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GCHQ

Page 60

by Richard Aldrich


  1 Jul. 1996 David Omand becomes Director of GCHQ, taking over from John Adye

  1996 RAF Pergamos closes

  1 Jan. 1997 Corporate Communications Unit created

  16 Jan. 1997 GCHQ relaxes regulation on the employment of gays and lesbians

  1 Apr. 1997 CESG moves to cost recovery and completes restructuring

  28 Apr. 1997 XV249, the Nimrod R1 replacement for XW666, becomes operational

  15 May 1997 Robin Cook announces the end of the GCHQ trade union ban

  Oct. 1997 NSA station at Edzell in Scotland which focused on Soviet naval traffic is closed

  Jan. 1998 Kevin Tebbit becomes Director of GCHQ, taking over from David Omand

  Jun. 1998 Lead 21 management training scheme begins

  Jul. 1998 Francis Richards becomes Director of GCHQ, taking over from Kevin Tebbit

  4 Jan. 1999 Richard Walton becomes Director of CESG, taking over from Andrew Saunders

  1999 GCHQ station at Culmhead in Somerset closed, functions transferred to Scarborough

  1999 Speech Research Unit privatised

  Sept. 1999 Cabinet Secretary asks Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Burton to review GCHQ

  Jan. 2000 GCHQ assists NSA during its major computer failure

  2000 Burton review completed, focusing on cost overruns on new accommodation

  Jul. 2000 Brian Paterson from GCHQ develops Government Technical Assistance Centre (GTAC)

  13 Mar. 2001 Geoffrey Prime released from Rochester Prison on parole

  12 Sept. 2001 Directors of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ fly to Washington

  2002 Huw Rees becomes Director of CESG, taking over from Richard Walton

  2 Jun. 2002 JTAC begins operations in the MI5 headquarters at Thames House

  3 Mar. 2003 Observer publishes NSA document on the monitoring of UN delegations

  20 Mar. 2003 Iraq War begins with targeted strike against Saddam Hussein

  Apr. 2003 Dr David Pepper becomes Director of GCHQ, taking over from Francis Richards

  16 Jul. 2003 National Audit Office publishes report on new accommodation IT cost

  Jul. 2003 Scarus manpack sigint equipment arrives in Afghanistan

  17 Sept. 2003 Staff begin to move into ‘the Doughnut’

  14 Nov. 2003 Katharine Gun charged under Official Secrets Act on UN revelations

  Feb. 2004 Katharine Gun acquitted

  May 2004 Move to new accommodation completed

  Sept. 2005 John Widdowson becomes Director of CESG, taking over from Huw Rees

  Oct. 2005 Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research set up at University of Bristol

  Apr. 2006 NTAC (formerly GTAC) transferred from Home Office to GCHQ

  30 Jul. 2008 Iain Lobban becomes Director of GCHQ, taking over from Dr David Pepper

  Aug. 2008 Intercept Modernisation Programme announced

  10 Mar. 2010 Cyber Security Operations Centre opens

  Appendix 3 – GCHO Organisation in 1946

  Appendix 4 – GCHO Organisation in 1970

  Appendix 5 – GCHO Organisation in 1998

  Notes

  Abbreviations

  ACAS(I)—Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Intelligence)

  ACSI—Assistant Chief of Staff Intelligence [American]

  AFSA—Armed Forces Security Agency [American]

  AWM—Australian War Memorial

  BAFB—Bollings Air Force Base, Washington DC

  BDEE—British Documents on End of Empire

  BGS Int—Brigadier General Staff Intelligence, the senior Army intelligence officer

  BJSM—British Joint Services Mission, Washington

  BL—British Library

  BLPES—British Library of Political and Economic Science

  BNS—Briefing Notes Subseries (NSC)

  BOD—Bodleian Library

  BRO—Brotherton Library

  BUL—Birmingham University Library

  CAFH—Center for Air Force History, Bollings Air Force Base

  CAS—Chief of the Air Staff

  CCC—Churchill College, Cambridge

  C/GSPS—Controller, Government Signals Planning Staff

  CIG—Central Intelligence Group, regional function subset of the JIC

  CIGS—Chief of the Imperial General Staff

  CNA—Canadian National Archives

  CNO—Chief of Naval Operations [American]

  CNS—Chief of the Naval Staff

  COS—Chiefs of Staff

  CPB—Cypher Policy Board, succeeded by LCSA

  CSC—Cabinet Security Committee

  CTSD—Communications Technical Services Department

  CWIHP—Cold War International History Project

  DA—GCHQ Director of Administration – 1990s successor to PEO

  DCI—Director of Central Intelligence, the head of the CIA

  DDEL—Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas

  DDRS—Declassified Document Reference System

  D/GCHQ—Director of GCHQ

  DMI—Director of Military Intelligence

  DNI—Director of Naval Intelligence

  D of I—USAF Director of Intelligence

  DPS—GCHQ Difficult Post Supplement – where discomfort and hazard is involved

  DSI—Director of Scientific Intelligence

  DSSS—Defence Secure Speech System – satellite-based 1970s

  DSTI—Director of Scientific and Technical Intelligence (MoD)

