The Secret Sentry (65 page)

Read The Secret Sentry Online

Authors: Matthew M. Aid

10. Commander-in-Chief, Atlantic,
Command History, U.S. Atlantic Command 1982
, 1983, p. XVI-1, U.S. Joint Forces Command FOIA; Office of Naval Intelligence,
Command History, Naval Intelligence
Command for 1982
, 1983, p. 1, ONI FOIA;
Command History USS Deyo for 1982
, February 28, 1983, p. 1;
Command History USS Caron for 1982
, 1983, both in Ships Histories Division, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC; “U.S. Vessel on Alert for Cuban Arms Shipments,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 24, 1982; Richard Halloran, “US Destroyer Monitors Activity in Area of Salvador and Nicaragua,”
New York Times
, February 25, 1982; Richard Hal-loran, “U.S. Says Navy Surveillance Ship Is Stationed Off Central America,”
New York Times
, February 25, 1982; “Judging Spies and Eyes,”
Time
, March 22, 1982, p. 22; James LeMoyne with David C. Martin, “High-Tech Spycraft,”
Newsweek
, March 22, 1982, p. 29.

11. Confidential interviews with former CIA officials. See also “Haig Hints at New Talks with Cuba on Salvador,”
Globe and Mail
, March 15, 1982; “New Report on El Salvador Lacks Evidence for Charges,” Dow Jones News Service, March 22, 1982.

12. CIA, Directorate of Intelligence,
El Salvador: Guerrilla Capabilities and Prospects over the Next
Two Years
, appendix E, “External Support: The Cuba-Nicaragua Pipeline,” October 1984, p. 37, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document
No. 0000761619, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

13. The best book by far on the shootdown of KAL 007 remains Seymour Hersh,
The Target Is Destroyed
(New York: Random House, 1986).

14. Confidential interviews with NSA analysts and U.S. Air Force intercept operators involved in the KAL 007 incident;
History of the 6920th Electronic Security Group: 1 July–31 December 1983
, vol. 1, March 31, 1984, AIA FOIA; 6920th Electronic Security Group,
1983 Travis Trophy Submission
for Misawa AB, Japan
, undated but circa 1984, AIA FOIA. See also Philip Taubman, “U.S. Had Noticed Activity by Soviet,”
New York Times
, September 14, 1993.

15. Hersh,
Target
, pp. 57–61.

16. Oral history,
Interview with George P. Shultz
, December 18, 2002, p. 13, Ronald Reagan Presidential Oral History Project, Miller Center, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

17. For the text of Secretary Shultz’s comments, see “Secretary’s News Briefing, September 1, 1983,”
Department of State Bulletin
, October 1983, pp. 1–2. For press reporting on intelligence revelations stemming from Shultz’s briefing, see David Shribman,
“Side Effect: Peek at U.S. Intelligence Abilities,”
New York Times
, September 2, 1982; George C. Wilson, “Electronic Spy Network Provided Detailed Account,”
Washington Post
, September 2, 1983; Walter S. Mossberg and Gerald F. Seib, “U.S. Response Gives Glimpse of Ability to Track Russian Military
Activities,”
Wall Street
Journal
, September 2, 1983.

18. Robert M. Gates,
From the Shadows
(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), p. 267. It was not until September 11, 1983, ten days after the shootdown, that the
State Department released a full transcript of the NSA intercept tape, which confirmed that Major Osipovich had repeatedly
tried to warn KAL 007 to no effect. Michael Getler, “Soviet Fired Gun Toward Jet, New Analysis Shows,”
Washington Post
, September 12, 1983; Paul Mann, “U.S. Admits Soviets Fired Cannon Shots,”
Aviation Week & Space Technology
, September 19, 1983, p. 25.

19. Reagan’s televised address to the nation can be found at Ronald Reagan, “Address to the Nation on the Soviet Attack on
a Korean Civilian Airliner,” September 5, 1983, http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/ archives/ speeches/1983/ 90583a.htm. Ambassador
Kirkpatrick’s presentation to the U.N. can be found at “Ambassador Kirkpatrick’s Statement, U.N. Security Council, September
6, 1983,” in
Department
of State Bulletin
, October 1983, pp. 8–11. The transcript of the three extracts from the NSA tape that Ambassador Kirkpatrick played can be
found at “U.S. Intercepts Soviet Fighter Transmissions,”
Aviation Week & Space Technology
, September 12, 1983, pp. 22–23.

20. Gates,
From the Shadows
, p. 268.

21. Alvin A. Snyder,
Warriors of Disinformation
(New York: Arcade Publishing, 1995); Alvin A. Snyder, “Flight 007: The Rest of the Story,”
Washington Post
, September 1, 1996.

22. Raymond L. Garthoff,
The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold
War
(Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1994), pp. 119–20.

