The Secret Sentry

by Matthew M. Aid

  100.CIA, Afghan Task Force, intelligence memorandum, The Buildup of Soviet Forces in Afghanistan Since 29 November, December 28, 1979, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00 401R000600230019-4, NA, CP; CIA, DDCI Notes, January 2, 1980, p. 2, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP81B00401R000600230018-5, NA, CP; Lt. General William J McCaffrey, USA (Ret.), A Review of Intelligence Performance in Afghanistan, April 9, 1984, p. 11, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP86B00269R001100100003-5, NA, CP. For the Russian perspective, see Valerie I. Ablazov, “VVS Sovetskoy Armii v perviy god voiny,” undated, http://www.airwar.ru/history/locwar/afgan/vvs/vvs.html.

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

  102.Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 3, p. 254.

  103. “CRYPTOLOG Interviews NSA Employee Gene Becker,” Cryptolog, Spring 1996: p. 19.

  104.Johnson, American Cryptology, bk. 3, p. vii.

  10: Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano

  1. “Gen. Faurer Named as NSA Director,” Washington Post, March 11, 1981; “Director Completes Distinguished Career,” NSA Newsletter, April 1985, p. 3, NSA FOIA.

  2. NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, p. 5, NSA FOIA; interview with Charles R. Lord; confidential interviews.

  3. National Cryptologic School, On Watch: Profiles from the National Security Agency’s Past 40 Years (Fort Meade, MD: NSA/CSS, 1986), p. 91, NSA FOIA.

  4. Bob Woodward, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987), p. 88; H. D. S. Greenway and Paul Quinn-Judge, “CIA Chief Voices Final Hopes and Fears,” Boston Globe, January 15, 1993; confidential interviews.

  5. CIA, interagency intelligence assessment, Ramifications of Planned US Naval Exercise in the Gulf of Sidra: 18–20 August 1981, August 10, 1981, p. 1, DDRS.

  6. 1981 Command History, USS Caron, pp. 1–3, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; David C. Martin and John Walcott, Best Laid Plans (New York: Harper and Row, 1988), p. 72; Daniel P. Bolger, Americans at War (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1988), p. 179.

  7. Confidential interviews; Jay Peterzell, Reagan’s Secret Wars (Washington, DC: Center for National Security Studies, 1984), p. 69; Woodward, Veil, pp. 165–67, 409; Martin and Walcott, Best Laid Plans, pp. 72–73.

  8. Raymond Bonner, Weakness and Deceit: U.S. Policy and El Salvador (New York: Times Books, 1984), p. 263; Woodward, Veil, pp. 164, 229, 251; Steven Emerson, Secret Warriors (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1988), pp. 87–88; Raymond Tate, “Worldwide C3I and Telecommunications,” p. 37, Seminar on Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence, Center for Information Policy Research, Harvard University, 1980; Joan Edwards, “Reagan’s Charges ‘Total Untruths,’ Ex-CIA Man Says,” Toronto Globe and Mail, June 29, 1984; David Johnston and Michael Wines, “Intelligence Material on Sandinistas Is Said to Have Involved Lawmakers,” New York Times, September 15, 1991; Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, “Catching Americans in NSA’s Net,” Baltimore Sun, December 15, 1995.

  9. For RC-135 missions, see Dick van der Aart, Aerial Espionage (Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing, 1984), pp. 93, 154–57; Captain Rosa Pasos, “Report on Military Aggression Against Nicaragua by U.S. Imperialism,” in Marlene Dixon, ed., On Trial: Reagan’s War Against Nicaragua (San Francisco: Synthesis Publications, 1985), p. 49; Marlise Simons, “Nicaragua Lists U.S. ‘Violations’ in Bitter Reply to Reagan Speech,” New York Times, May 2, 1983; Todd Ensign, “Viewpoints: The First Refusal of Military Duty over Nicaragua,” Newsday, July 7, 1987; “Spying Over Nicaragua Revealed,” Washington Times, July 10, 1987. For C-130 SIGINT missions, see Dr. Dennis F. Casey and Msgt. Gabriel G. Marshall, A Continuing Legacy: USAFSS–AIA, 1948– 2000: A Brief History of the Air Intelligence Agency and Its Prede cessor Organizations (San Antonio, TX: Headquarters Air Intelligence Agency, History Office, 2000), p. 28. Fred Hiatt, “U.S. Said Planning More Exercises for Latin America: One Site to Be El Salvador,” Washington Post, October 26, 1984. For use of SIGINT to target AC-130 gunships, see transcript, “The Pentagon Turned Its Back on Them,” 60 Minutes, May 21, 1995.

