Page 134 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 134 of 237

The Office of Communications Security (COMSEC) produced U.S. codes and tried to protect them. And the
Office of Security (SEC) investigated NSA personnel, conducted lie-detector tests and passed on the loyalty and
integrity of employees.

While the NSA was reading the secret communications of over forty nations, including the most friendly, it
shared some of its secrets through a relationship between its United Kingdom Liaison Office (UKLO) and
its British counterpart, the GCHQ. The NSA, at least according to Martin and Mitchell, also provided code
machines to other nations and then intercepted their messages on the basis of its knowledge of the
construction and wiring of the machines.

The NSA gathered its raw information through more than 2,000 intercept stations around the world. They
were designed to pick up every electronic emanation and communication in the Communist bloc:
countdowns at missile sites, tell-tale sounds of industrial construction, military orders for troop
movements, and air defense instructions to radar installations and fighter-plane squadrons.

In addition, the NSA sent its eavesdropping equipment along on flights by the U-2 and other aircraft over the
Soviet Union (until 1960) and over Communist China. Separate flights, called ELINT (for electronic intelligence)
missions, skirted Communist borders, picking up the location and characteristics of enemy radar stations.
Occasionally, the planes would play "foxes and hounds," feinting toward or into Soviet defenses so as to analyze
the nature of the response on nearby U.S. radar screens and listening gear.

The NSA also practiced what is known in the trade as "audio surveillance" and in layman's terms as "bugging," or
"telephone tapping."

It was clear that the United States had come a long way from that day in 1929 when Secretary of State Henry L.
Stimson closed the "black chamber," the State Department's primitive code-breaking section, with the
explanation:

"Gentlemen do not read each other's mail."

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* Codes use symbols or letter groups for whole words or thoughts. Ciphers use letters or numbers for other letters
or numbers.