America's most secretive spy agency opens its archive in explosive new podcast - and warns of major China threat

Spies are supposed to be tight-lipped about their craft, but that's changing at the National Security Agency (NSA) after seven decades of cloak-and-dagger secrecy.

The agency — once known as the Black Chamber — has launched a podcast, and it's shaking up the world of intelligence gathering, while also issuing a warning about China's AI capabilities.

Already, NSA podcasters have opened up their archives about the hunt for terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and laid bare the pervasive threat from Russian hackers.

But the most revealing episode so far has lifted the lid on artificial intelligence, or AI, and the arms race for data supremacy between the United States and China.

Beijing is 'very focused on investing in AI to gain that economic, diplomatic, political and military advantage,' says Vinh Nguyen, the agency's AI chief, in episode three.

The People's Republic is using AI to build smart weapons and run disinformation campaigns in a bid to 'out-compete, outmaneuver, and outmatch the United States and the West,' he warns.

'We do not want to live in a society where our AI are built and run by the PRC — because they are not built on our democratic values,' Nguyen added.

The show marks a departure for the NSA, which was hitherto seen as the most circumspect of US intelligence agencies.

Everything from its annual operating budget and the number of staff and contractors working there are classified.

There is no signpost on the parkway to its headquarters campus in Fort Meade, Maryland.

It's so secretive that Washington, DC, politicos quipped that NSA actually stood for 'No Such Agency.'

That gag gave rise to the name of the eight-part audio series — No Such Podcast.

NSA spokeswoman Sara Siegle says there's a serious side to the show, which is available on Spotify, YouTube and other platforms.

Staffers have for decades worked to 'defend the nation' but never get to take a bow because their operations are clandestine.

'It's time to start telling more stories that we can talk about, sharing more of that expertise and highlighting these incredible public servants,' Siegle says.

The series opened with revelations about the hunt for and killing of bin Laden, who masterminded al-Qaeda's coordinated hits on the US on September 11, 2001, which claimed nearly 3,000 American lives. 

The raid on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan has been documented in movies, books, and many articles.

But while much is known about the involvement of the CIA and the Pentagon, less has been available about the NSA's role.

Behind the scenes, it transpires, the NSA was responsible for intercepting and analyzing the calls that identified the key bin Laden associate who would eventually lead agents to the hideout in Abbotabad.

Operatives located the associate, a courier, in northwest Pakistan, and prodded colleagues at other agencies to throw more resources into investigating the three-story walled compound.

That started a probe that ultimately led to the raid that killed bin Laden in May 2011.

The show focuses on the foreign signals intelligence (SIGINT) underpinning the raid, which is central to the NSA's work.

But talking about it openly marks a shift for the clam-like agency that grew out of the Cipher Bureau — the 1919 creation of the US State Department, also known as the Black Chamber.

President Harry Truman issued the directive to create the NSA in 1952, consolidating the cipher unit and other surveillance activities after World War II.

For decades, it expanded its interception of communication, including the massive, warrantless, tapping of telephones and emails in the years after the September 11 attacks.

The huge amounts of data being sucked up by the NSA became a growing source of concern. In 2011, former NSA official Thomas Drake was suspected of revealing information about the agency's wiretapping program.

More damaging leaks came two years later, when contractor-turned-whistleblower Edward Snowden fled the US and gave documents to newspapers showing the massive extent of US surveillance programs.

Russia granted him asylum and, later, citizenship.

Still, there are limits to how much NSA officials are letting slip in their weekly download.

Nguyen spoke plainly about China's AI threat — but his comments are similar to many Washington, DC, policy papers on the subject.

The killing of bin Laden is in now firmly in the rearview mirror.

And the podcast did not cast light on the coveted 'sources and methods' that continue to be used to gather intelligence.

Also, the series has focused on the hard work and successes of agents.

So don't expect to hear an episode about Snowden's damaging leaks any time soon.

The podcast comes at a time that other DC insiders appear more get the skeletons out of their closets.

These days, America's intelligence agencies at the very least have social media accounts.

The CIA in 2014 joined Twitter/X, making a gag in its opening missive, saying: 'We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet.'

In January, Congress took the bold step of holding a public hearing into UFO sightings.

But the best is yet to come.

Perhaps the most compelling mystery in US political history is who, if anyone, conspired to assassinate former President John F. Kennedy.

Last month, former President Donald Trump vowed to release all the remaining secret files on the fatal shooting in Dallas in 1963, as part of his own reelection campaign.