The Secret Sentry

by Matthew M. Aid

  40. Intelligence Community Staff, The Per formance of the Intelligence Community Before the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973: A Preliminary Post-Mortem Report, December 1973, p. i, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001331429, http://www.foia.cia.gov; U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. Intelligence Agencies and Activities: The Performance of the Intelligence Community, 94th Congress, 1st session, part 2, 1975, pp. 658–59, 680–81; Pike Report, pp. 143, 147.

  41. Norman Klar, Confessions of a Code Breaker (Tales from Decrypt) (privately published, 2004), p. 280.

  42. Intelligence Community Staff, The Performance of the Intelligence Community Before the Arab-Israeli War of October 1973: A Preliminary Post-Mortem Report, December 1973, p. i, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0001331429, http://www.foia.cia.gov; Richard W. Shyrock, “The Intelligence Community Post-Mortem Program, 1973–1975,” Studies in Intelligence, RG-263, NA, CP.

  43. U.S. House of Representatives, Select Committee on Intelligence, U.S. Intelligence Agencies and Activities: The Per formance of the Intelligence Community, 94th Congress, 1st session, part 2, 1975, pp. 658–59, 680–81; Pike Report, pp. 143, 147.

  44. Allen quote from Douglas F. Garthoff, Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community: 1946–2005 (Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2005), pp. 117–18.

  45. Klar’s background from Klar, Confessions, his obituary, Washington Post, April 4, 2005.

  46. Klar, Confessions, pp. 279–80; interview with Norman Klar.

  47. For Nixon’s 1972 order for SIGINT coverage of terrorism, see U.S. Department of Justice, Report on Inquiry into CIA-Related Electronic Surveillance Activities, June 30, 1976, p. 31. For SIGINT successes, see Robert J. Hanyok, “The First Round: NSA’s Efforts Against International Terrorism in the 1970s,” Cryptologic Almanac, November–December 2002, NSA FOIA; Klar, Confessions, p. 289. For monitoring Arafat, see, for example, memorandum, Palestinian Involvement in US-Iranian Dispute, November 21, 1979, p. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500130031-2, NA, CP.

  48. “Angola: After In de pen dence,” in CIA, Weekly Review, November 21, 1975, pp. 2–3, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000126975, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; U.S. Intelligence Board, National Intelligence Bulletin, November 26, 1975, p. 12, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000098693, http://www.foia.cia.gov; NIO IIM 76-004C, interagency intelligence memorandum, Soviet and Cuban Aid to the MPLA in Angola from March Through December 1975, January 24, 1976, p. i, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000681964, http://www.foia.cia.gov; interagency intelligence memorandum, Soviet and Cuban Aid to the MPLA in Angola During January 1976, February 3, 1976, p. 3, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000307945, http://www.foia.cia.gov; interagency intelligence memorandum, Soviet and Cuban Aid to the MPLA in Angola During February 1976, March 26, 1976, pp. 2–4, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000681967, http://www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, Directorate of Intelligence, Soviet and Cuban Intervention in the Angolan Civil War, March 1977, p. 22, CIA FOIA Electronic Reading Room, http://www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, The Cuban Military Establishment, April 1979, pp. 1–3, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80T00942A000900030001-2, NA, CP.

  49. CIA, The Situation in Lebanon, March 30, 1976, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP85T00353R000100260020-6, NA, CP; George Bush, memorandum for the record, April 10, 1976, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000191281, http://www.foia.cia.gov; NIO IIM 76-015, interagency intelligence memorandum, Israeli-Syrian Hostilities, April 12, 1976, CIA FOIA; CIA, SC No. 07362/76, intelligence memorandum, Lebanon Evacuation Situation Report No. 2, June 18, 1976, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP83M00171R001800080031-7, NA, CP.

  50. ASA Detachment, Southern Command, Annual Historical Report, USASA Detachment, Southern Command Fiscal Year 1975, 1976, p. 1 passim, INSCOM FOIA; 408th ASA Company (Brigade Support), Annual Historical Report, 408th Army Security Agency Company (Brigade Support), Fiscal Year 1975, 1976, pp. 1, 5, INSCOM FOIA.

