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Neal Pfeiffer The Intelligence Process The National Security Agency Tough-as-nails NSA agents bent on kidnapping and recruiting street smart criminals to stop terrorist plots overseas; A beautiful NSA agent protects her target, killing anybody who gets in her way, even agents from other competing agencies like the CIA or FBI -- no, this is not real life; these are movies like XXX or television programs like “Chuck.” The entertainment industry has always exaggerated and slanted facts for entertainment purposes when it comes to little known government agencies, but the agency that is most misunderstood and grossly mischaracterized in entertainment is the NSA. In the following pages, the origins of this agency, as well as its roles and operations pre and post 9/11 will be discussed. The origins of the NSA came about in the beginning stages of World War I. In May 1916, Herbert Yardley, a young State Department code clerk, noticed a lot of cable traffic going between New York and the White House. Even though he probably should not have given it a lot of thought, he copied what he saw and decided he wanted to decode it. The code he was cracking was from a Presidential aide to President Wilson. Yardley cracked it in two hours. He realized then and there that the U.S. was at risk and desperately needed a better system of encrypting cable traffic. He brought the issue up to convince his superiors (Bamford 21, 22). The Black Chamber, which Yardley created in 1918, immediately started monitoring all international cables. When the organization was officially terminated in 1975 (after being renamed and reorganized by many different agencies along the way, finally by the NSA in 1952) it was the biggest communications intercept program in the history of the US.

By 1930, William Friedman drastically improved the Army’s Signal Intelligence Corps by creating the subordinate Signal Intelligence Service. The SIS was tremendously successful during World War II. They were able to break many of the German and Japanese codes. The Korean War, which began in 1950, was known to have been started as a result of intelligence (Origins). Those intelligence failures led to a later reorganization in the government. For most people in the world, the morning of November 4th, 1952, was just like any other morning. They were unaware that one of the most super-secret agencies in history had just been created by law. On October 24th, President Truman signed a top secret eight-page memo that created the National Security Agency (hereinafter, the NSA) (Bamford 15). General Ralph Canine was the director, and in 1956, they moved into their new headquarters in Ft. Meade, Maryland. One of the programs integrated in to the NSA was Shamrock, the remains of Black Chamber, started by Yardley in 1920 (Origins). One of the main reasons for the reorganization that gave birth to the NSA was intelligence failures that got the US into the war in Korea. Only a few years later, the NSA failed again and then covered it up, unbeknownst to the President. That bad intelligence was used by the president to escalate the conflict in Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin incident is now infamous in our country’s history. On August 5th, 1964, the New York Times front page said “"President Johnson has ordered retaliatory action against gunboats and 'certain supporting facilities in North Vietnam' after renewed attacks against American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin."” The only problem with that article was, it was a lie. There was no second attack on an American destroyer. So what happened to get President Johnson to think that there had been, therefore making up his mind to go full

scale in to Vietnam? The answer is slightly vague, since not all the documents have been declassified. First of all, the “unprovoked attack” on August 2nd, as LBJ called it, wasn’t unprovoked at all. The “U.S. destroyer Maddox was actually engaged in aggressive intelligence-gathering maneuvers […].” On August 4th, President Johnson received word that there had been another torpedo attack in the Tonkin Gulf, so he ordered the air strikes and then held a press conference on television to discuss it. The story is that most people in the White House doubted that any attack actually happened. According to Cohen and Solomon’s article, “Cables from the U.S. task force commander in the Tonkin Gulf, Captain John J. Herrick, referred to "freak weather effects," "almost total darkness" and an "overeager sonarman" who "was hearing ship's own propeller beat."” To back that up, a pilot flying overhead reported that all he saw was the destroyers shooting at nothing but water (Cohen). NSA historian Robert Hanyok found that, instead of being an honest mistake by the NSA, “midlevel agency officials discovered the error almost immediately but covered it up and doctored documents so that they appeared to provide evidence of an attack” (Shane). Because of the misinterpretation of intercepts by the NSA, and the subsequent cover-up, the U.S entered the Vietnam War. Because of the secretive nature of the NSA, it is very difficult to find out about the nature of their activities and operations. The only way we, the public, find out is when a failure is reported by the media, or when declassified documents become available to public view, a rare occurrence. In some instances, the idea of failure for the NSA can be defined as just having the public hear about it at all, since they try to be so secret. Very rarely does a success become public knowledge, mostly because successes are not as newsworthy for journalists as controversial programs and failures are.

