THE ESPIONAGE OCTOPUS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100090110-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 110
• Publication Date: February 1, 1973
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100090110-0
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The CIA and our armed forces have spy sate!! ites, foreign agents,
far-flung listening posts and the latest .
in electronic gadgetry. What they haven't gof
is a way to put it al I together
BOOK BONUS/ BY PATRICK J. McGARVEY
eventually announced by the Pentagon.
TttE COLLECTION EFFORTS of United States intelligence are United States spy satellite activity has declined in the past
directed against three targets-technical det?iis, hur.:w.. t..ta.. several years. In 1965, 16 satellites were launched; in 19(r`),
ing, and authoritative documents. The held today is presently 1 ~, and only nine were tufted in 1 ~J70. Using avcra~~e times
dominated h}? technology. in orbit, the United States had one spy satellite over the Soviet
k ~ 11"t are the best-known technical
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all, their "take" is small when compared to the less notorious
technical collection s}'stems. This is not meant to belittle the
.system, however; in one 90-minute circling of the globe the
satellites-dubbed SA\IOS (Satellite Antimissile Observa-
tion System}-collect more information than an army of
50,000 foot spies collects in a year.
The 22-foot high, five-foot round satellite, looking much
like a Cuban cigar, is packed with devices that pick up the
murmurings of radars, the crackling, of radios, the point-to-
point secure communications of the world's nations, and the
H'ork of Chinese and Soviet scientists at their separate nuclear-
weapons and space-research stations. E=quipped with a variety
of cameras these unusual spies can detect a chalk line on the
ground from a hundred miles up.
esoteric "black box" intelligence dcvrces rn use today. Over-
e r
e-s y sa
The spy-rn-t
Umon on lS0 days of 1970.
devices employed, but they represent only a mere fraction of The Soviet Union launches three times as mare' spy satellites
CaiifJ.iuu Ju iu~ nvcta~:G Vt Unl'C a Illon[n, JAMUS SaielllteS
can be triggered to unload their electronic take in a split-
second spurt of energy that can be intercepted at ground
stations, replayed, and amount to several hours of electronic
intelligence. "Their photo-intelligence take is ejected after
about a week in orbit and intercepted in midair over the
Pacific, v,here the Air Force enjoys a 70 percent success rate
in catching them.
At present, there arc two breeds of the SAMOS satellite in
use.7~he Tirst, using a ~1-h,u-Agena rocket, makes broad sweeps
of the Suviet union. China. and other t:+r~_ct countries from
an altitude of more than 100 miles. hhe second, launched
aboard a'hitan Ill-I3 booster, carries higher-resolution cameras
and is norm:+Ilv cml~lo~rd as a follow-up to the first, dying at
lower altitudes. In 1+~7U a tot,+l of nine United States rrcon-
naiss:rnce satellites ~~cre I:urnched. Six of thrx cycrc the "hitan
111-13 variety and were I:+unclud between lone and late Oc-
tohcr, when thrrc was intcn~c United States intrrest in what
was happening along the Surz Canal and at Itussi::n ICIi',i
bases, ~yherc a slowdown in construction was spotted and
Launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in southern
as the United States. During 1970, ?+~ recon satellites-each
rcmainin~a in orbit for an avcra~c of eight to 13 dais-photo-
graphcd United States inst:+llations un an average of X90 days.
\lost Americans don't think about being spied upon. The
farmers in Kurth Dakota would be surprised to know that the
Russians are watching their crops grow with as much interest
as they arc. "The stockyards of Omaha are scrutinized to see
how tine American beef industry is doin~~. Many a present-day
Tom Sawvcr has been photographed on the Mississippi as the
Soviet Union keeps tabs on the river's commerce. lastly,
those cock}' New York honc}'s who sunbathe nude on pent-
house roofs arc no doubt the subject of very close examination
by Soviet photo-intelligence experts.
\1'hen the Son Ta}' prisoner-of-war camp raid into North
Vietnam flopped, it was revealed that the United States Air
Force had practiced for the raid at E.clin Air Force Base in
Florida. "They went to such elaborate precautions that they
dismantled the mockup of the prison camp even' morning
so the Soviets wouldn't see it in their reconnaissance.
An equally lucrative and more widespread source of tech-
nical intelligence is signals intelligence, or communications
intelligence, known as CO\iIN"T. (n essence, this means all
forms of intclliccnce that can be gleaned by listcnin~, in to
the radio communications of a foreign nation. All forms of
a target countn's radio communications-he it merchant
shipping, industrial development, foreign trade, or internal
transportation-arc monitored in vanuig degrees. dcprnding
on the countn''s potential threat to the United States. Ohvi-
ously, the Soviet Union and Communist China an: high pri-
ority tar~cts for all forms of communication.
Controlled by the Nationa Security Agency, America's
radio intercept network is extensive. ~( here arc slightly o~'cr i0
stations active in any given time of the day. "[hey :+re located
in at !cast 1-i forci~~n countries. 'Tl~~ey ranee in size from
sm:+ll mobile licld units of a company of men, as uud in
\'ictnam, to a sprawling complex of men and machines num-
continl,ICa
"""' Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/28 :CIA-RDP91-005618000100090110-0 ~~~--