James Bamford is an American bestselling author, journalist, and documentary producer widely noted for his writing about the United States intelligence agencies, especially the highly secretive National Security Agency. His most recent book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to The Eavesdropping on America, is the third in his trilogy on the NSA, following The Puzzle Palace (1982) and Body of Secrets (2001). The New York Times has called him “the nation’s premier journalist on the subject of the National Security Agency.”