Charles R. Smith
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Agency Must Submit to Budget Oversight

Congress is pulling in the reins on the National Security Agency. A new provision buried in the defense budget will force the super-secret agency to submit to normal bookkeeping procedures.

Supporters inside Capitol Hill say the move is designed to impose fiscal discipline on an agency that controls a black budget estimated at over $6 billion a year. The proposed measure will shift the oversight of billions of dollars of contracts from the Ft. Meade headquarters of the NSA to the Pentagon.

The successful vote to take away the agency’s budget oversight highlights a decade of infighting between public critics and the super-secret agency.

The NSA came under fire after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 because it had intercepted al-Qaeda communications referencing an upcoming strike on America. The NSA, however, was unable to translate the al-Qaeda intercept in time.

The NSA also has had a string of intelligence failures over the past 10 years. The agency was unable to detect Indian and Pakistani nuclear weapons tests. In addition, it was caught by surprise when North Korea announced it had developed nuclear weapons.

The NSA has also suffered expensive public failures. In 1998, a NSA interception satellite code-named "MERCURY" was destroyed in the single most expensive space disaster – costing over $1 billion.

The Titan II rocket that was to orbit the NSA radio interception satellite blew up, showering the East Coast with huge chunks of burning debris. The NSA was horrified to see video on CNN of young Florida surfers pulling pieces of the secret satellite out of the ocean.

Recent successes and failures in NSA operations go way beyond technical limitations and show the cultural or bureaucratic shortcomings of the agency. For example, CIA Director George Tenet once testified that the NSA computer systems shut down for several hours. All three networks carried the NSA story.

Missed Iran Missile Test

Another failure involved the U.S. Air Force RC-135S Cobra-Ball aircraft. The RC-135S, a modified Air Force cargo plane, is a flying intelligence vacuum cleaner that can detect secure military communications and photograph ballistic missiles in flight.

However, the RC-135S failed to observe a test firing of an Iranian Shahab-3 missile. The Air Force had the Cobra-Ball missile-tracking aircraft on alert in the Middle East, waiting at the end of the runway, ready to monitor the Iranian missile test.

The Cobra-Ball aircraft was to photo the Iranian missile in flight. The planned mission would have provided detailed high-resolution information on the Iranian missile. Instead, the Cobra-Ball aircraft missed the Iranian test, leaving the U.S. with only low-resolution long-range sensor data from satellites.

NSA intercepts of Iranian and Russian communications revealed the Iranian plans to test the missile almost 24 hours before the intended launch. Yet the NSA was unable to pass the information on to the Air Force.

The RC-135S failure over Iran has been laid directly to poor work by the analysis and reporting legs of the NSA. Air Force officials were openly upset with the NSA over the missed opportunity.

NSA Commercial Espionage

Another problem faced by the NSA is that its priorities were changed after the end of the Cold War. During the 1990s the Clinton administration changed NSA policy. NSA resources were diverted into "commercial" espionage when Clinton classified some economic programs to be of national security.

During the Clinton administration, NSA agents monitored Japanese communications during auto talks and French communications during talks on world trade.

One reported commercial espionage success was the interception of a Saudi official taking bribe money during a bidding war between Airbus and Boeing. The taped conversation was released to the Saudi government and Boeing won the billion-dollar airliner contract after the arrest of the Saudi.

Another example of the NSA getting into the commercial espionage game was its efforts to influence export policy on behalf of Clinton administration officials and corporate supporters.

For example, Richard C. Barth was the National Security Council proliferation director for President Clinton before he signed on to a high-pay position with Motorola. Dr. Barth can best be described as a close friend of current CIA Director George Tenet.

NSA and Motorola

On March 22, 1995, Barth sent a fax message to some of his old buddies inside the Clinton White House, including George Tenet, then a national security adviser at the White House, and Sue Eckert at the Commerce Department. Barth sought a presidential waiver for Motorola to export encrypted radios to China.

"Such a waiver would not reduce NSA's oversight over all encryption containing exports to China," noted Barth in the fax addressed to Tenet. "Current controls remain, only the need to NOTIFY CONGRESS of each sale is removed."

Further, in an attached letter addressed to the State Department, dated Nov. 23, 1994, Barth wrote: "This is to request that your office initiate action to obtain a waiver from requirements for individual export license notifications to Congress for wireless mobile communications systems containing encryption for China. Such a waiver was issued by the President in September of this year for civilian satellite systems and encrypted products for use by American firms operating in China."

"European firms have for a number of months been able to market and sell encryption in China as a result of a decision taken by the UK intelligence agency, GCHQ. I understand that our National Security Agency is aware of this change in GCHQ's position and would support our request for a change in US requirements for export licenses for China. The NSA has AGREED that there should be a 'level playing field' in regard to China," wrote Barth.

While the NSA was giving Motorola a "level playing field" to export secure radios to China, Osama bin Laden was planning a second strike at New York City, India was planning a nuclear weapons test, Pakistan was planning a nuclear weapons test and North Korea was secretly developing nuclear weapons.

The NSA missed the all too important national security aspect of its job while playing a political game of D.C. lobbyists and big corporate sponsors. The move in Congress to change budget oversight is just the first of many reforms needed at Ft. Meade if the intelligence agency is to survive through the next decade.

Charles Smith will be on:

The American Freedom Network with NewsMax contributor Dr. James Hirsen on Friday, 7/25/03, at 11 a.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.amerifree.com.

The Jerry Hughes show on Friday, 7/25/03, at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Show information at http://www.cilamerica.com.

The Phil Paleologos "American Breakfast" show on Tuesday, 7/29/03, the Langer Broadcast Network, at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Show information at www.dinershow.com.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
China/Taiwan

Clinton Scandals

Editor's note:
"CATASTROPHE" Reveals Bill Clinton’s Role in 9/11 - Click Here to find out more