Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (86 page)

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As
mysterious as the agency itself are the tens of thousands of nameless and
faceless people who populate NSA's secret city. According to various agency
statistics, the average employee is forty-three years old, with between
fourteen and eighteen years of experience. About 59 percent of the workers are
male and 10 percent are members of racial and ethnic minorities. Sixty-three
percent of the workforce has less than ten years' experience; 13 percent are in
the military (including four generals and admirals), 27 percent are veterans,
3.3 percent are retired military, and 5 percent are disabled. In addition to
civilian and military employees, 2,300 contractors are employed full-time at
the agency.

If NSA
were considered as a corporation, then, in terms of dollars spent, floor space
occupied, and personnel employed, it would rank in the top 10 percent of
Fortune
500 companies. In 1993 NSA spent over $9.4 million on air travel; more than
90 percent of the flights originated at nearby Baltimore-Washington
International Airport. On behalf of NSA employees residing in Maryland, NSA
paid approximately $65 million in 1993 state income taxes on gross salaries
totaling approximately $930 million.

But beyond
the numbing statistics, the men and women who disappear through the double
steel fences every day are both extraordinary and ordinary. They constitute the
largest collection of mathematicians and linguists in the country and possibly
the world, and they are civil servants angry over how far they must park from
their building. Some spend their day translating messages in Sinhalese (spoken
in Sri Lanka), or delving into the upper reaches of combinatorics and Galois
theory.

One woman
knows everything on earth about tires. "She's known as the 'tire lady,'
" said one of NSA's customers in the intelligence community. "She's
the tire specialist. Embargoed airplanes need tires and when you're trying to
embargo somebody it's the little things that take on major importance. If
somebody is shipping jet fighter tires to Iran you want to know what kind of
fighter they go on."

Most NSA
staffers could be anyone's neighbor. Some wear suits to work every day, but
most dress less formally. "There is no dress code at all," complained
one fashion-conscious former Russian linguist, who called NSA a "haven for
geeks and nerds." "I saw a guy wearing yellow pants, yellow shirt,
and yellow sweater vest," she said. "A lot of guys don't dress
that
well."

When he
has time, Brent Morris performs magic at his children's school in Columbia,
Maryland. At NSA, he is a senior cryptologic mathematician. Morris got hooked
on magic at the age of five when he saw Buffalo Bob perform a trick on the
Howdy
Doody
television show. In high school he learned the perfect card shuffle
while studying the connection between math and magic. At NSA, Morris used the
perfect shuffle to help develop a method of random and sequential accessing of
computer memories. Later the shuffle helped him work out a method of sorting
computer information. Morris also served as the executive secretary of the NSA
Scientific Advisory Board.

By day
Eileen Buckholtz works in NSA's Telecommunications and Computer Services
Organization. But by night she is "Rebecca York," the author of a
series of romantic suspense novels published by Harlequin. Her co-author is
married to another NSAer. And Frederick Bulinski of the agency's Programs and
Resources Organization was inducted into the Polka Music Hall of Fame, has
released eight albums, and organizes "Polkamotion by the Ocean," a
popular yearly festival in Ocean City, Maryland.

One unique
study, done by longtime NSA employee Gary L. Grantham, examined the character,
styles, traits, and personalities of NSA's management. "The results show that
the personality of NSA leadership is substantially different as a group from
the general population of the United States," he concluded. "NSA
management is more introverted in dealing with situations, more impersonal in
making judgments, and more likely to come to conclusions about their
environment than is the general population." Grantham explained that the
reason that NSA managers were more shy and impersonal had largely to do with
"the highly technical mission of the organization and the large numbers of
college-trained employees and those with military background where similar
personality traits are found."

The study,
"Who Is NSA," was conducted as part of a program at the National War
College. NSA granted Grantham access to the results of a test, the Myers-Briggs
Type Indicator, which was given to NSA senior executives and supervisors. The
tests indicated that almost two-thirds of the officials were introverted in the
way they dealt with "the outer world." "This contrasts markedly
with the general population in the U.S.," said the study, "where
extraverting
[sic]
types make up about 75 percent." NSA officials
were also far more "thinking" oriented than the outside world, which
was more "feeling" in its professional relationships. "The
average NSA manager is more introverted than the general public, much more
intuitive, more thinking, and more judging." "You can always tell an
NSA extrovert," goes one old agency joke. "He looks at your shoe tips
instead of his."

"The
great predominance of introverts (64%) means that most NSA managers have
greater powers of concentration," the study concluded, "and go deeply
into their work by focusing on the underlying concepts and ideas in the pursuit
of real understanding. They may be reluctant to consider their work finished
and get rid of it. They are not likely to be affected by a lack of praise or
encouragement since their focus is on their inner world. If they assume that
everyone around them has the same attitude about the world as they do, they may
fail to recognize the needs of the extraverts around them for praise. By the
same token, the introverts' inner-directed view of the world is often confusing
to those around them, including other introverts."

Finally,
the study suggested a secret city run by a cold, aloof, detached management.
"The predominance of thinking types among managers at NSA is significant
in that their preferred way of judging is impersonal, logical, and analytic.
While that approach is decidedly more useful in solving task-oriented problems,
the people side of managing will suffer. Thinking types expect to be recognized
for their competence. Their rewards are responsibility, titles, and raises.
They may forget, or not be aware, that one-fourth of their subordinates are
feeling types who occasionally need praise and need to be appreciated for who
they are, doing a job. According to one observer, 'a "T" [thinking
type] thinks that if you haven't been fired, you should know you are doing a
good job.'

