PROJECT AQUARIUM: TAPPING THE TAPPERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170009-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: December 2, 1980
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170009-7
AF T tCLE A??ZZRED
ON PAG2'f
JACK ANDERSON
Pro le
The "secret' ;tapping of the' tefe-.
phones of innocent Americans sup-
posedly. came',to a crashing halt with
reform- legislation which was enacted-
five years ago. But it didn't.
e su
jec
e
to
A loophole..: in the law, designed to'' travel by, microwaves, and _much of Project Aquarium's double. US.
give the ? Good Guys a break in the that traffic is beamed through trans-. Soviet eavesdropping, long after the
continuous game of espionage with" witting towers in New York. The furor over Watergate-era domestic
the Russiansy permits Uncle.Sam's Russians simply rent a"'hotel room" surveillance had subsided. But intelli
spooks to listen lm-on" any phone con-', and "tap into one. of the towers with Bence sourcesSay the project never.
.
versations-the- remlin s agents have sophisticated equipment. turned up so much as a nugget of si
tapped "
They use a scanning device to zero nificant information.
As a- E~esul thousands off" phone in on the few hundred phone numbers
calls tx%andfrom~government officials? they're interested in -government of- The most 'the ' NSA monitor's;.
busiriessriYeri rid"`other' Americans' ficials privy to state secrets, business learned were the identities of Airier-'!
have beeniclandestinely recd dedt`by' executives ..t discussing ;confidential roans who excite the Russians' interest`
which in most cases is obvious.'
both Ifi. "and Soviet` snoopers.yAnd matters; perhaps the mistress of an -
thanks. taatha, loophole, the eaves- important., man who would then- be I ye never, seen the need for that;
dropPtn8'^3! P `. the:-Amenca tappers'.. susce tible to blackmail. kind of intelligence,"said one CIA. of-
that Unfortunately; the CIA just didn't ficial. It s wasted
is-was perfectly legal..
It was?also totally unproductive. - have the electronic- expertise to horn Footnote: To its credit, the NSA re,
The _ operation, code-named 1 in `on' the Russian snoopers. After sisted Bell's efforts to get hold of, its'
"Project Aquarium," has been traced trying for months with no success, tapes. He particularly wanted `any:
to the early days of the Carter admin they finally turned to the National that might have shed some light' on
istration, intelligence sources told my Security Agency for help.'' the Koreagate scandal. In a -show
associate Dale Van Atta.And oneof For-- the---NSA-which once,- in down at the White House, the presi
the unwitting targets was President "Project Canute," reconstructed mes- dent ordered the NSA director
to in
Carter's n good` friend and ;attorney sages_ row. the acoustical, tape of form Bell if any of the tapedconver
general; Griffin Bell ~' someone typing-the.monitoring was sations had relevance to the investiga
For reasons that make sense to the like shooting fish in a barrel. Within a tion."The director said none did.
convoluted reasoning of the espionage week the agency's wizards were tap- But some experts are concerned;
community, the,govennt-has;done ping the Russians',radio monitors and that the loophole allowing federal tap-""
little-to stop the- Russians'^electronic -hearing everything they heard ping of innocent citizens-so long as
monitoring `of phone calls ;=n ihis~ One early result was a surprise: The the Russians tap them first-could be,
country Since 2977, the bugginhasp ~1SA, tapped the Soviets tapping, At 'used as a means of returning to the ,
been done front the. Soviet; Embassy tbrney General Bell, who was over bad old days of indiscriminate domes-s,
in Washington theRussianconsulate. heard-.discussing; classified informs tic snooping. that was discredited. byi
in Sai F ,~ tvity of the '.offices ~ tidn ors unsecured line Bell
was the Watergate
THE WASHINGTON POST
2 December 1980
: Tapping the Tappers1 ,,
in New York and several other secret quickly informed, though the leakwas
locations., more of a joke than a serious thing,"
- The CIA wanted to crack the New ''in Bell's words. ' = -
York operation. The reason is that
Thousands of phone calls by hun-
l
-
two-thirds of all
ong
distance calls dreds of individuals wer
b
t
d
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100170009-7