  FAOHP—Foreign Affairs Oral History Programme

  FECOM—Far Eastern Command [American]

  FOIA—Document obtained by Freedom of Information Act

  FRUS—Foreign Relations of the United States

  GCHQ-UR—GCHQ union records at WMRC

  GCSF—Government Communications Staff Federation, which replaced unions in 1984

  GSPS—Government Signals Planning Staff

  HL—Hartley Library, University of Southampton

  HoC—House of Commons

  HQSBAA—HQ Sovereign Base Area Administration, Episkopi, Cyprus

  HSTL—Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri

  IC—Cabinet Office Intelligence Coordinator

  IJICI—International Journal of Intelligence and Counter Intelligence

  I∂NS—Intelligence and National Security

  INSCOM—Intelligence and Security Command [American]

  IOLR—India Office Library and Records, Blackfriars, London, now held at the British Library

  IWM—Imperial War Museum

  J.—Journal

  JCS—Joint Chiefs of Staff [American]

  JFKL—John F. Kennedy Library, Boston

  JIB—Joint Intelligence Bureau

  JTLS—Joint Technical Language Service

  LBJL—Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas

  LC—Library of Congress

  LHCMA—Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London

  LL—Lauinger Library, Georgetown University

  LSIB—London Signals Intelligence Board

  LSIC—London Signals Intelligence Committee

  MI8—Military Intelligence section dealing with signals intelligence

  MoS—Ministry of Supply files

  NAA—National Archives of Australia

  NARA—National Archives and Record Administration, Washington DC

  NMLH—National Museum of Labour History, Manchester

  NPM—Nixon Presidential Materials at College Park, now moved to the Nixon Library

  NSG—Naval Security Group [American]

  NY—New York

  OAB, WNY—Operational Archives Branch, Washington Navy Yard

  OR—Office of Intelligence and Research in the State Department

  OSANSA—Office of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs

  OTHR—Over the horizon radar or ionospheric reflection radar

  PFIAB—President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board [American]

  POF—President’s Official File

  PS/SAS�
�Presidential Subseries, Special Assistant Series, DDEL

  PSF—President’s Secretaries Files

  PUSD—Permanent Under-Secretary’s Department

  RG—Record Group of the US National Archives and Canadian National Archives

  RNSM—Royal Naval Submarine Museum, Gosport

  RSI (CWP)—Review of Service Intelligence (Civilianisation Working Party)

  RSM—Royal Signals Museum, Blandford Forum

  SAC—US Air Force Strategic Air Command

  SACMED—Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean

  SAM—Surface to Air Missile

  SCARL—Signals Command Air Radio Laboratory, RAF Watton

  SD—State Department [American]

  SPDR—Strategic Plans Division Records

  TC/LSIC—Technical Committee of London Signals Intelligence Committee

  USCIB—US Communications Intelligence Board

  USMHI—US Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks

  USNOA—US Navy Operational Archive, Navy Yard, Washington DC

  WHO—White House Office

  WMRC—Warwick Modern Records Centre

  W/T—Wireless Telegraphy

  Introduction: GCHQ – The Last Secret?

  1 HC Deb 55, 107, 27.02.84, pp.37-8.

  2 There are no books devoted to GCHQ’s post-war history, although in 1986 Nigel West provided an excellent overview of British code-breaking in the twentieth century in his book GCHQ.

  3 MacEachin, The Final Months of War with Japan; www.cia.gov/library/publications/index.html.

  4 Andrew, ‘Intelligence and International Relations’, pp.321-3.

  5 Important writings about GCHQ are submerged within wider accounts. See in particular: Aid, Secret Sentry; Bamford, The Puzzle Palace; Richelson and Ball, Ties that Bind; Campbell, Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier; Smith, The Ultra-Magic Deals and Wiebes, Intelligence and the War in Bosnia. Important episodes have also been recounted by Stafford in Beneath Berlin and Urban, UK Eyes Alpha. Seminal articles include Andrew, ‘The Growth of the Australian Intelligence Community’ and ‘The Making of the Anglo-American SIGINT Alliance’, together with Easter, ‘GCHQ’ and Rudner, ‘Betwixt and Between’.

  6 HC Deb, 11.10.04, Col 51W.

  7 Nicholas Henderson interview, British Diplomatic Oral History project, CCC.

  8 Entries for 1.04.74, 5.02.76 and 18.02.76, Donoughue, Downing Street Diaries, pp.85, 656, 670.

  9 Young, The Labour Governments, 1964-70, p.15.

  10 S.I. Khrushchev, ‘My Father Nikita’s Downfall’, 14.11.88, Time.

  11 RFE Background Report, ‘Vukmanovic Describes His Last Meeting with Khrushchev: How Rankovic “Bugged” Tito’s Bedroom’, by Slovan Stankovic, 25.01.71, 79-4-239, Open Society Archives.

