Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (110 page)

93 Soviets had used a fleet: Joint
Chiefs of Staff, Joint Reconnaissance Center, Top Secret,
The Pueblo
Incident
(January 24, 1968), p. 3.

93  "The Soviets had a vast
intelligence program": interview with Oleg Kalugin, CBS News transcript
(undated), p. 35.

94  President Eisenhower
authorized: U.S. Navy, Confidential memorandum, CNO to Secretary of the Navy,
April 26, 1960 (Naval Operational Archives, U.S.S.
Oxford
File).

94 "Oxford" was chosen:
U.S. Navy, memorandum, C.O., U.S.S.
Oxford,
to CNO, February 5, 1962
(Naval Operational Archives, U.S.S.
Oxford
File).

94 "Signaling another first
in communications": ibid.

94 first operational cruise: U.S.
Navy, memorandum, C.O., U.S.S.
Oxford,
to CNO, January 25, 1963 (Naval
Operational Archives, U.S.S.
Oxford File).

94  the moon-bounce antenna: For
details, see NSA, Top Secret/Umbra/Noforn, "In The Shadow of War"
(June 1969), p. 108.

95  another four-month
surveillance mission: U.S. Navy, memorandum,  C.O., U.S.S.
Oxford,
to
CNO, January 25, 1963 (Naval Operational Archives, U.S.S.
Oxford File).

95 "in response to highest priority":
U.S. Navy, Top Secret/Dinar, "Memorandum

for the Secretary of the
Navy," July 16, 1962. 95 "at least four, and possibly five":
NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept, "Unusual

Number of Soviet Passenger Ships
En Route Cuba," July 24, 1962, p. 1. 95 fifty-seven Soviet merchant ships:
NSA, Top Secret/Dinar report, "Status of

Soviet Merchant Shipping to
Cuba," August 23, 1962, p. 1.

95  "In addition to the
shipping increase": Oral History of Admiral Robert Lee Dennison (August
1975), p. 407 (U.S. Naval Institute, Annapolis).

96  "It is therefore
believed": NSA, Secret/Sabre report, "New Soviet Cargo Ship En Route
Cuba with Possible Military Cargo," June 5, 1962, p. 1.

96 first telltale sounds: NSA,
Secret intercept, "First ELINT Evidence of Scan Odd Radar in Cuban
Area" (June 6, 1962), p. 1.

96 "Comint sources reveal
Russian": NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept, "Reflection of Soviet Bloc
Pilots/Technicians in Cuban Air Force Training (1 May—4 August '62),"
August 24, 1962, p. 1.

96 "I thought Frost was one
of the": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Dr. Howard
Campaigne (June 29, 1983), p. 126.

96 "I saw him chew out Frank
Raven": Farley quoted in ibid.

96  "I hadn't been north of
Minneapolis": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of
Lieutenant General Gordon A. Blake (April 19, 1984), p. 5.

97  "So all of a
sudden": ibid., pp. 17—19.

97 "Jack Frost was under some
nebulous": ibid., pp. 57—58.

99 "I left that one to
Lou": ibid., p. 71.

99 "NSA has been
directed": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only message,

DIRNSA to CNO (July 19, 1962). 99
"From the ship we could look up": NSA, Secret/Sensitive, Oral History
of

Harold L. Parish (October 12,
1982), p. 20. 100 an Elint operator on the
Oxford-
NSA, Secret
intercept, "Whiff Radar in

Cuba" (August 17, 1962). 100
"We were called down and told": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only,
Oral

History of Harold L. Parish
(October 12, 1982), p. 3.

100 told one high-level group:
CIA, "Chronology of John McCone's Suspicions on the Military Build-up in
Cuba Prior to Kennedy's October 22 Speech," August 17, 1962.

100  "It was for most of us
our initial": ibid., pp. 36—37.

101   "We would recess for a
few hours": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of
Lieutenant General Gordon A. Blake (April 19, 1984), p. 52.

101 "One collection facility
... against jr-hundred emitters": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral
History of Harold L. Parish (October 12, 1982), pp. 87-89.

101 "Concentrated efforts
have been made": NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept, "Reflection of Soviet
Bloc Pilots/Technicians in Cuban Air Force Training," August 24, 1962.

