The Secret Sentry (74 page)

4. George J. Tenet, “SIGINT in Context,”
Defense Intelligence Journal
, vol. 9, no. 2 (Summer 2000): pp. 9–12; Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, USAF, “Background on NSA: History, Oversight, Relevance
for Today,”
Defense Intelligence Journal
, vol. 9, no. 2 (Summer 2000): pp. 13–26; “Statement for the Record of NSA Director Lt. General Michael V. Hayden, USAF Before
the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,” April 12, 2000.

5. Confidential interviews. A detailed examination of the wide range of data being collected by NSA can be found in Siobhan
Gorman, “NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows as Agency Sweeps Up Data,”
Wall Street Journal
, March 10, 2008.

6. Confidential interviews.

7. Confidential interviews with senior Justice Department officials; Eric Lichtblau, “Debate and Protest at Spy Program’s
Inception,”
New York Times
, March 30, 2008; Dan Eggen, “White House Secrecy on Wiretaps Described,”
Washington Post
, October 3, 2007.

8. Robert S. Mueller, III, “RSM Program Log,” Wednesday, March 10, 2004, entry, p. 1, attached to David Johnston and Scott
Shane, “Notes Detail Visit to Ashcroft’s Hospital Room,”
New York
Times
, August 16, 2007.

9. Jack Landman Goldsmith, prepared statement, “Preserving the Rule of Law in the Fight Against Terrorism,” U.S. Senate, Judiciary
Committee, October 2, 2007.

10. Jeffrey Rosen, “Conscience of a Conservative,”
New York Times Magazine
, September 9, 2007.

11. Confidential interviews.

12. Risen and Lichtblau, “Bush Lets U.S. Spy.”

13. Barton Gellman, Dafna Linzer, and Carol D. Leonnig, “Surveillance Net Yields Few Suspects,”
Washington Post
, February 5, 2006.

14. Chris Roberts, “Transcript: Debate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,”
El Paso Times
, August 22, 2007.

15. Confidential interviews.

16. Douglas Jehl, “Senator Asks U.N. Nominee to Explain His Security Requests,”
New York Times
, April 14, 2005.

17. Mark Hosenball, Periscope, “Spying— Giving Out U.S. Names,”
Newsweek
, May 2, 2005.

18. Katherine Shrader, “Bolton Requested 10 Names in Spy Reports,” Associated Press, June 27, 2005.

19. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and General Michael Hayden, Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence, press
briefing, December 19, 2005, http:www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/12/20051219=1.html.

20. Richard W. Stevenson and Adam Liptak, “Cheney Defends Eavesdropping Without Warrants,”
New York Times
, December 21, 2005.

21. Risen and Lichtblau, “Bush Lets U.S. Spy.” Connection to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from confidential interview.

22. “Two Al Qaeda Suspects Arrested in Karachi,”
Dawn (Pakistan)
, January 10, 2003; Syed Saleem Shahzad, “Pakistani Backlash to FBI Raids,”
Asia Times
, January 15, 2003; Jason Burke, “Shots in the Dark Against an Unknown Enemy,”
U.K. Observer
, February 16, 2003.

23. Confidential interviews; Kevin Johnson and Jack Kelly, “Terror Arrest Triggers Mad Scramble,”
USA Today
, March 2, 2003; Rory McCarthy and Jason Burke, “Endgame in the Desert of Death for the World’s Most Wanted Man,”
U.K. Observer
, March 9, 2003; Kevin Whitelaw, “A Tightening Noose,”
U.S. News & World Report
, March 17, 2003.

24. Confidential interview.

25. Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, “Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report,”
New
York Times
, December 24, 2005.

26. John Markoff and Scott Shane, “Documents Show Link Between AT&T and Agency in Eavesdropping Case,”
New York Times
, April 13, 2006; John Markoff, “U.S. Steps into Wiretap Suit Against AT&T,”
New York Times
, April 29, 2006; Leslie Cauley, “NSA Has Massive Database of America’s Phone Bills,”
USA Today
, May 11, 2006; John O’Neill and Eric Lichtblau, “Qwest’s Refusal of NSA Query Is Explained,”
New York Times
, May 12, 2006.