  10. Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic, Command History, U.S. Atlantic Command 1982, 1983, p. XVI-1, U.S. Joint Forces Command FOIA; Office of Naval Intelligence, Command History, Naval Intelligence Command for 1982, 1983, p. 1, ONI FOIA; Command History USS Deyo for 1982, February 28, 1983, p. 1; Command History USS Caron for 1982, 1983, both in Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; “U.S. Vessel on Alert for Cuban Arms Shipments,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1982; Richard Halloran, “US Destroyer Monitors Activity in Area of Salvador and Nicaragua,” New York Times, February 25, 1982; Richard Hal-loran, “U.S. Says Navy Surveillance Ship Is Stationed Off Central America,” New York Times, February 25, 1982; “Judging Spies and Eyes,” Time, March 22, 1982, p. 22; James LeMoyne with David C. Martin, “High-Tech Spycraft,” Newsweek, March 22, 1982, p. 29.

  11. Confidential interviews with former CIA officials. See also “Haig Hints at New Talks with Cuba on Salvador,” Globe and Mail, March 15, 1982; “New Report on El Salvador Lacks Evidence for Charges,” Dow Jones News Service, March 22, 1982.

  12. CIA, Directorate of Intelligence, El Salvador: Guerrilla Capabilities and Prospects over the Next Two Years, appendix E, “External Support: The Cuba-Nicaragua Pipeline,” October 1984, p. 37, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000761619, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

  13. The best book by far on the shootdown of KAL 007 remains Seymour Hersh, The Target Is Destroyed (New York: Random House, 1986).

  14. Confidential interviews with NSA analysts and U.S. Air Force intercept operators involved in the KAL 007 incident; History of the 6920th Electronic Security Group: 1 July–31 December 1983, vol. 1, March 31, 1984, AIA FOIA; 6920th Electronic Security Group, 1983 Travis Trophy Submission for Misawa AB, Japan, undated but circa 1984, AIA FOIA. See also Philip Taubman, “U.S. Had Noticed Activity by Soviet,” New York Times, September 14, 1993.

  15. Hersh, Target, pp. 57–61.

  16. Oral history, Interview with George P. Shultz, December 18, 2002, p. 13, Ronald Reagan Presidential Oral History Project, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

  17. For the text of Secretary Shultz’s comments, see “Secretary’s News Briefing, September 1, 1983,” Department of State Bulletin, October 1983, pp. 1–2. For press reporting on intelligence revelations stemming from Shultz’s briefing, see David Shribman, “Side Effect: Peek at U.S. Intelligence Abilities,” New York Times, September 2, 1982; George C. Wilson, “Electronic Spy Network Provided Detailed Account,” Washington Post, September 2, 1983; Walter S. Mossberg and Gerald F. Seib, “U.S. Response Gives Glimpse of Ability to Track Russian Military Activities,” Wall Street Journal, September 2, 1983.

  18. Robert M. Gates, From the Shadows (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 267. It was not until September 11, 1983, ten days after the shootdown, that the State Department released a full transcript of the NSA intercept tape, which confirmed that Major Osipovich had repeatedly tried to warn KAL 007 to no effect. Michael Getler, “Soviet Fired Gun Toward Jet, New Analysis Shows,” Washington Post, September 12, 1983; Paul Mann, “U.S. Admits Soviets Fired Cannon Shots,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, September 19, 1983, p. 25.

  19. Reagan’s televised address to the nation can be found at Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Soviet Attack on a Korean Civilian Airliner,” September 5, 1983, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/ archives/ speeches/1983/ 90583a.htm. Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s presentation to the U.N. can be found at “Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s Statement, U.N. Security Council, September 6, 1983,” in Department of State Bulletin, October 1983, pp. 8–11. The transcript of the three extracts from the NSA tape that Ambassador Kirkpatrick played can be found at “U.S. Intercepts Soviet Fighter Transmissions,” Aviation W
eek & Space Technology, September 12, 1983, pp. 22–23.

  20. Gates, From the Shadows, p. 268.

  21. Alvin A. Snyder, Warriors of Disinformation (New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995); Alvin A. Snyder, “Flight 007: The Rest of the Story,” Washington Post, September 1, 1996.

  22. Raymond L. Garthoff, The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1994), pp. 119–20.

  23. Interview with Walter G. Deeley; NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, p. 11, NSA FOIA

  24. Confidential interviews with NSA analysts. A caustic analysis of the per formance of the Soviet air defense system can be found in “Special Analysis: USSR: The Shootdown,” National Intelligence Daily, September 7, 1983, p. 2, RG-263, entry 42, box 69, NA, CP; NI IIM 85-10008, CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum, Air Defense of the USSR, December 1985, p. 13, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000261292, http:// www.foia.cia.gov. See also William L. Norton, Briefing on the Re-Organization of Soviet Air and Air Defense Forces (Falls Church, VA: E-Systems Melpar Division, 1984), pp. 29–33, paper presented at the Strategy 84 Conference, Washington, DC, March 12, 1984; Richard Halloran, “Soviet’s Defenses Called Inflexible,” New York Times, September 18, 1983; Walter Pincus, “The Soviets Had the Wrong Stuff,” Washington Post, September 18, 1983; Dusko Doder, “Soviets Said to Remove Air Officers,” Washington Post, October 5, 1983; Bill Gertz, “Soviet 007 Tape Revealing,” Washington Times, August 15, 1992.