Every so often, the public catches a glimpse of a program that the NSA is running. One such program is Project Echelon. According to the website NSA Watch (http://www.nsawatch.org/echelonfaq.html), Project Echelon is an “automated global interception and relay system operated by the intelligence agencies in five nations: the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.” The NSA is the head of the project, and all the other countries follow its lead. It is also of note that although we call it Project Echelon, that is only a code word, its real name is not known, sort of like Delta Force inside the Marines. The only way we know Echelon even exists, since the US has always denied anything about it, is because the other countries have vaguely confirmed it. It is believed that “ECHELON sifts through an estimated 90 percent of all traffic that flows through the Internet.” Information about what exactly Echelon involves is vague at best, but it is known that it is extremely powerful, and has protected us from many threats. A former NSA spy said during an interview of 60 Minutes in 2000 explained that pretty much every conversation by phone or Internet is recorded, and that “'Project Echelon's equipment can process 1 million message inputs every 30 minutes'” (NSA watch). One success of the Project that has been reported happened in 1995. According to http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/20th/nsa.html, “A tariff on Japanese luxury cars was to go into effect June 28, but Geneva conference sought to avoid the tariff. NSA team went to Geneva to help U.S. negotiator Mickey Kantor, provided intercepts of hotel telephone conversations by Toyota and Nissan executives.” Because of ECHELON, the government successfully avoided a tariff on cars that would have annoyed the American people. This success, like many of their others, was never reported.

Project Echelon is still in existence, and as far as anyone can tell, is still highly successful. According to that same University of San Diego website, “The accusation was made that the Waihopai station in Marlborough NZ is being used by the NSA to spy on UN Security Council members in order to get support for a war against Iraq. This was in 2003, before the war in Iraq ever began. The two satellite dishes at Waihopai are said to be part of the "Echelon" programme [sic] that globally intercepts electronic communications” (National). There is no way to verify whether or not that ever went on, it just provides more information pointing to the fact that ECHELON is still in existence, lurking in the shadows. The 1990’s were a strange time for the NSA. Many of their top secret programs received publicity in the media. One of the biggest programs was the “Clipper Chip.” As home computers became more and more popular, there was a growing demand from the American users for a way to secure their information. The NSA was losing the battle in technology. They went from being able to crack every code they found, to being dangerously weak. The Clipper Chip is a very powerful encryption device that ends up being like a skeleton key (a key that can open any door). The NSA proposed installing them in every secure phone, modem, or fax machine. The chip allows NSA staff (with authorization) to easily hack these devices. When word leaked about this proposal, it was met with overwhelming criticism. The NSA decided to ignore the criticism and announced they would move ahead with the program anyway. They would make all government use of the chip mandatory, and give the public the decision to choose whether they wanted it or not (Elmer-Dewitt). The program was met with even more

