NSA’s ‘Ragtime’ domestic spying program detailed in new book

There are four — maybe five — members of the NSA who make sure that its secret domestic spying program isn’t overstepping its reach according to a new book, Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Written by D.B. Grady and former White House correspondent Marc Ambinder, the book for the first time reveals the code name of the NSA’s surveillance program, “Ragtime.” Shane Harris, The Washingtonian’s national security reporter, offers an analysis of the new information on the NSA’s controversial practices and what he calls a “21st-century data assembly line”. Given the nature of the programs it’s hard to know what’s accurate, but the reporting in Deep State paints a picture much like we might fear: a practiced system of capturing and sorting US citizens’ information.