Who’s reading your emails? | The Sunday Times

   
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Who’s reading your emails?

Revelations about a shadowy US surveillance programme pose awkward questions for authorities here, say Toby Harnden and David Leppard

The Sunday Times Published: 9 June 2013

Woman on laptop

Just off the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, about 25 miles northeast of Washington, is a secret city. Fort Meade, in suburban Maryland, is home to the National Security Agency — the NSA, sometimes wryly referred to as No Such Agency or Never Say Anything.

It contains almost 70 miles of roads, 1,300 buildings, each identified by a number, and 18,000 parking spaces as well as a shopping centre, golf courses, chain restaurants and every other accoutrement of Anywhere, USA.

It was established clandestinely in 1949 to listen in to the Russians. It grew throughout the Cold War and has been expanding ever since.

At its heart is the headquarters/operations building, a huge office block swathed in dark, reflective glass that enables its occupants to look out — but never be seen.

Inside, NSA employees, shielded from natural light, work around the clock in bland cubicles, listening to intercepted communications or punching “selectors” or search

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