  25. HQ 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit, Command Chronology: 1–31 May 1983, June 7, 1983, part 3, p. 1, Marine Corps Historical Center, Quantico, VA; message, Beirut 05379, AMEMBASSY BEIRUT to SECSTATE WASHDC, May 6, 1983, Department of State Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 83BEIRUT05379, http:// www.foia.state.gov; message, Beirut 05381, AMEMBASSY BEIRUT to AMEMBASSY AMMAN, May 6, 1983, Department of State Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 83BEIRUT05381, http://www.foia.state.gov.

  26. Confidential interviews with former senior CIA officials. See also Martin and Wolcott, Best Laid Plans, pp. 105, 133; R. W. Apple Jr., “U.S. Knew of Iran’s Role in Two Beirut Bombings,” New York Times, December 8, 1986; Stephen Engelberg, “U.S. Calls Ira ni an Cleric Leading Backer of Terror,” New York Times, August 27, 1989; “New Evidence Ties Iran to Terrorism,” Newsweek, November 15, 1999, p. 7.

  27. Jack Anderson, “U.S. Was Warned of Bombing at Beirut Embassy,” Washington Post, May 10, 1983; Jack Anderson, “Syria Supported Terrorism, Say U.S., Britain,” Newsday, November 7, 1986; Apple, “U.S. Knew.”

  28. The intercept quote is taken from Civil Action No. 01-2094 (RCL), memorandum opinion, May 30, 2003, Deborah D. Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran, p. 12, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. For background of Musawi, his organization, and its relationship with the Iranian government, see CIA, Directorate of Intelligence, The Terrorist Threat to US Personnel in Beirut, January 12, 1984, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000256547, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, Directorate of Intelligence, Lebanon: The Hizb Allah, September 27, 1984, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000256558, http://www.foia.cia.gov; memorandum for the DCI, Iranian Support for International Terrorism, November 22, 1986, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000258607, http://www.foia.cia.gov. For September 27, 1983, NSA warning message, see James P. Stevenson, The $5 Billion Misunderstanding: The Collapse of the Navy’s A-12 Stealth Bomber Program (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), p. 39n.

  29. For a rendition of all the intelligence and security failings surrounding the October 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut except for the NSA warning message, see Report of the DoD Commission on Beirut International Airport Terrorist Act, October 23, 1983 (Long Commission) (Washington, DC: GPO, 1983).

  30. Message, 230725Z OCT 83, CIA to [deleted], October 23, 1983, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000805432, http://www.foia.cia.gov; message, 230822Z OCT 83, CIA to [deleted], October 23, 1983, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000805431, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

  31. For SIGINT aircraft orbiting the Mediterranean, see U.S. Sixth Fleet, 1984 Sixth Fleet Command History, 1985, p. IV-58, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC. For Marine SIGINT operations, confidential interviews, as well as “Marines Thumb Noses at Local Marksmen,” Globe and Mail, December 15, 1983.

  32. Confidential interviews.

  33. “Director Completes Distinguished Career,” NSA Newsletter, April 1985, p. 3, NSA FOIA; Robert C. Toth, “Security Agency Chief Said Forced out of Office,” Washington Post, April 19, 1985; George C. Wilson, “Reagan to Name Army General as NSA Director,” Washington Post, April 20, 1985; David Burnham, “Move into World of Computer Nets by Intelligence Unit Raises Doubt,” New York Times, June 27, 1985; Bill Gertz, “Superseded General Expected to Resign,” Washington Times, February 22, 1988.

  34. For the brief but intense fight over the selection of Odom to be NSA director, see 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. 167–68.

  35. Odom background from biographical data sheet, Lt. General William E. Odom, Department of the Army, Office of Public Affairs; “New Director Named,” NSA Newsletter, July 1985, p. 2, “View from the Top,” NSA Newsletter, November 1987, pp. 6–8, both NSA FOIA; Wilson, “Reagan to Name”; Charles R. Babcock, “Professorial Director NSA Suddenly in Spotlight,” Washington Post, May 31, 1986; Emerson, Secret Warriors, p. 81.

  36. Woodward quote from Woodward, Veil, p. 450.

  37. NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, p. 6, NSA FOIA.

  38. For details of the Wobensmith case, see Stephen Engelberg, “A Career in Ruins in Wake of Iran-Contra Affair,” New York Times, June 3, 1988.

