[NYTr] FAS Secrecy News - 01/07/2008

Mon Jan 7 13:11:26 EST 2008

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2008, Issue No. 3
January 7, 2008

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/

Support Secrecy News: http://www.fas.org/static/contrib_sec.jsp

**	NSA RELEASES HISTORY OF AMERICAN SIGINT AND THE VIETNAM WAR
**	SOURCEBOOK ON THE ALTAY OPTICAL LASER RESEARCH CENTER
**	DOD OPERATIONS AT U.S. EMBASSIES
**	THE LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION AND INTELLIGENCE
**	OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, AND MORE FROM CRS

NSA RELEASES HISTORY OF AMERICAN SIGINT AND THE VIETNAM WAR

During the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese intelligence units sometimes
succeeded in penetrating Allied communications systems, and they could
monitor Allied message traffic from within.  But sometimes they did
more than that.

On several occasions "the communists were able, by communicating on
Allied radio nets, to call in Allied artillery or air strikes on
American units."

That is just one passing observation (at p. 392) in an exhaustive
history of American signals intelligence (SIGINT) in the Vietnam War
that has just been declassified and released by the National Security
Agency.

>From the first intercepted cable -- a 1945 message from Ho Chi Minh to
Joseph Stalin -- to the final evacuation of SIGINT personnel from
Saigon, the 500-page NSA volume, called "Spartans in Darkness," retells
the history of the Vietnam War from the perspective of signals
intelligence.

The most sensational part of the history (which was excerpted and
disclosed by the NSA two years ago) is the recounting of the 1964 Gulf
of Tonkin Incident, in which a reported North Vietnamese attack on U.S.
forces triggered a major escalation of the war.  The author demonstrates
that not only is it not true, as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara
told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was "unimpeachable," but
that to the contrary, a review of the classified signals intelligence
proves that "no attack happened that night."

Several other important Vietnam War-era episodes are elucidated by the
contribution of SIGINT, including the Tet Offensive, the attempted
rescue of U.S. prisoners of war from Son Tay prison, and more.

The author, Robert J. Hanyok, writes in a lively, occasionally florid
style that is accessible even to those who are not well-versed in the
history of SIGINT or Vietnam.

The 2002 study was released in response to a Mandatory Declassification
Review request filed by Michael Ravnitzky.  About 95% of the document
was declassified.  (Unfortunately, several of the pages were poorly
reproduced by NSA and are difficult to read.  A cleaner, clearer copy
will need to be obtained.)

See "Spartans in Darkness: American SIGINT and the Indochina War,
1945-1975" by Robert J. Hanyok, Center for Cryptologic History,
National Security Agency, 2002:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/spartans/index.html

Some background on the Tonkin Gulf Incident from the National Security
Archive with links to related documents may be found here:

    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB132/press20051201.htm

SOURCEBOOK ON THE ALTAY OPTICAL LASER RESEARCH CENTER

A Russian satellite tracking facility in Siberia called the Altay
Optical Laser Research Center is profiled in a newly updated document
collection.

A proposed expansion of the facility calls for a high-resolution
satellite imaging telescope with an aperture of 3.12  meters and
angular resolution of 0.044 arc seconds.

"This is diffraction-limited performance, indicating serious adaptive
optics," observed Allan Thomson, the former CIA analyst who prepared
the new sourcebook, which is in Russian and English.

     http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/track/altay.pdf

DOD OPERATIONS AT U.S. EMBASSIES

The lines of authority governing Department of Defense employees at
U.S. embassies abroad, including policy and intelligence personnel, are
set forth in a new DoD directive.  See "Department of Defense Operations
at U.S. Embassies," DoD Directive 5105.75, December 21, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/d5105_75.pdf

THE LAW OF THE SEA CONVENTION AND INTELLIGENCE

The Director of National Intelligence last year affirmed the
Administration's support for ratification of the Law of the Sea
Convention.  But a minority in Congress expressed concern that the
Convention would impede U.S. intelligence collection.

"The overwhelming opinion of Law of the Sea experts and legal advisors
is that the Law of the Sea Convention simply does not regulate
intelligence activities nor was it intended to...," wrote Charles
Allen, then-Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Collection,
as quoted in an August 8, 2007 letter from DNI Mike McConnell.

But "the Treaty fails to protect the significant role submarines have
played, especially during the Cold War, in gathering intelligence very
close to foreign shorelines," claimed Sens. Jim DeMint (R-SC) and David
Vitter (R-LA), in a dissenting view not supported by the DNI or the
leadership of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Both perspectives were aired in a Senate Foreign Relations Committee
volume last month that recommended ratification of the Convention.  See
"Convention on the Law of the Sea," December 19, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2007_rpt/lots.pdf

OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE, AND MORE FROM CRS

Noteworthy new and updated reports from the Congressional Research
Service that have not been made readily available to the public online
include these.

"Obstruction of Justice: an Overview of Some of the Federal Statutes
that Prohibit Interference with Judicial, Executive, or Legislative
Activities," December 27, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34303.pdf

"Obstruction of Congress: a Brief Overview of Federal Law Relating to
Interference with Congressional Activities," December 27, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL34304.pdf

"Suits Against Terrorist States By Victims of Terrorism," updated
December 17, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL31258.pdf

"Proposals to Reform 'Holds' in the Senate," updated December 20, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL31685.pdf

"Federal Tort Claims Act," updated December 11, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/95-717.pdf

"Intelligence Issues for Congress," updated December 18, 2007:

     http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33539.pdf

_______________________________________________
Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the
Federation of American Scientists.

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_______________________
Steven Aftergood
Project on Government Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web:    www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email:  saftergood at fas.org
voice:  (202) 454-4691