ELECTRONICS: A MAJOR PART OF SPY GAME

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440023-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 29, 2010
• Sequence Number: 23
• Publication Date: October 20, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440023-2
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Electronics:
A Major Part
Of Spy Game
5
NEW YORK TIMES
20 October 1985
Military Eavesdrops, Too
In addition, the three military serv-
ices undertake various forms of tacti-
cal electronic espionage activities. For
example, specially equipped Navy air-
craft were able to eavesdrop and jam
the messages from an Egyptian
airliner as it flew across the Mediterra-
nean with four Arab terrorists. and Is-
raeli intelligence intercepted the ship-
to-shore conversations from the cruise
ship Achille Lauro.
The immediate significance of the in-
terception of the conversation from the
Italian liner is that it has given Federal
prosecutors evidence of the involve-
ment of Mohammed Abbas, leader of a
Palestinian faction, in the hijacking.
According to intelligence officials,
the United States and the Soviet Union
are not alone in undertaking extensive
electronic surveillance activities. Brit-
ain and Czechoslovakia are said to
have widespread experience in this
area of espionage.
One indication of the extent of the
electronic surveillance threat inside
the United States posed by the Soviet
Union and other nations was President
Reagan's decision to order the National
Security Agency to lead a Government-
wide effort to improve the communica-
tion security of the military, civilian
agencies like the Internal Revenue
Service and even private organiza-
tions, like banks, transmitting infor-
mation that might be helpful to an
enemy.
The United States' eavesdroppping
satellites are known as "ferrets," and
pick up radar. long-distance telephone
calls, and the telemetry from missile
tests. More than 25 years ago, the
United States developed a technique to
eavesdrop on the radio telephones in
the limousines of top Soviet officials. It
was not until early 1984, however, that
the United States got around to adding
protective equipment to the radio tele-
phones of President Reagan and other
top officials.
By DAVID BURNHAM
Special to The New York Time
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The inter-
cepted radio conversations that pur-
portedly took place between the hijack-
ers of the Achille Lauro and an associ-
ate on shore have underscored the cen-
tral role that electronic snooping now
plays in the intelligence operations of
the United States and other nations.
According to various intelligence of-
ficials and outside experts, both the
United States and the Soviet Union
make enormous expenditures each
year to eavesdrop on the communica-
tions of nations all over the world and
to protect their own sensitive com-
munications from detection.
The United States' largest single in-
telligence organization, the National
Security Agency, for example, has the
prime responsibility for secretly
recording and decoding electronic mes-
sages worldwide. Estimates of its
budget are from $5 billion to $10 billion.
The second largest such organiza-
tion, the National Reconnaissance Of-
fice, is in charge of operating the na-
tion's spy satellites. It reportedly has a
$2.5 billion annual budget.
$2 Billion for C.I.A.
The Central Intelligence Agency, by
contrast, has a budget estimated at $2
billion. The C.I.A. has the responsibil-
ity for overall analysis of the intelli-
gence information and for guiding indi-
vidual spies and undercover agents and
directing undercover operations.
Thus, the two agencies primarily re-
sponsible for collecting various kinds of
electronic data, or what the trade calls
"Sigint" - short for "signals intelli-
gence" - are apparently spending at
least three times more than what the
C.I.A. spends for intelligence from in-
dividual spies or" Humint" - short for
"human intelligence."
James Bamford, author of'a book on
the National Security Agency, said
Congressional experts estimated that
65 percent of the intelligence collected
by the United States came from techni-
The strategic electronic espionage by one of the nation's 19 domestic satel-
activities of the National Security, lites, microwave towers or cable. "If it
Agency and the National Reconnai- is going via satellite, you can presume
sane Office are conducted from rom s ev- the other guy is listening to it," he said.
eral satellites and from hundreds of Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan,
land- and ship-based eavesdropping ! Democrat of New York, a former
stations in this country as well as infor-member of the Senate Select Commit-
tee on Intelligence, has also repeatedly
accused the Soviet Union of widespread
electronic surveillance here. He has
unsuccessfully pressed for a law to
make such activities a Federal crime.
New Telephones
An aspect of this broad effort was an
agency project announced a year ago
to equip various Government agencies,
military contractors and other private
companies with as many as 500,000
newly developed telephones that make
secret interception far more difficult
than when a conversation is transmit.
ted on convention instruments.
The deputy director of the National
Security Agency in charge of com-
munication security, Walter G. Deeley,
said in an interview that he believed
the United States was in "deep trou-
ble" because so many key conversa-
tions were being picked up by hostile
governments.
"They are having us for breakfast,"
he said. "We are hemorrhaging. Your
progeny may not enjoy the rights we do
today if we don't do something."
Mr. Deeley said anyone making a
long-distance telephone call from the
West Coast, Boston or Washington had
Approved For Release 2010/06/29: CIA-RDP90-00552R000404440023-2