  39. NSA OH-09-97, oral history, Interview with Bobby Ray Inman, June 18, 1997, p. 7, NSA FOIA.

  40. Confidential interviews with former CIA officials.

  41. Because of the public revelation of Chalet’s existence in June 1979, the Byeman designation for the system was changed from Chalet to Vortex, or VO. In 1987, the Vortex system was again renamed Mercury, or MC. Angelo Codevilla, Informing Statecraft: Intelligence for a New Century (New York: Free Press, 1992), p. 116; Christopher Anson Pike, “Canyon, Rhyolite and Aquacade: U.S. Signals Intelligence Satellites in the 1970s,” Spaceflight, vol. 37 (November 1995): p. 383; Jonathan McDowell, “U.S. Reconnaissance Satellite Programs, Part 2, Beyond Imaging,” Quest, vol. 4, no. 4 (1995): p. 42. For the codename Mercury, see Craig Covault and Joseph C. Anselmo, “Titan Explosion Destroys Secret ‘Mercury’ SIGINT Satellite,” Aviation Week & Space Technology, August 17, 1998, p. 28.

  42. For Vortex monitoring of Soviet forces in Afghanistan, confidential interviews. For monitoring SS-24 ICBM communications, see Major A. Andronov, “American Geosynchronous SIGINT Satellites,” Zarubezhnoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, no. 12 (1993): pp. 37–43. For Vortex generating intelligence on Chernobyl and the Pavlograd explosion, see Jeffrey T. Richelson, The U.S. Intelligence Community, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), pp. 172, 179; Jeffrey T. Richel-son, America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999), p. 153; “Soviet Missile-Motor Plant Shut by Explosion, Pentagon Says,” Washington Post, May 18, 1988; Peter Almond and Paul Bedard, “Explosion Deals Serious Setback to New Soviet ICBMs,” Washington Times, May 18, 1988.

  43. Details of Pelton’s espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union derived from his interrogation by the FBI can be found in FBI Special Agent David E. Faulkner, affidavit in support of complaint, December 20, 1985, in CRIMINAL No. HM85-0621, United States of America v. Ronald William Pel-ton, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The best general description of the Pelton case is in Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar, Merchants of Treason (New Y
ork: Dell Publishing, 1988), pp. 255–67.

  44. For details of the Ivy Bells operation, see Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Blind Man’s Bluff (New York: Public Affairs, 1998), pp. 158–83; Michael Dobbs, “KGB Chief Details U.S. Spy Operation,” Washington Post, September 3, 1988; Norman Polmar, “How Many Spy Subs,” Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1996, p. 87. For the Russian perspective, see Nikolai Brusnitsin, Openness and Espionage (Moscow: Military Publishers House, 1990), pp. 13–14; N. Burbiga, “A Fishy Day at the CIA,” Izvestia, March 1, 1994. See also Angelo M. Codevilla, “Pollard Was No Pelton,” Forward (N.Y.), December 8, 2000, http:// www.jonathanpollard.org/2000/ 120800.htm.

  45. Interview with Charles R. Lord; confidential interviews with former NSA officials. For damage done by Pelton generally, see Woodward, Veil, pp. 448–51. For loss of the data from the Moscow listening posts, see Mike Frost, Spyworld (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1994), pp. 245–52; “Alleged Radio Intelligence Operations from US Embassy in Moscow,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, March 31, 1980. For the tree stump operation, see “US Espionage Activities in USSR: Two CIA Agents Detected,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, March 28, 1980; “Izvestiya on Alleged Espionage Operations by US Diplomats,” BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, March 29, 1980.

  46. Indictment, December 20, 1985, in CRIMINAL No. HM85-0621, United States of America v. Ronald William Pelton, U.S. District Court for the District of Mary land, Baltimore, Maryland.

  47. Richard Whittle, “Libya Jets Intercept U.S. Plane,” Dallas Morning News, January 15, 1986.

  48. Message, JCS 280015Z Feb 86, JCS to multiple recipients, February 28, 1986, JCS FOIA; Command Historian 6916th Electronic Security, History of the 6916th Electronic Security Squadron: 1 January–30 June 1986, 1986, vol. 2, tab 36, AIA FOIA; 1986 Command History, USS Caron, 1987, p. 1, Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; confidential interview. See also Joseph S. Bermudez, “Libyan SAMs and Air Defenses,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, May 17, 1986, p. 880; Seymour M. Hersh, “Target Qaddafi,” New York Times Magazine, January 22, 1987, p. 71; Capt. Don East, USN, “The History of U.S. Naval Airborne Electronic Reconnaissance: Part 2, the Eu ropean Theater and VQ-2,” Hook, Summer 1987: p. 42.