criticism from the American people and Congress, and in 1994, the Clinton administration announced that they would abandon the chip (Clinton). . In 2000, the NSA announced that the agency was about to go through a big shake-up. They felt they needed a new focus on SIGINT. Apparently in the years leading up to that announcement, the over-the-top secrecy of the NSA was alienating new, and existing customers. Critics say that the agency refused to change its tactics after the Cold War, even after new targets started showing up on their radar. Under the new organization, they would focus on three aspects, “operations, information systems security, and technology” (NSA announces). After September 11th, the NSA quickly sprang into action. The NSA “expanded its domestic antiterror wiretapping.” In 2006, documents that had just been declassified showed that the NSA conducted wiretapping even before President Bush actually ordered it to be done. In December of 2005, the public found out about these wiretaps when it was reported by USA Today. Since then, it has been one of the most controversial issues in the media today. What the NSA was given authority to do was to “eavesdrop on phone calls and electronic mail exchanged between foreigners and U.S. citizens with suspected links to terrorist organizations.” There are several reasons for the furor felt by the American people. This wiretapping program, in many cases, does not require a warrant to carry out surveillance. President Bush has said that the warrant process is too slow, and has decided to go around the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to more quickly get the intelligence needed. Critics challenge that what the NSA is doing is illegal, and violating the American citizens’ civil rights. Meanwhile, instead of addressing the problems the critics

have with the program, the President has decided to unleash his fury in the direction of the people who reported on it in the first place, saying the program should never have been written about (Domestic). In February 2007, the President, possibly bowing down to the pressure created by the media, publicized that he would stop authorizing the surveillance program. He explained that special courts will be set up that adhere to the FISA Act, the very same FISA that he criticized for being too slow (The administration). Since 9/11, the NSA has seen a shift in the roles they have played and the customers they serve. More than ever, they are using the services of telephone and internet companies. The actual customers are vague, but we know for a fact that AT&T, Verizon, and Bellsouth cooperated in the much criticized wiretap program. Those three companies will be taken to court because what they participated in was allegedly illegal. What that means for the NSA in the future when they need help from these companies, or companies like them is yet to be seen. Internet company QWEST was approached, but refused to take part (Hosenball). Not a big enough amount of time has passed since 9/11 to truly see how the NSA has changed. Since its founding, the NSA has continued to be at the forefront of the U.S intelligence gathering. Starting with Herbert Yardley’s Black Chamber, and now continuing with Project ECHELON, SIGINT has continued to play an important role in government and foreign relations. As shown, however, even the most secretive agency is not above the law. The public only becomes aware of them when they either make a mistake or try to circumvent the laws and rights of citizens. As history shows, in Korea and Vietnam, the agency made some mistakes with some important ramifications. Project

ECHELON and the (possibly illegal) wiretap program set forth by President Bush, but those are countered by the numerous successes that the public does not hear about. One thing is for certain, citizens should think twice before saying or writings something regrettable on the internet or the telephone … there is a good chance that someone with national security in mind is listening.

Works Cited Bamford, James. Puzzle Palace. Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1983. Cohen, Jeff, and Norman Solomon. “30-year Anniversary: Tonkin Gulf Lie Launched Vietnam War.” 9 November 2007 . “Community in Crisis: U.S. Intelligence.” 2 November 2007 . “Clinton Administration Initiatives: Clipper Chip.” 12 November 2007 . “Domestic Surveillance.” 12 November 2007 . Hosenball, Mark, and Evan Thomas. "Hold the Phone; Big Brother knows whom you call. Is that legal, and will it help catch the bad guys?(Cover story)." Newsweek (May 22, 2006): 22. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Annandale High School. 11 Nov. 2007 . “National Security Agency.” 8 November 2007 . “NSA Announces Reorganization.” 11 November 2007 . “NSA Watch | Echelon FAQ.” 9 November 2007 . “NSA, national security agency.” 2 November 2007 . “Report: Wiretaps Began Before Bush's Order.” 2 November 2007 .

Rood, Justin. “Listening in, sharing names.” 5 November 2007 . Shane, Scott. “Tonkin Gulf reports cooked? / Historian's research finds intelligence errors covered up.” 11 November 2007 . "The administration announced that the president will stop authorizing the NSA's terrorist-surveillance program.(The Week)(George W. Bush, National Security Agency)(Brief article)." National Review 59.2 (Feb 12, 2007): 4. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Annandale High School. 11 Nov. 2007 . “The Clipper Chip.” 12 November 2007 . “The Origins of NSA.” 8 November 2007 . “U.S. Mum on Bad Vietnam War Intelligence.” 2 November 2007 .