  51. Confidential interview.

  52. HQ 470th Military Intelligence Group, Historical Report Annual Supplement: 1 October 1977–30 September 1978, appendix T, DCI Letter of Commendation, INSCOM FOIA; John Dinges, Our Man in Panama (New York: Random House, 1990), pp. 81–83; Manuel Noriega and Peter Eis-ner, America’s Prisoner: The Memoirs of Manuel Noriega (New York: Random House, 1997), p. 60; Seymour M. Hersh, “Panama Strongman Said to Trade in Drugs, Arms and Illicit Money,” New York Times, June 12, 1986; Stephen Engelberg and Jeff Gerth, “Bush and Noriega: Their 20-Year Relationship,” New York Times, September 28, 1988; Congressional Record—Senate, February 21, 1978, p. 3972. For Travis Trophy going to the 470th Military Intelligence Group, see NSA Newsletter, October 1978, p. 6, NSA FOIA.

  53. OSP-13-76T, polygraph examination report, November 10, 1976; File No. ZG000265, report of investigation, February 14, 1977, both in Canton Song 1 dossier, INSCOM FOIA. The army investigation into what was described as the “Singing Sergeants” case was first brought to public light in Hersh, “Panama Strongman.”

  54. OSP-13-76T, polygraph examination report, November 10, 1976; witness statement, November 11, 1976, both in Canton Song 1 dossier, INSCOM FOIA; File CE 76-245-03, report of investigation, December 7, 1977, Canton Song 2 dossier, INSCOM FOIA.

  55. Engelberg and Gerth, “Bush and Noriega.” See also Dinges, Our Man in Panama, pp. 83–84; Frederick Kempe, Divorcing the Dictator: America’s Bungled Affair with Noriega (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1990), p. 28.

  56. For congressional oversight committees being briefed on the case and asked not to do anything, see Congressional Record—Senate, February 21, 1978, p. 3972.

  57. Inman background from NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, NSA FOIA; biographical data sheet, Vice Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, U.S. Navy Office of Public Affairs.

  58. Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 2, p. 190.

  59. Confidential interviews.

  60. Memorandum, Requirements & Evaluation Staff to Assistant Comptroller, Requirements &Evaluation, The CIA/NSA Relationship, August 20, 1976, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP79M00467A002400030009-4, NA, CP.

  61. For NSA’s $1.3 billion budget, see memorandum, [deleted] to C/M&AS, Annual Defense Report, March 8, 1977, p. 275, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80-00473A000600100011-7, NA, CP. See also Elaine Sciolino, “An Operator for the Pentagon,” New York Times, December 17, 1993; Barton Gellman and Bob Woodward, “Analyst with a Nonpartisan Touch,” Washington Post, December 17, 1993.

  62. NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, p. 18, NSA FOIA.

  63. James G. Hudec, “Provision of Cryptologic Information to the Congress,” Cryptologic Spectrum, vol. 11, no. 3 (Summer 1981): pp. 12–13, NSA FOIA.

  64. NSC, Report on Presidential Review Memorandum/NSC-11: Intelligence Structure and Mission, February 23, 1977, p. 15, Department of State FOIA; memorandum, [deleted] to [deleted], Intelligence Community Deficiencies—PRM-11, February 28, 1977, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP79M00095A000100030020-9, NA, CP; DCI/IC 77-4657, Intelligence Community Staff, 1977 Director of Central Intelligence Report on the Intelligence Community, March 1977, pp. 23–24, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP83M00171R002100110007-6, NA, CP.

  65. Memorandum, [deleted] to C/M&AS, Annual Defense Report, March 8, 1977, pp. 276–77, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP80-00473A000600100011-7, NA, CP; memorandum, Vice Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN, to Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Transition Coordination, December 9, 1980, p. 4, via Dr. Jeffrey T. Richelson; Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), pp. 71–72.

  66. Foreword of Admiral Stansfield Turner, USN (Ret.), to David D. Newsom, The Soviet Brigade in Cuba: A Study in Po litical Diplomacy (Bloomington: In
diana University Press, 1987), p. ix.

  67. Memorandum, Vice Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN, to Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Transition Coordination, December 9, 1980, sec. 8, Modernization Objectives; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 3, pp. 196–97, NSA FOIA. For NSA opposition to APEX, see memorandum, SA to the DCI for Compartmentation to Director of Central Intelligence, APEX— NSA Issue Paper, December 2, 1980, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP85T00788 R000100150003-5, NA, CP; memorandum, SA to the DCI for Compartmentation to Director of Central Intelligence, APEX—Navy Issue Paper, December 3, 1980, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP85T00788R000100150002-8, NA, CP; memorandum, Chairman, DCI Committee on Compartmentation, to Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, DCI Committee on Compart-mentation Final Report, July 27, 1981, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP85T00788 R000100070023-2, NA, CP.

