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From: "wilford bates" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "truthsteward" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [smashthestate] Fwd: TV Doc. Examines NSA Role
Date: Sunday, January 07, 2001 8:17 AM
From: "Bond"
Subject: [ParanoidTimes] TV Doc. Examines NSA Role
The History Channel is running a one hour documentary on the NSA
Monday night, Jan 8, at 8pm EST. It repeats at midnight and again at 4am Tuesday.
Documentary Examines NSA Role
Saturday January 6, 2001 5:30 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Security Agency, the supersecret intelligence mission
most Americans do not even know exists, gives some explanation in a television
documentary for its tightlipped behavior.
``It's really important that the American people understand what we do, that we are in
fact a relatively powerful organization. And it's absolutely critical that they don't
fear the power that we have,'' the agency's director, Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, says
in a rare interview.
The History Channel program, airing Monday as part of the network's ``History's
Mysteries'' series, seeks to explain the agency's mission and examines recent
controversies.
Considered the eavesdropping branch of the intelligence community, the NSA gathers
information through satellites, telephone intercepts and other methods. Not much else
is known about the NSA, which employees joke stands for ``No Such Agency''
Hayden offers little more.
``We intercept communications of adversaries of the United States and attempt to turn
that into wisdom for American policy-makers and commanders,'' he said, according to a
transcript of the show. ``By the same token, we attempt to prevent other nations from
doing that to the United States of America. That's what we do.''
Congress recently resolved a budget battle over funds for the NSA when President
Clinton signed legislation authorizing money for intelligence agencies, including the
NSA and CIA. He had vetoed the original spending bill because of a provision that
would have made the leaking of government secrets a felony offense. The exact budget
figure included in the bill is classified.
``If you were comparing NSA to a corporation in terms of dollars spent, floor space
occupied and personnel employed, it would rank in the top 10 percent of the Fortune
500 companies,'' said Judith Emmel, a spokeswoman for the agency, which has its
headquarters in Fort Meade, Md.
Last year, the NSA defended itself against allegations it illegally snooped into
e-mail messages and other communications between ordinary Americans. On the cable
program, Hayden denied such action.
``I'm here to tell you that we don't get close to the Fourth Amendment,'' he said,
referring to the constitutional provision prohibiting unreasonable search and seizure.
``We, for better or worse, stay comfortably away from that line.''
The program recounts the agency's history and the codes it has deciphered from
Japanese, German, Vietnamese and other foreign governments during past conflicts.
``The ability to do communications intelligence has saved lives. It has kept us out of
war. It has shortened war when we've been in it,'' said David Hatch, NSA senior
historian.
The NSA had to revise its mission after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The
agency soon shifted its focus to terrorists, drug traffickers and the threat of war
over the Internet.
``Cyberwar is a term that you hear today a lot. And the business we're in is to
counter the effectiveness of cyberwarfare against our infrastructures,'' said Michael
Jacobs, deputy director of information assurance.
``We acquire information, we determine its value and we pass it on,'' said Maureen
Baginski, who heads NSA's Office of the Director.
``Really, what you have here is a bunch of Americans that are safeguarding Americans.''
^--- On the Net:
National Security Agency: http://www.nsa.gov
History Channel: http://www.historychannel.com/
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