101 nighttime jet gunnery
exercises: NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept, "Night Aerial Gunnery Exercises by
Cuban Jet Aircraft," August 28, 1962.

101  NSA issued a dramatic report:
NSA, Top Secret/Dinar report, "Further Information on Soviet/Cuban
Trade," August 31, 1962.

102  "Sigint   evidence  
of   Cuban   acquisition":   NSA,   Top   Secret/Dinar/No-forn/Limited
Distribution, Funnel Handling, September 11, 1962.

102 "This [equipment] is now
operating": White House, Top Secret/Sensitive memorandum, Carl Kaysen,
Deputy Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, to
President Kennedy, September 1, 1962 (FRUS, Vol. X, #405).

102 "I feel that our first
priority": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, DIRNSA to Klocko, October
10, 1962.

102  "shipborne collection
platform"; "NSA is therefore commencing": NSA, Top Secret
message, DIRNSA to JCS, September 17, 1962.

103  "It was very
difficult": NSA, Top Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Lieutenant
General Gordon A. Blake (April 19, 1984), pp. 58-59.

103 326th ASA Company: The Army
Security Agency's detachment at Homestead eventually became permanent. In
August 1967 the field station's activities were consolidated with similar Air
Force and Navy operations in a newly constructed operations building on Card
Sound Road, about fifteen miles south of Homestead Air Base. The operations
building was known as Site Alpha. U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command,
"INSCOM and Its Heritage: An Organizational History of the Command and its
Units" (1985), pp. 98—100.

103  "What had been sort of a
lazy tempo": Owen Englander, "A Closer Look at the Early Days of NSG
at Key West,"
NCKi Cryptolog
(Winter 1997), pp. 3, 5.

104  World War I bunker: ibid. The
original listening post was set up in Key West in July 1961. In 1981 the Naval
Security Group Detachment, Key West, moved to the Naval Air Base at Truman
Annex, where it occupied a 40,000-square-foot building that once housed the
Navy Sonar School. It employed over 250 officers, enlisted and civilian
personnel. The station was closed in 1996. See Commander Thomas P. Herlihy and
CTR1 Gerard A. Bradman, "NSGA Key West, Florida,"
NCKi Cryptolog
(Spring
1996), p. 7.

104 "Collection at thirteen
miles was pretty good": This and other remarks are drawn from the author's
interview with John Arnold, July 2000.

106  "Spoon Rest": NSA,
Secret intercept, "New Radar Deployment in Cuba," September 19, 1962.

107  "By smoothly varying the
length": Details of Palladium are drawn from Gene Poteat, "Elint and
Stealth,"
The Intelligencer (December
1999), pp. 12-13.
The
Intelligencer
is published by the Association of Former Intelligence
Officers.

108 At the meeting: CIA,
memorandum for the executive director (prepared on February 28, 1965) (FRUS,
Vol. X, #421).

108  Cuban air defense system:
NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept (DTG: 1649), October 10, 1962.

109  "Communications security
has been": NSA, Secret/Sabre intercept, "Cuban Air Force VHF Communications
Procedure," May 17, 1962, p. 2.

109 Instead, NSA depended mostly
on: NSA also depended to some extent on "traffic analysis"—examination
of the "externals" of encrypted messages. These externals could give
indications of the cargo's importance because of the frequency or precedence of
the messages sent. Unable to read encrypted messages sent to the Soviet cargo
ships
Khabarovsk
and
Mikhail Uritskij,
for example, NSA
nevertheless could conclude that they were on important missions because of the
"high precedence" of the messages sent to it. Such intelligence, NSA
noted, "may indicate these two ships are engaged in other than routine
activities." NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept, "Unusual Number of Soviet
Passenger Ships En Route Cuba," July 24, 1962, p. 2.

109 "electronic intelligence
led to the photographic intelligence": Department of the Navy, John
Keppler,
A Bumpy Road,- The United States Navy and Cuba 1959-196)
(Summer
1991), p. 37 (The Naval Historical Center, Naval Operational Archives).

109 "They would send vessels
out": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Harold L. Parish
(October 12, 1982), p. 21.

109 "We were all listening
for Russian communications": interview with Aubrey Brown (January 2000).

109  "Jesus Christ":
interview with Max Buscher, May 2000.