  68. Confidential interview.

  69. Mark Urban, UK Eyes Alpha (London: Faber and Faber, 1996), p. 6; confidential interviews.

  70. Memorandum, Levi to the President, January 6, 1976, p. 1, DDRS; Jack Anderson, “Project Aquarian: Tapping the Tappers,” Washington Post, December 2, 1980.

  71. Prime was released from prison in March 2001. For Prime’s background and details of his espionage on behalf of the USSR, see D. J. Cole, Geoffrey Prime: The Imperfect Spy (London: Robert Hale, 1998); Richard J. Aldrich, “GCHQ and Sigint in Early Cold War, 1945–1970,” in Matthew M. Aid and Cees Wiebes, eds., Secrets of Signals Intelligence During the Cold War and Beyond (London: Frank Cass, 2001), pp. 91–92. For damage done by Prime, see Urban, UK Eyes Alpha, p. 6; Philip Taubman, “U.S. Aides Say British Spy Gave Soviet Key Data,” New York Times, October 24, 1982; Jon Nordheimer, “British Spy Hurt the U.S., Mrs. Thatcher Declares,” New York Times, November 12, 1982.

  72. Defense Panel on Intelligence, Report of the Defense Panel on Intelligence, January 1975, p. 8, partially declassified and obtained by FOIA, by National Security Archive, Washington, DC; Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy (“Murphy Commission”), Report of the Commission on the Organization of the Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy, vol. 7 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1975), p. 26; CIA, Intelligence Community Experiment in Competitive Analysis: Soviet Strategic Objectives: An Alternative View: Report of Team “B”, December 1976, p. 9, RG-263, NA, CP.

  73. Richard Pearson, “Computer Pioneer Seymour Cray Dies,” Washington Post, October 6, 1996.

  74. Castro background from biographical data sheet, Lawrence Castro, NSA Coordinator for Homeland Security Support, http://www.itoc.usma.edu/workshop/ 2002/documents/ Castro_Bio.htm.

  75. William R. Corson, Susan B. Trento, and Joseph J. Trento, Widows (New York: Crown Publishers, 1989), p. 94.

  76. Memorandum, Director, Program Assessment Office, to Assistant Deputy Director for Operations, National Security Agency, Project HOOFBEAT, August 26, 1980, p. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP83M00171R001100150001-9, NA, CP.

  77. Examples of SIGINT reporting on Iran after the February 1979 revolution can be found in CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, memorandum, Status of Iranian Armed Forces, November 7, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500030017-9, NA, CP; CIA, memorandum, Impact of US Severance of Diplomatic Ties with Iran, November 30, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500130030-3, NA, CP; CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, memorandum, Iranian Military Readiness, December 7, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500030012-4, NA, CP; CIA, memorandum, Current Situation in Iran, December 31, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500100019-9, NA, CP; CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, memorandum, Iran: Growing Leftist Influence Among Minorities, January 1980, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500160018-4, NA, CP; CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, memorandum, Iran: Decline in Air Force Capability, May 1980, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000500030011-5, NA, CP. For Rhyolite satellite collection on Iran, confidential interviews.

  78. CIA, The Vietnam-Cambodia Conflict, March 8, 1978, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000690153, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 3, p. 255.

  79. CIA, Alert Memorandum: China-Vietnam, January 5, 1979, pp. 1–2, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00080R001400010002-4, NA, CP.

  80. CIA, NSC briefing, Indochina: China/Vietnam, February 18, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP83B00100R000100030014-8, NA, CP; CIA, Strategic Warning Staff, Monthly Report to the Director of Central Intelligence, March 29, 1979, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000789481, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, National Foreign Assessment Center, The Sino-Vietnamese Border Dispute, April 1979, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000789482, http:// www.foia.cia.gov. See also Brian Toohey and Marian Wilkinson, The Book of Leaks (Sydney: Angus and Robertson Publishers, 1989), p. 134; Rear Admiral James B. Linder, USN (Ret.), and Dr. A. James Gregor, “The Chinese Communist Air Force in the ‘Punitive’ War Against Vietnam,” Air University Review, vol. 32, no. 6 (September/ October 1981): p. 77.