  12 Heath, The Course of My Life, p.493.

  13 Entry for 5.11.01, Campbell, The Blair Years, p.577.

  14 Lewis, Changing Direction, pp.178-241.

  15 Bruce Schneier, ‘NSA and Bush’s Illegal Eavesdropping’, 20.12.05, http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/12/nsa_and_bushs_i.html.

  THE 1940s: BLETCHLEY PARK AND BEYOND

  Chapter 1: Schooldays

  1 Kipling, ‘Wireless’, p.238.

  2 Ibid., pp.238-9.

  3 Vincent, Culture of Secrecy, pp.26-31; Smith, Spying Game, pp.43-5.

  4 Smith, Spying Game, pp.257-8.

  5 Andrew, Secret Service, pp.108-13.

  6 Ibid., pp.259-60; Denniston, Thirty Secret Years, p.54.

  7 Vincent, Culture of Secrecy, p.207.

  8 Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra, p.9.

  9 Smith, Spying Game, p.261.

  10 Ball and Horner, Breaking the Code, p.179; Andrew, Secret Service, pp.331-3.

  11 Paterson, Voices, p.30.

  12 Erskine and Freeman, ‘Brigadier John Tiltman’, pp.294-6.

  13 Best, British Intelligence and the Japanese Challenge, pp.56-7.

  14 Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra, p.5.

  15 Paterson, Voices, p.31.

  16 Ratcliff, Delusions of Intelligence, p.11.

  17 Sebag-Montefiore, The Battle for the Code, p.10.

  18 Smith, Station X, p.5.

  19 Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra, p.13.

  20 Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, p.12.

  21 Diary entries, 04.11.39 and 05.11.39, Cadogan diary, ACAD 1/8, 1939, Cadogan papers, CCC.

  22 Bennett, Morton, pp.210-12.

  23 Ibid. p.248.

  24 Diary entry, 14.03.41, Cadogan diary, ACAD 1/10 1941, Cadogan papers, CCC.

  25 Bennett, Morton, p.267. These matters were delegated to Peter Loxley, his private secretary.

  26 Calvocoressi, Top Secret Ultra, pp.13, 19.

  27 Bennett, Morton, p.252.

  28 Davies, MI6 and the Machinery of Spying, pp.188-9.

  29 Grey and Sturdy, ‘A Chaos that Worked’, pp.47-50.

  30 Denniston, Thirty Secret Years, pp.68-75.

  31 Lewin, Ultra, pp.30-61.

  32 Entry for 11.01.41, ACAD 1/10, 1941, Cadogan papers, CCC.

  33 Smith, Station X, p.78.

  34 Davies, ‘GC&CS and Institution-Building in Sigint’, pp.397-9.

  35 Denniston, Thirty Secret Years, pp.73-5.

  36 The idea came from Gordon Welchman; see Milner-Barry, ‘Action This Day’, pp.272-6.

  37 Smith, Spying Game, pp.283-4.

  38 Grey and Sturdy, ‘Reorganisation’, pp.311-13.

  39 Davies, ‘GC&CS and Institution-Building in Sigint’, pp.397-9.

  40 Loehnis to Beesly, 10.08.80, MLBE, CCC.

  41 The pre-eminent account is Gannon, Colossus.

  42 42 Clark, The Man Who Broke Purple, pp.119-21.

  Chapter 2: Friends and Allies

  1 Chapter VIII, ‘The Russian Liaison’, HW 3/101.

  2 Hinsley, British Intelligence, Vol.II, pp.618-19.

  3 DMI memo, ‘Expansion of “Y” Service in India’, 29.10.41, L/WS/1/897, IOLR.

  4 Ball and Horner, Breaking the Code, p.183.

  5 Aldrich, War Against Japan, pp.164-5.

  6 Loehnis to Denniston (D/GCandCS), 06.10.39, HW 14/1; Memo by MGM, ‘Russian Navy – Y Investigation’, 01.10.39, ibid.

  7 GC&CS History, ‘Russian Naval’, HW 3/151.

  8 GC&CS memo, 14.01.40, HW 14/3.

  9 Erskine and Freeman, ‘Brigadier John Tiltman’, p.299.

  10 GC&CS History, ‘Russian Naval’, HW 3/151.

  11 Ibid.

  12 Hinsley, British Intelligence, Vol.I, pp.438-40.

  13 Gorodetsky, Grand Delusion, pp.281-3.

  14 Chapter VIII, ‘The Russian Liaison’, HW 3/101.

  15 Scott-Farnie memo, ‘Y Liaison Visit to Russia’, 03.10.41, HW 34/23.

  16 Chapter VIII, ‘The Russian Liaison’, HW 3/101.

  17 Cooper (RAF Section GCC) to Blandy (DDSY), 03.10.41, HW 34/23.

  18 Chapter VIII, ‘The Russian Liaison’, HW 3/101.

 

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