Having worked for NSA for two decades, eight years of them at the Fort Meade, MD, headquarters, I can assure you that Enemy of the State bears no relationship to the reality of NSA. Not to say that there aren't some pretty impressive (and potentially scary) capabilities there, but the folks who put that movie together are either totally clueless about NSA, or they chose to ignore what they know and just make an entertaining movie without regard to NSA's actual capabilities and operations.

I thought you would probably give us some insight on this one Boyd. And I also figured most of the flick was fantasy, but it still scares the hell out of me, the concept, not the technology.

My comment isn't to say that some other governmental body couldn't do what is attributed to NSA in the movie. But NSA is a very sterile environment, at least when it comes to the subjects of the surveillance.

The very idea that an NSA civilian employee would be carrying a weapon is hilariously laughable, especially if you were there shortly after they stopped using Marine guards and changed over to the civilian GSA police force. Although they had to issue them pistols, all I can say is that I hope they had the sense not to give some of those knuckleheads any ammunition!

Anyway, NSA has no law enforcement function in terms of "feet on the street," at least.

Oh, and while I've never been very well versed on satellite technology, my experience has been that it's a huge bureaucratic and technical effort to move a satellite's "footprint." All of that stuff was pure entertainment without an ounce of factual support.

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