23. Interview with Walter G. Deeley; NSA OH-09-97, oral history,
Interview with Bobby Ray Inman
, June 18, 1997, p. 11, NSA FOIA

24. Confidential interviews with NSA analysts. A caustic analysis of the per formance of the Soviet air defense system can
be found in “Special Analysis: USSR: The Shootdown,”
National Intelligence
Daily
, September 7, 1983, p. 2, RG-263, entry 42, box 69, NA, CP; NI IIM 85-10008, CIA, interagency intelligence memorandum,
Air Defense of the USSR
, December 1985, p. 13, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000261292, http:// www.foia.cia.gov. See also William
L. Norton,
Briefing on the Re-Organization of Soviet Air and Air Defense Forces
(Falls Church, VA: E-Systems Melpar Division, 1984), pp. 29–33, paper presented at the Strategy 84 Conference, Washington,
DC, March 12, 1984; Richard Halloran, “Soviet’s Defenses Called Inflexible,”
New
York Times
, September 18, 1983; Walter Pincus, “The Soviets Had the Wrong Stuff,”
Washington
Post
, September 18, 1983; Dusko Doder, “Soviets Said to Remove Air Officers,”
Washington
Post
, October 5, 1983; Bill Gertz, “Soviet 007 Tape Revealing,”
Washington Times
, August 15, 1992.

25. HQ 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit,
Command Chronology: 1–31 May 1983
, June 7, 1983, part 3, p. 1, Marine Corps Historical Center, Quantico, VA; message, Beirut 05379, AMEMBASSY BEIRUT to SECSTATE
WASHDC, May 6, 1983, Department of State Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 83BEIRUT05379, http:// www.foia.state.gov;
message, Beirut 05381, AMEMBASSY BEIRUT to AMEMBASSY AMMAN, May 6, 1983, Department of State Electronic FOIA Reading Room,
Document No. 83BEIRUT05381, http://www.foia.state.gov.

26. Confidential interviews with former senior CIA officials. See also Martin and Wolcott,
Best Laid
Plans
, pp. 105, 133; R. W. Apple Jr., “U.S. Knew of Iran’s Role in Two Beirut Bombings,”
New
York Times
, December 8, 1986; Stephen Engelberg, “U.S. Calls Ira ni an Cleric Leading Backer of Terror,”
New York Times
, August 27, 1989; “New Evidence Ties Iran to Terrorism,”
Newsweek
, November 15, 1999, p. 7.

27. Jack Anderson, “U.S. Was Warned of Bombing at Beirut Embassy,”
Washington Post
, May 10, 1983; Jack Anderson, “Syria Supported Terrorism, Say U.S., Britain,”
Newsday
, November 7, 1986; Apple, “U.S. Knew.”

28. The intercept quote is taken from Civil Action No. 01-2094 (RCL), memorandum opinion, May 30, 2003,
Deborah D. Peterson v. Islamic Republic of Iran
, p. 12, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. For background of Musawi, his organization, and its relationship
with the Iranian government, see CIA, Directorate of Intelligence,
The Terrorist Threat to US Personnel
in Beirut
, January 12, 1984, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000256547, http:// www.foia.cia.gov; CIA, Directorate
of Intelligence,
Lebanon: The Hizb Allah
, September 27, 1984, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000256558, http://www.foia.cia.gov; memorandum for the
DCI,
Iranian Support for International Terrorism
, November 22, 1986, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000258607, http://www.foia.cia.gov. For September 27,
1983, NSA warning message, see James P. Stevenson,
The $5 Billion Misunderstanding: The Collapse of the Navy’s A-12 Stealth Bomber Program
(Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001), p. 39n.

29. For a rendition of all the intelligence and security failings surrounding the October 23, 1983, bombing of the U.S. Marine
barracks in Beirut except for the NSA warning message, see
Report
of the DoD Commission on Beirut International Airport Terrorist Act, October 23, 1983 (Long
Commission)
(Washington, DC: GPO, 1983).

30. Message, 230725Z OCT 83, CIA to [deleted], October 23, 1983, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document No. 0000805432,
http://www.foia.cia.gov; message, 230822Z OCT 83, CIA to [deleted], October 23, 1983, CIA Electronic FOIA Reading Room, Document
No. 0000805431, http://www.foia.cia.gov.

31. For SIGINT aircraft orbiting the Mediterranean, see U.S. Sixth Fleet,
1984 Sixth Fleet Command
History
, 1985, p. IV-58, Operational Archives, Naval Historical Center, Washington, DC. For Marine SIGINT operations, confidential
interviews, as well as “Marines Thumb Noses at Local Marksmen,”
Globe and Mail
, December 15, 1983.

