times the tone is so lurid and foreboding that the film seems like a “Dateline” exposé of sexual predators.

http://tv.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/arts/television/03spy.html?th&emc=th

[KansDem]

1. Will "Operation Northwoods" be examined? (nt)