110  McCone brought up: ibid.

110 "You kind of know":
Aubrey Brown interview.

110  "The codebreakers were
having a tough time": Buscher interview.

111   "We had
constructed": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Harold L.
Parish (October 12, 1982), p. 5.

111  plotting board: information
from former NSA official Vera Ruth Filby, NSA Symposium (October 27, 1999).

112  "One of our T
Branchers": Buscher interview.

112 McCone discussed the
Terek:
White House, Top Secret, Minutes of the 507th Meeting of the National
Security Council (October 22, 1962) (JFKL, National Security Files, Meetings
and Memoranda Series, NSC Meetings) (FRUS, Vol. XI, #41); CIA, Top Secret/Eyes
Only, "DCI Notes for DCI Briefing," October 22, 1962 (CIA, Cuban
Missile Crisis, 1962, pp. 271-73).

112  At 1:00 P.M. the Strategic
Air Command: JCS, Top Secret report, "Chronology of the JCS Decisions
Concerning the Cuban Crisis," January 4, 1963, pp. 2, 28 (Lemnitzer
Papers, National Defense University).

113  Kennedy addressed: text of
President Kennedy's radio/television address to the nation, October 22, 1962
(JFKL).

113 "I had the first
watch": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral History of Harold L. Parish
(October 12, 1982), p. 64.

115 "I was thinking":
interview with Keith Taylor, May 2000.

113  "After the president's
announcement": Brown interview.

114  listening post intercepted:
NSA, Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG: 0516Z), October 23, 1962.

114
Kara:
NSA, Secret/Sabre
intercept (DTG: 0636Z), October 23, 1962.

114
Nikolaevsk
NSA,
Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG: 1326Z), October 23, 1962.

114  more than half spoke Russian:
NSA, Secret/Kimbo intercept (DTG: 2115Z), October 23, 1962.

115  "A Flash precedence
message": Pete Azzole, "Afterthoughts,"
NCK4 Cryptolog
(Summer
1993), p. 13.

115 A Pentagon official told him:
CIA, Top Secret/Eyes Only, Memorandum for the Files, "John McCone meeting
with the President," October 23, 1962 (FRUS, Vol. XI, #51).

115 Details on the
Urgenck
NSA,
Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG: 1638Z), October 24, 1962.

115  Harry Eisenbeiss: Dino A.
Brugioni,
Eyeball to Eyeball
(New York: Random House, 1991), p. 391.

116  "has altered course and
is probably": NSA, Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG: 1917Z), October 24, 1962.

116 "HFDF ... fix on the
Soviet cargo ship": NSA, Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG:

1533Z), October 24, 1962. 116 passed
the note to McCone: White House, Top Secret/Sensitive, Third Meeting

of the Executive Committee of the
NSC, October 24, 1962 (JFKL, National

Security Files,  Meetings and
Memorandum Series, Executive  Committee,

Vol. I). 116 "Mr. President,
we have a preliminary report": Robert F. Kennedy,
Thirteen

Days
(New York:
Norton, 1969), p. 71. 116 "no ships ... be stopped": ibid., pp.
71—72. 116 "Have you got the word": Department of State, Memorandum
of Telephone

Conversation, Bundy to Ball,
October 24, 1962 (FRUS, Vol. XI, #58).

116  "desperate
signals": U.S. Mission to the UN, Confidential/Limited Distribution
memorandum, Schlesinger to Stevenson, October 25, 1962 (JFKL, National Security
Files, Countries Series, Cuba, General).

117  "In view of these
signals": ibid.

117  "Although no additional
missiles": JCS, Top Secret report, "Chronology of the JCS Decisions
Concerning the Cuban Crisis," January 4, 1963, p. 36 (Lem-nitzer Papers,
National Defense University).

118  "DF line bearings
indicate": NSA, Secret/Sabre intercept (DTG: 0645Z), October 27, 1962.

118 "One mission aborted for
mechanical": White House, Top Secret/Sensitive, "Summary Record of
the Eighth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the NSC," October 27, 1962
(JFKL, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Executive
Committee, Vol. I, Meetings 6—10).

118 "If our planes are fired
on": ibid.

118 "The wreckage of the U-2
was on the ground": ibid.

119 "Any time the Cubans
scrambled": NSA, Secret/Comint Channels Only, Oral