27. NSA OH-01-74 to NSA OH-14-81, oral history,
Interview with Frank B. Rowlett
, 1976, pp. 357– 61, NSA FOIA; NSA OH-02-79 thru 04-79, oral history,
Interview with Dr. Abraham Sinkov
, May 1979, p. 84, NSA FOIA

28. U.S. Senate,
Final Report of the Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities
, 94th Congress, 2nd session, bk. 3, pp. 767–69; letter, Barsby to Corderman, October 9, 1945, and letter, Abzug to McKay,
in U.S. House of Representatives, Government Operations Committee,
Interception of Nonverbal Communications by Federal Intelligence Agencies
, 94th Congress, 1st and 2nd sessions, 1976, pp. 208, 210; L. Britt Snider, “Unlucky Shamrock: Recollections from the Church
Committee’s Investigation of NSA,”
Studies in Intelligence
, Winter 1999– 2000, unclassified ed., pp. 50–51. For the army’s abortive attempts to get legislation passed that would have
provided legal protection to the cable companies, see memorandum, Russell to Larkin,
Proposed Bill to Amend Section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934 in Order to Increase the Security
of the United States, and for Other Purposes
, March 13, 1948, p. 1, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP57-00384R001000070061-9, NA, CP; memorandum, Clarke to Forrestal,
December 13, 1947, RG-330, Entry 199 OSD Decimal File 1947–1950, box 105, file: CD 24-1-1, NA, CP; letter, Carville to Martin,
June 1948, CREST Collection, Document No. CIA-RDP57-00384R001000070088-0, NA, CP; ASA,
Annual Report, Plans and Operations Section (AS-23) FY
1948
, p. 24, INSCOM FOIA.

29. Eric Lichtblau, “Key Senators Raise Doubts on Eavesdropping Immunity,”
New York Times
, November 1, 2007; confidential interviews.

30. Confidential interviews.

31. Scott Shane, “Attention in NSA Debate Turns to Telecom Industry,”
New York Times
, February 11, 2006.

32. Katherine Shrader, “Bush Seeks Legal Immunity for Telecoms,” Associated Press, September 5, 2007; Eric Lichtblau, “Immunity
Crucial in Talks on Eavesdropping Rules,”
New York Times
, October 10, 2007.

33. For an example of McConnell’s impassioned pleas for granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies,
see Mike McConnell, “A Key Gap in Fighting Terrorism,”
Washington Post
, February 15, 2008.

34. Confidential interview.

35. U.S. Department of Justice,
Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security
Agency Described by the President
, January 19, 2006; Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and General Michael Hayden, Principal Deputy Director for National Intelligence,
press briefing, December 19, 2005. For CIA programs, see Dana Priest, “Covert CIA Program Withstands New Furor,”
Washington Post
, December 30, 2005.

36. Letter, February 2, 2006, http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/nsaspying/ FISA_AUMF_replyto DOJ.pdf.

37. “Wiretap Mystery: Spooks React,” Defensetech.org, December 20, 2005, http://www.defensetech.org/archives/ 002032.html.

38. Confidential interview.

39. Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction,
Report to the President of the United States
(Washington, DC: GPO, March 31, 2005), p. 375.

40. Devlin Barrett, “Security Issue Kills Domestic Spying Inquiry,” Associated Press, May 10, 2006.

41. Confidential interviews.

42. The Comey incident was first revealed in Eric Lichtblau and James Risen, “Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program,”
New York Times
, January 1, 2006. See also David Johnston, “Pres-ident Intervened in Dispute over Eavesdropping,”
New York Times
, May 16, 2007; Dan Eggen and Paul Kane, “Gonzales Hospital Episode Detailed,”
Washington Post
, May 16, 2007.

43. Confidential interview.

44. Eggen, “White House Secrecy.”

45. Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, “Behind the Surveillance Debate,”
Newsweek
, August 1, 2007; Greg Miller, “Court Puts Limits on Surveillance Abroad,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 2, 2007.

46. Siobhan Gorman, “NSA Has Higher Profile, New Problems,”
Baltimore Sun
, September 8, 2006.

47. Confidential interviews.

48. Gorman, “NSA Has Higher Profile.”

49. Ariel Sabar, “Want to Be a Spy? NSA Is Hiring,”
Baltimore Sun
, April 10, 2004; Stephen Barr, “NSA Makes No Secret of Stepped-Up Recruitment Effort,”
Washington Post
, April 22, 2004; “A Good Spy Is Hard to Fund,”
U.S. News & World Report
, November 22, 2004; “Spy Agency to Undergo Major Changes,” Associated Press, November 12, 2005; Gorman, “NSA Has Higher Profile”;
Siobhan Gorman, “Bud get Falling Short at NSA,”
Baltimore Sun
, January 17, 2007; confidential interviews.

50. As of 2005, the size of the U.S. intelligence budget was forty-four billion dollars, for which see Scott Shane, “Official
Reveals Budget for U.S. Intelligence,”
New York Times
, November 8, 2005. In May 2007, Congress approved a forty-eight-billion-dollar intelligence bud get, for which see Walter
Pincus, “House Panel Approves a Record $48 billion for Spy Agencies,”
Washington Post
, May 4, 2007.

