Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration

Released in response to a FOIA request, Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration is a history of the National Security Agency’s decision to brief- for the first time- the president-elect on the Agency, its operations, and related matters.  Twenty-three pages in length, it is well-written, easy read with minimum redactions that provides both a- complete- as- possible- picture of the events in question and numerous amusing nuggets of fact. Other than some excessive background information on the electoral process, this work is with major issue.

Among the factoids learned in this work is the fact that Harry S Truman allowed Dwight D. Eisenhower access to SIGINT intelligence during the intelligence briefing that occurred in 1952 campaign but not his own party’s nominee due to Eisenhower’s prior use of COMINT/SIGINT during the Second World War; George Bush’s enthusiasm for NSA briefings. His request: “Great stuff! Keep it coming,” resulted in over 200 “serialized briefings” being given to his transition; and Hubert Humphrey’s 1967 visit to the NSA was the first by a vice president and the last until Dick Cheney arrived in 2001. 

Presidential Transitions 2001

NSA Releases Cryptologic Quarterly Index

In response to a FOIA request, the National Security Agency has released an index of its Cryptologic Quarterly articles from the 1980s through 2010. Covering topics from "Applied Wavelet Analysis to the Zimmerman Telegram, the index provides a glimpse into the academic and intellectual activities of the NSA staff. 

The index, alphabetized by title has largely been declassified and there minimum redactions to titles or the keyword index with only a small percentage of the titles withheld in their entirety. The NSA, however, invoked the b(3) exemption so most of the authors are unknown. Those authors whose identities were revealed are mostly associated with the Center for Cryptologic History though some were written by prominent NSA figures such as Frank B. Rowlett, Howard H. Campaigne, and former DIRNSA William Studeman.

Cryptologic Quarterly Article List

NSA Releases Complete Listing of Closed IG Complaints

In response to a FOIA request, the National Security Agency has released a listing of all its closed Inspector General (IG) investigations.  

The listing is detail sparse, providing only a few details such as the case number,  the date closed, a generic description of the subject matter such as “Time, Attendance, and Pay," "Reprisal," and Miscellaneous." The list said to be all inclusive as stated in the FOIA request. This is a complete listing of closed IG complaints from 1995 to the summer of 2012. The list is organized by case number. The dating is a little disjointed, with the cases from 1995 to 1999 starting on page 20.

List of Closed NSA Inspector General Investigations

NSA/CSS Policy 1-6 Records Management Program

In response to a FOIA request, the National Security Agency released its most recent version of NSA/CSS Policy 1-6 Records Management Program which governs the "life cycle of records from creation, through maintenance and use, to final disposition."

(*) Italics in the original


NSA/ CSS Policy 1-6 Records Management Program

Former DIRNSA Mike McConnell Says NSA Employees “Pampered” and “Spoiled.”

In a recently declassified and partially released NSA oral history conducted in the first year as his reign as DIRNSA, VADM stated that he believed the NSA’s staff, while the “best in the Government,” were “spoiled and pampered.”  As is the brief, 13-page interview were McConnell’s doubts as to whether he was “yet qualified to be director,” even though he had a prior tour of duty in the NSA, his plans for transforming the NSA in light of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and some amusing historical tidbits. 

The oral history isn’t very good which is not surprising that it can at the beginning of McConnell’s term when the prominent events of his reign had yet to begin or were just starting such as Operation Restore Hope in Somalia, the Bosnian War, and the flaring up of the conflict with Iraq.  The real value of this interview is the historical tidbits sprinkled within such as Dick Cheney was fishing and out of contact when the Soviet hardliners staged their coup in 1991 and that McConnell had been given the job of briefing Cheney as to what was going on in the Soviet Union during the coup. 

Another worthwhile bit of information is the revelation that the NSA or at least McConnell had a fear of Congress because “you have to be careful about talking to Congress. You go down there and just give it away, and some member in the Congress at a TS level could stand up on the floor and is not subject to prosecution. He can say anything he wants to say … classified or unclassified. So you have to be careful.”

DIRNSA McConnell NSA Oral History

NSA Says No Public Records on the Bradley Manning Support Network

The public apparatus of the National Security Agency has no records on the Bradley Manning Support Network or its activities.

BMSN NSA Letter