"He has always been awed by the scale of the N.S.A., long the world’s largest employer of mathematicians and user of supercomputers. What his new book documents is the agency’s growing partnership with private companies to tap into the fiber-optic cables that now carry most telephone and Internet traffic. The partners include not only telecommunication giants like AT&T but also, Mr. Bamford found, a number of small companies that sell the agency surveillance software and hardware. He discovered that key figures in at least two of those suppliers have ties to Israeli intelligence — including Israel’s counterpart to the N.S.A., Unit 8200 — raising questions about the security of the United States’ most secret intelligence operations. “I don’t think Congress knows about these vulnerabilities,” he said." Oh, no, Mr. Bamford. Congeress knows about these vulnerabilities and does not give a damn.