51. Sheila Hotchkin, “NSA Will Let Its Dollars Do the Talking,”
San Antonio Express-News
, April 16, 2005; Mike Soraghan and Aldo Svaldi, “NSA Moving Some Workers, Operations to Denver Area,”
Denver Post
, January 24, 2006; Robert Gehrke, “Key Spy Agency Expands to Utah,”
Salt
Lake Tribune
, February 2, 2006; Amy Choate, “NSA Seeks Linguists at BYU to Staff Utah Center,”
Salt Lake City Deseret Morning News
, February 24, 2006.

52. “Emergency War Supplemental Hides Millions,” UPI, February 20, 2006.

53. Scott Shane and Tom Bowman, “America’s Fortress of Spies,”
Baltimore Sun
, December 3, 1995.

54. NSA/CSS,
Transition 2001
, December 2000, p. 33. The author is grateful to Dr. Jeffrey T. Richel-son for making a copy of this document available.

55. There are twenty-two distinct Arabic dialects spoken in the Muslim countries of North Africa and the Middle East, each
marked by subtle differences in vocabulary, verb usage, and pronunciation.

56. Confidential interviews. For languages spoken by linguists at Fort Gordon, see Joseph Gunder, “Tongue Sharpening: GCL
Helps Cryptologists Brush Up Before Shipping Out,”
InfoDomain
, Summer 2007, p. 10.

57. Confidential interviews. For a brief description of the work performed by NSA’s TAO, see Rowan Scarborough,
Sabotage: America’s Enemies Within the CIA
(Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2007), p. 161; U.S. Army War College,
Information Operations Primer: Fundamentals
of Information Operations
, November 2006, pp. 88–89. A description of the work performed by the navy’s computer network exploitation operators at Fort
Meade is contained in MILPERSMAN 1306-980,
Navy Interactive ON-NET (ION) Computer Network Exploitation
(CNE) Operator Certification Program
, May 29, 2007; MILPERSMAN 1306-981,
Navy Interactive
ON-NET (ION) Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) Trainer Certification Program
, May 29, 2007.

58. Technical Document 3131,
SPAWAR Systems Center San Diego Command History 2001
, March 2002, p. 41, http://www.spawar.navy.mil/sti/publications/pubs/td/3131/td3131.pdf.

59. Memorandum, Zenker to Joint Tactical SIGINT Architecture (JTSA) Working Group,
Quarterly
Meeting Minutes–December 2001
, December 31, 2001. This document has since been reclassified and removed from the Internet site where the author originally
found it.

60. NSA/CSS,
Transition 2001
, December 2000, p. 19. Shane Harris, “Internet Devices Threaten NSA’s Ability to Gather Intelligence Legally,”
National Journal
, April 10, 2006; Richard Willing, “Growing Cellphone Use a Problem for Spy Agencies,”
USA Today
, August 2, 2007; confidential interview.

61. Loren B. Thompson, PowerPoint presentation, “ISR Lessons of Iraq,” Defense News ISR Integration Conference, November 18,
2003, http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/docs/435.pdf.

62. Confidential interviews.

63. Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction,
Report to the President of the United States
(Washington, DC: GPO, March 31, 2005), p. 16.

64. U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,
IC21: Intelligence
Community in the 21st Century
, 104th Congress, 1st session, 1996, p. 189; U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Report
104-578,
Intelligence Authorization
Act for Fiscal Year 1998
, 105th Congress, 1st session, June 18, 1997, p. 18; Philip H. J. Davies, “Information Warfare and the Future of the Spy,”
Information Communication and Society
, vol. 2, no. 2 (Summer 1999); Warren P. Strobel, “The Sound of Silence?,”
U.S. News & World Report
, February 14, 2000; John Deutch and Jeffrey H. Smith, “Smarter Intelligence,”
Foreign Policy
, January–February 2002.

65. Colum Lynch, “US Used UN to Spy on Iraq, Aides Say,”
Boston Globe
, January 6, 1999; Barton Gellman, “Annan Suspicious of UNSCOM Probe,”
Washington Post
, January 6, 1999; Bruce W. Nelan, “Bugging Saddam,”
Time
, January 18, 1999; Seymour M. Hersh, “Saddam’s Best Friend,”
New Yorker
, April 5, 1999, pp. 32, 35; David Wise, “Fall Guy,”
Washingtonian
, July 1999, pp. 42–43.

66. John Pomfret, “China Finds Bugs on Jet Equipped in U.S.,”
Washington Post
, January 19, 2002.

67. Bill Gertz and Rowan Scarborough, “Inside the Ring,”
Washington Times
, January 12, 2007.