32. Confidential interviews.

33. “Director Completes Distinguished Career,”
NSA Newsletter
, April 1985, p. 3, NSA FOIA; Robert C. Toth, “Security Agency Chief Said Forced out of Office,”
Washington Post
, April 19, 1985; George C. Wilson, “Reagan to Name Army General as NSA Director,”
Washington Post
, April 20, 1985; David Burnham, “Move into World of Computer Nets by Intelligence Unit Raises Doubt,”
New York Times
, June 27, 1985; Bill Gertz, “Superseded General Expected to Resign,”
Washington
Times
, February 22, 1988.

34. For the brief but intense fight over the selection of Odom to be NSA director, see Douglas F. Garthoff,
Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community: 1946–2005
(Washington, DC: Center for the Study of Intelligence, 2005), pp. 167–68.

35. Odom background from biographical data sheet, Lt. General William E. Odom, Department of the Army, Office of Public Affairs;
“New Director Named,”
NSA Newsletter
, July 1985, p. 2, “View from the Top,”
NSA Newsletter
, November 1987, pp. 6–8, both NSA FOIA; Wilson, “Reagan to Name”; Charles R. Babcock, “Professorial Director NSA Suddenly
in Spotlight,”
Washington
Post
, May 31, 1986; Emerson,
Secret Warriors
, p. 81.

36. Woodward quote from Woodward,
Veil
, p. 450.

37. NSA OH-09-97, oral history,
Interview with Bobby Ray Inman
, June 18, 1997, p. 6, NSA FOIA.

38. For details of the Wobensmith case, see Stephen Engelberg, “A Career in Ruins in Wake of Iran-Contra Affair,”
New York Times
, June 3, 1988.

39. NSA OH-09-97, oral history,
Interview with Bobby Ray Inman
, June 18, 1997, p. 7, NSA FOIA.

40. Confidential interviews with former CIA officials.

41. Because of the public revelation of Chalet’s existence in June 1979, the Byeman designation for the system was changed
from Chalet to Vortex, or VO. In 1987, the Vortex system was again renamed Mercury, or MC. Angelo Codevilla,
Informing Statecraft: Intelligence for a New Century
(New York: Free Press, 1992), p. 116; Christopher Anson Pike, “Canyon, Rhyolite and Aquacade: U.S. Signals Intelligence Satellites
in the 1970s,”
Spaceflight
, vol. 37 (November 1995): p. 383; Jonathan McDowell, “U.S. Reconnaissance Satellite Programs, Part 2, Beyond Imaging,”
Quest
, vol. 4, no. 4 (1995): p. 42. For the codename Mercury, see Craig Covault and Joseph C. Anselmo, “Titan Explosion Destroys
Secret ‘Mercury’ SIGINT Satellite,”
Aviation Week & Space Technology
, August 17, 1998, p. 28.

42. For Vortex monitoring of Soviet forces in Afghanistan, confidential interviews. For monitoring SS-24 ICBM communications,
see Major A. Andronov, “American Geosynchronous SIGINT Satellites,”
Zarubezhnoye Voyennoye Obozreniye
, no. 12 (1993): pp. 37–43. For Vortex generating intelligence on Chernobyl and the Pavlograd explosion, see Jeffrey T. Richelson,
The U.S. Intelligence
Community
, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), pp. 172, 179; Jeffrey T. Richel-son,
America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security
(Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1999), p. 153; “Soviet Missile-Motor Plant Shut by Explosion, Pentagon Says,”
Washington Post
, May 18, 1988; Peter Almond and Paul Bedard, “Explosion Deals Serious Setback to New Soviet ICBMs,”
Washington Times
, May 18, 1988.

43. Details of Pelton’s espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union derived from his interrogation by the FBI can be found in
FBI Special Agent David E. Faulkner, affidavit in support of complaint, December 20, 1985, in CRIMINAL No. HM85-0621,
United States of America v. Ronald William Pel-ton
, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The best general description of the Pelton case is in Thomas B. Allen
and Norman Polmar,
Merchants of Treason
(New York: Dell Publishing, 1988), pp. 255–67.

44. For details of the Ivy Bells operation, see Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew,
Blind Man’s Bluff
(New York: Public Affairs, 1998), pp. 158–83; Michael Dobbs, “KGB Chief Details U.S. Spy Operation,”
Washington Post
, September 3, 1988; Norman Polmar, “How Many Spy Subs,”
Naval Institute
Proceedings
, December 1996, p. 87. For the Russian perspective, see Nikolai Brusnitsin,
Openness and Espionage
(Moscow: Military Publishers House, 1990), pp. 13–14; N. Burbiga, “A Fishy Day at the CIA,”
Izvestia
, March 1, 1994. See also Angelo M. Codevilla, “Pollard Was No Pelton,”
Forward (N.Y.)
, December 8, 2000, http:// www.jonathanpollard.org/2000/ 120800.htm.

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