May I ask what convinced you they were a center of excellence in the 90's? I ask this sincerely, not in rebuttal.

What do you make of the comments of Binney that NSA was caught sleeping (for lack of a better phrase) by 9/11? Why the need to "transform" the agency? He said he headed a group that was responsible for instituting change in the organization. I believe they even had "change" in the name given to the group. It sure seems like they want(ed) to morph into something they were not previously.

I'm a professional in this field and closely acquainted with many people who worked there in the '90s.

I don't care what Binney said.

I interviewed with them in the late 80's. they were just then moving away from their own proprietary programming language(s?), not ADA, just beginning to open into C, perhaps others. Anyone know of this? What is the name of this language? Interesting NSA history transition, presumably, from the considerable force of recruiting mass civilian literacy with the downside of its security vulnerability.

It's worth mentioning that NSA is a very large organization with lots of different functions. I can imagine a stodgy Ada-programming division in the NSA living alongside a division that, say, knew how to reliably exploit heap overflows in 1991.