|
The National Security Archive, an independent
non-governmental research institute and library located at The George
Washington University, is reporting the release of a newly declassified history
of signals intelligence (SIGINT) during the Cold War. In response to the
Archive's declassification request, the U.S. government's National Security
Agency (NSA) has declassified large portions of a four-part "top-secret Umbra"
study, American Cryptology during the Cold War. According to the NSA's
web site, the Agency is "the Nation's cryptologic organization" and "a high
technology organization . . . on the frontiers of communications and data
processing."
What is SIGINT?
Signals intelligence (SIGINT) involves the interception of
encrypted and unencrypted signals, whether between people or machines. SIGINT
encompasses communications intelligence (COMINT), electronics intelligence
(ELINT), and foreign instrumentation signals intelligence. COMINT deals with
messages, voice communications, or text messages derived from the interception
of foreign transmissions. ELINT, according to the U.S. military's Joint Chiefs of
Staff, is "derived from foreign non-communications electromagnetic radiations
emanating from other than nuclear detonations or radioactive sources."
SIGNIT and the Cuban
Missile Crisis
According to the National Security Archive, the Cuban
Missile Crisis of 1962 was one of the darkest moments for NSA. SIGINT failed to
warn U.S. decision makers
about the presence of Soviet nuclear-armed intermediate and medium-range
ballistic missiles in Cuba
prior to their discovery by U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. According to Thomas R.
Johnson, author of American Cryptology
during the Cold War, this vacuum "marked the most significant failure of
SIGINT to warn national leaders since World War II."
Click here for more information about this important history of Cold
War intelligence activities.
Resources:
http://www.nsa.gov/CAREERS/faqs_1.cfm#isNSA_1
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB260/index.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/jp3-55/3-55gl.htm
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/new_pubs/jp1_02.pdf
| 