  81. Toohey and Wilkinson, Book of Leaks, pp. 134–35; Desmond Ball, “Over and Out: Signals Intelligence in Hong Kong,” Intelligence and National Security, vol. 11, no. 3 (July 1996): pp. 479–80.

  82. Confidential interviews with former NSA officials; Gloria Duffy, “Crisis Mangling and the Cuban Brigade,” International Security, vol. 18, no. 1 (Summer 1983): p. 71. For navy SIGINT aircraft operating from Guantánamo and Florida, see U.S. Sixth Fleet, 1979 Sixth Fleet Command History, p. III-7; U.S. Sixth Fleet, 1980 Sixth Fleet Command History, p. III-6, both in Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC.

  83. Confidential interviews. See also Raymond Bonner, Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador (New York: Times Books, 1984), p. 263.

  84. David Binder, “Soviet Brigade: How the U.S. Traced It,” New York Times, September 13, 1979.

  85. Memorandum, Brzezinski to President, NSC Weekly Report #98, May 25, 1979, p. 1, NSC Files, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, GA.

  86. CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, Memorandum to Holders, Updated Report on Soviet Ground Forces Brigade in Cuba, September 18, 1979, p. 2, RG-263, entry 82, box 33, MORI DocID: 14459, NA, CP; Stansfield Turner, Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition (New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1985), pp. 230–31; Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 155; Don Oberdorfer, “Chapter I: ‘Brigada’: Unwelcome Sight in Cuba,” Washington Post, September 9, 1979; Binder, “Soviet Brigade,” New York Times.

  87. Newsom, Soviet Brigade in Cuba, pp. vii–xii.

  88. CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, Memorandum to Holders, Updated Report on Soviet Ground Forces Brigade in Cuba, September 18, 1979, pp. 2–4, RG-263, entry 82 (A1), box 33, MORI DocID: 14459, NA, CP; White Paper on the Presence of Soviet Troops in Cuba, September 28, 1979, pp. 2–3, NSC Files, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, GA.

  89. Memorandum, PB/NSC Coordinator to Director of Central Intelligence, “Leak” on Soviet Brigade, October 5, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R002400100010-7, NA, CP.

  90. For an excellent monograph on the U.S. intelligence community’s coverage of events leading up to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, see Douglas J. MacEachin, Predicting the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: The Intelligence Community’s Record (Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, April 2002). MacEachin served as the CIA’s deputy director for intelligence from 1993 to 1995.

  91. TCS 3267-79, interagency intelligence memorandum, Soviet Options in Afghanistan, September 27, 1979, p. 6, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000267105, http:// www.foia.cia.gov.

  92. CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Implications for Warning, October 1980, p. 9, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000278538, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

>   93. TCS 3267-79, interagency intelligence memorandum, Soviet Options in Afghanistan, September 27, 1979, pp. 6–7, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000267105, http://www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, The Soviet Invasion of Af-ghanistan: Implications for Warning, October 1980, pp. 10, 13, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000278538, http://www.foia.cia.gov; Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 3, p. 252; MacEachin, Predicting the Soviet Invasion, p. 13.

  94. CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Implications for Warning, October 1980, pp. 17–19, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000278538, http://www.foia.cia.gov; MacEachin, Predicting the Soviet Invasion, pp. 19–20.

  95. Memorandum, Turner to National Security Council, Alert Memorandum on USSR-Afghanistan, September 14, 1979, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000267104, http:// www.foia.cia.gov.

  96. CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan: Implications for Warning, October 1980, pp. 19–20, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000278538, http://www.foia.cia.gov; MacEachin, Predicting the Soviet Invasion, p. 21.

  97. Lt. General William J McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), A Review of Intelligence Performance in Afghanistan, April 9, 1984, p. 8, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP86B00269R001100100003-5, NA, CP.

  98. Ibid., p. 9.

  99. CIA, DDCI Notes, January 2, 1980, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R00 0600230018-5, NA, CP; Lt. General William J McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), A Review of Intelligence Performance in Afghanistan, April 9, 1984, p. 10, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP86 B00269R001100100003-5, NA, CP; Willis C. Armstrong et al., “The Hazards of Single-Outcome Forecasting,” in H. Bradford Westerfield, ed., Inside the CIA’s Private World (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995), p. 254; Gates, From the Shadows, p. 133; MacEachin, Predicting the Soviet Invasion, p. 33.