Disappearing NSA Files

[John Young]

Was there not also some doubt about interpretation of the
Venona decrypts, that a biased slant was given to them not
necessarily supported by the admittedly partially-complete
decrypts?

NSA's rationale for withdrawing most of the material --
that there was little demand ofr it -- seems a bit odd for
a cryptanalytic triumph that had been lavishly publicized,
if not by NSA then by Cold Warriors eager to brag and
get rewarded for it.

A similar excuse is made when reassessed material needs
to be withdrawn for other purposes but without calling attention
to the true reason. Is a counterreformation of Venona Faith in
the offing? What a surprise should the ties of codenames to
persons not be altogether accurate.

Were there discoveries made in later decrypts that undermined
claims for the earlier? Did NSA become worried about being
smeared by interpretations not in line with its mandate to keep
out of domestic politics?

An important value of keeping some types of intelligence
out of the hands of domestic agencies is to limit misuse of
the material. While that barrier appears to have been lowered
recently, a consequence could be that NSA is keeping its findings
closer to its chest until the passion cools for naming the enemy
via studies in intelligence. The FISA check and balance is not as
trustworthy as it once was alleged to be.

Nah, NSA is so short of acres of computer capacity that it could
not continue to offer the bellweather proofs of its amazing
prowess, well, that's not how NSA would put it, that type of FBI
hyperbole.

John Young

Intelligence Forum (http://www.intelforum.org) is sponsored by Intelligence
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