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 <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2261>.

“Community in Crisis: U.S. Intelligence.” 2 November 2007

<http://www.americangovernment.abc-
clio.com/home/feature/feature.aspx?fulltext=NSA&nav=non&isarchive=true&mi
d=377341&fsid=1&specialtopicid=-1>.

“Clinton Administration Initiatives: Clipper Chip.” 12 November 2007

<http://www.cdt.org/crypto/admin/clipperchip.shtml>.

“Domestic Surveillance.” 12 November 2007

<http://www.2facts.com/ICOF/temp/78621tempi1100050.asp>.

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
<http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-
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source=gale&userGroupName=anna39031&version=1.0>.

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<http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/20th/nsa.html>.

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“NSA Watch | Echelon FAQ.” 9 November 2007

<http://www.nsawatch.org/echelonfaq.html>.

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<http://www.darkgovernment.com/nsa.html>.

“Report: Wiretaps Began Before Bush's Order.” 2 November 2007

<http://www.americangovernment.abc-
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v=non&specialtopicid=-1>.
Rood, Justin. “Listening in, sharing names.” 5 November 2007
<http://library.cqpress.com.proxy.library.vcu.edu/cqweekly/document.php?id=we
eklyreport109-
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0re72>.

Shane, Scott. “Tonkin Gulf reports cooked? / Historian's research finds intelligence errors
covered up.” 11 November 2007 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/31/MNG99FGN521.DTL>.

"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
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gale&userGroupName=anna39031&version=1.0>.

“The Clipper Chip.” 12 November 2007 <http://epic.org/crypto/clipper>.

“The Origins of NSA.” 8 November 2007

<http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00015.cfm>.

“U.S. Mum on Bad Vietnam War Intelligence.” 2 November 2007

<http://www.americangovernment.abc-
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v=non&specialtopicid=-1>.