U.S. Spy Agency NSA Offers Rare Glimpse Inside

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://live.altavista.com/scripts/editorial.dll?ei=2213491&ern=y

Tabassum Zakaria
09/23/00

FORT MEADE, Md. (Reuters) - The super-secret National Security Agency
(NSA), which eavesdrops on communications worldwide as part of U.S.
spying operations, opened its doors on Saturday to offer outsiders a
rare glimpse of facilities that test antennas and print nuclear code
books.

About 16,500 employees and their families were expected at the first
``Family Day'' since 1996 held at NSA headquarters, about 25 miles
outside Washington, as the spy agency makes a greater effort to inform
Americans about its mission.

``American people need an image of this agency so its identity is not
a vacuum,'' NSA Director Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden told reporters.

There was the ``anechoic chamber,'' which looked like a
science-fiction movie set, with blue foam spikes of different sizes
poking out from the floor, walls and ceiling of the
42-foot-(13-meter)-high room.

It is echo-free and one of five at NSA for testing antennas used to
collect information. The antenna revolves on a high pedestal at one
end, while information is transmitted to it from the other end of the
room.

The Air Force has a similar room that is big enough to test an entire
airplane, an NSA official said.

``Each cone is sized to absorb a different frequency,'' said the
official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Areas opened to visitors were sanitized to ensure no classified
material was lying around.

A 66,000-square-foot (6,100-square-meter) printing plant produces code
books -- 160 million pages a year -- used in U.S. military operations.

Nuclear code books for use in the event the United States orders a
nuclear strike are produced about four times a month at the moment,
compared with nearly every day during the 1991 Gulf War.

The book is enclosed inside a sealed plastic pouch that has a unique
pattern of pink splotches and is puffy because of air inside.

If there is any change in the package such as the amount of air inside
or the design of the splotches, which is videotaped before being sent
out, the codes are considered compromised.

``We'll go back and see if the splatter diagram is the same. We've got
a video of the package,'' said Dan Shirko, chief of publishing.

The nuclear code books are in the hands of nearly 1,000 people, mostly
military officers such as pilots and sailors on submarines and
battleships.

The printing plant also produces ``one-time pads,'' code books for
military personnel in the field who are told to go to a specific page
that has numbered lines of what to the untrained eye look like
alphabet gibberish for that day's operation. That page is not reused.

TELEPHONE SECURITY

The NSA cracks codes of foreign communications, and designs products
to make classified U.S. communication secure.

One new piece of equipment, which took six to seven years to develop,
is a digital secure telephone that encrypts the user's voice and
high-speed data almost instantly.

``By the time it takes to lift the handset and put it to your ear,
it's secure,'' said Michael Jacobs, deputy director for information
systems security.

The telephone, called an STE for Secure Telephone Equipment, will over
time replace the STU-3, for Secure Telephone Unit, which has been used
since the mid-1980s -- the first one given to then-Secretary of State
George Shultz.

There are now 300,000 to 400,000 STU-3 units in use worldwide. They
require a key that, when turned, makes the telephone secure, although
the sound quality has been described as similar to talking underwater.

Also displayed were security equipment that identifies a user by the
iris of the eye, face, fingerprint and voice that NSA produced with
private industry partners.

Once the computer recognizes the user by one of those methods, it
allows access.

``The face system actually distinguishes between twins,'' said Dave
Murley, technical director of identification and authentication
research.

The iris recognition, which scans the front of the eyeball, was the
most accurate of the four methods, and voice recognition the least
accurate, he said.

Reminders of the need for security were all around. In the cafeteria,
one sign read, ``Don't spill the beans pardner, the steaks are too
high. No classified talk.''


*==============================================================*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;  Intelligence
without communications is irrelevant." Gen Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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