FITUG e.V.
Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft
FITUG e.V.Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft |
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[Historischer Stoff, so wie es aussieht. Ueber die Qualitaet ist natuerlich nichts bekannt --AHH]
17 February 1999. Thanks to Duncan Campbell.
After the Ramparts 1972 article this is the second public report on NSA's global signals interception program. Transcribed from slightly copier-cropped hardcopy; missing text = XXXXX.
Nation Review (AU) 1973
Uncle Sam and his 40,000 snoopers
The following is an interview with a former US operative, now in Australia, of America's National Security Agency ...
Question: You've worked for the US government's National Security Agency for a number of years. It's a global operation, but does it do much down here in Australia and in the surrounding Pacific? Is it relevant to us?
Answer: Yes, it's relevant. You may already have heard that your Defence Signals Division (DSD) is linked to the NSA. On paper, DSD has a major responsibility within the NSA net, work for China, southeast Asia and the Pacific. In practice, NSA supplies manpower, equipment and knowhow to DSD, just as it does to GCHQ and CBNRC [see glossary].
[...]
What were you listening for in Germany?
Berlin monitors the high echelon Soviet military traffic and the East German internal traffic. We were interested in East German party policy, popular discontent, typical anecdotes and complaints made by party officials to headquarters.
Who told you what to look for?
Each unit has a given task. Apart from that the NSA circulates TECHINS [technical instructions], which are policy papers, given to people on the basis of their "need to know". By the way, this is one place the Ramparts article went wrong. It talked about TEXTA as the bible of the NSA. TEXTA are basically installments of an operating manual, which list call signs and frequencies of the other side's communication system.
You've mentioned the British a couple of times. Are they just fronting for the US, or do they have their own electronic operation?
The British maintain a much lower profile. Under GCHQ (General Communications Headquarters) there's MI8 the government outfit, and the Special Signals Division which is the army organisation under MI8. The German headquarters are at Braunschweig. Their operations are on the tactical level. They depend on the US for strategic stuff. In Germany they tend to concentrate on Poland. They mainly operate from the northern part of the former British zone. In Berlin, they have a separate building on the Teufelsberg, and live on RAF Gatow.
[...]