"The
overwhelming preference among NSA managers for judging reflects a choice for
system and order. They are organizers who thrive on making decisions,
schedules, and programs, and are disconcerted by disruptions or unplanned
occurrences. They are less tolerant, less open-minded and less flexible than their
perceptive co-workers who often put off making a decision because they are not
sure they have enough information. The potential for conflict is great."

For many,
if not most, the initial excitement of working in the nation's largest and most
secret spy agency gradually gives way to routine. "From my
perspective," said Tami McCaslin, associate editor of the
NSA
Newsletter,
"isolated in the depths of the
Newsletter office,
I
sometimes fail to see how the rest of the world can be so intrigued by this (in
my mind) typical government bureaucracy."

As diverse
as the workforce is, there is one thing they all have in common: you won't find
them talking about their jobs, even when they're sharing a meal in the
cafeteria with someone from the next office. The operative rule is "Don't
tell, don't ask" about work. The very first subject addressed in the
NSA
Handbook,
given to all new residents of the secret city, is the
"practice of anonymity." "Perhaps one of the first security
practices with which new NSA personnel should become acquainted is the practice
of anonymity. . . ." says the report. "Anonymity means that NSA
personnel are encouraged not to draw attention to themselves nor to their
association with this Agency. NSA personnel are also cautioned neither to confirm
nor deny any specific questions about NSA activities directed to them by
individuals not affiliated with the Agency." Finally, the handbook warns:
"The ramifications of the practice of anonymity are rather far
reaching."

Those
seeking employment with NSA are told little about the actual work of the
organization. "It has become commonplace in recent years to describe NSA
as super-secret—'the hush-hush Agency,' " said an editorial in NSA's
highly secret
NSA Technical Journal.
"NSA, with missions so
interwoven in the fabric of national security, necessarily has had to forgo all
custom of public statement, to eschew the press releases which over the years
might build an inviting public image and make its worth known to the American
people. Though mindful of the dictates of security, NSA knows too that security
can have an adverse effect on recruitment—the lifeline of any institution.
Indeed, so little can be said that the acceptance of employment with NSA is
virtually an act of faith."

Concerned
over the failure to reach recruits with critical high-tech abilities because of
the agency's obsession with secrecy, the editorial's author suggested getting
the following message out to the scientific academic community: "We in NSA
comprise a scientific and technological community that is unique in the United
States, unique in the western world and perhaps unique in the entire world. We
work on problems which no other agency works on. We develop and utilize devices
which are in advance of those that have been developed or are utilized by any
other agency or any organization in the entire United States. We are confronted
with an ever-changing challenge of greater complexity, of greater scope, and of
correspondingly greater depth and difficulty than any other changing challenge
on the rapidly evolving frontier of science and technology. If you can qualify,
you will find NSA a stimulating and rewarding place to work. If you are
interested, we can tell you a little more but not much more. One of the
qualifications is faith." Still nervous even over that bland description,
the editorial added, "Before you send it—better check it out with
Security."

More
recently, the agency has made a few reluctant public references to cryptology
and signals intelligence. "Your challenge," says one brochure
directed at mathematicians, "is to use algebra, number theory,
combinatorics, statistics, even cryptology and other skills to create—or
break—nearly impenetrable codes and ciphers." Another said, "The
challenge is to use probability, statistics, Fourier analysis, Galois theory,
stochastic processes and other techniques to outwit the world experts in
creating or breaking codes and ciphers." But beyond that, no more is said.

"We're
looking for those special few," goes one NSA recruitment pitch, "who
are up to this ultimate test." Some are hired while still in college,
through a minority scholarship program known as the Undergraduate Training
Program. The students work at NSA during summers, then receive full-time offers
upon graduation. The program is highly competitive. Of the 600 to 800 high
school students who apply each year, only a small percentage are selected. In
1999 there were seventy-nine participants attending a variety of schools,
including Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Cornell. Not everyone, however, is happy
about the program. "It is appalling," complained one employee,
"to see such a blatant case of reverse discrimination being sponsored by
the Agency."

Other
opportunities for those in college are offered by the agency's Co-operative
Education Program, which allows about four dozen students to spend their
college years alternating semesters between full-time work and full-time study.
In 1997, about 80 percent of the graduates chose to remain with the agency.
"Our recruiting strategy has historically been built on excitement of the
mission," said Deputy Director for Services Terry Thompson in 1999.
"And that's why our Co-op programs are so vital to us because when we get
people in here before they make the big career decision when they graduate, and
find out about the excitement of the mission."

Traditionally,
prospective employees were marched in groups through the agency, like draftees,
for numerous interviews, tests, and polygraph exams. Only at the completion of
the process—it normally took about seven months—would some of those prospects
be matched to a particular job and offered employment. But by then many had
already accepted better-paying jobs from private industry, and the agency was
forced to dig deeper in the pool. Those not called would remain in limbo.

Stung by
tough competition paying top dollar for information technology personnel, the
agency in 1999 initiated a streamlined hiring process based more on private
industry than on the local draft board. Only a few schools were targeted, so
that strong relationships with them could be established. Students were given
more detailed job descriptions than the agency had offered in the past, as well
as a better explanation of the benefits of working at the cutting edge of
technology. A private firm was hired to scan resumes into an NSA-only Internet
site. The company then helped match the resumes to specific jobs. An e-mail
address was created ([email protected]) for the submission of resumes. Finally,
in order to accelerate the process, initial screening was done over the
telephone.