Disappearing NSA Files

[jdhfora]

Gentlemen:

Well, anything is possible.  If I understand Mr. Young's comments, he is
suggesting that continued work on the VENONA decrypts called into question
earlier conclusions, especially about identities of agents.  Thus NSA has
relocated the material in question.  My take on this (intuitive, to be
sure), is that in the first instance this material is now
historical/archival in nature.  No work has occurred of which I am aware on
the remaining encrypted material for a quarter of a century.  Only the NSA
knows how often or by whom the files in question have been requested or
studied. It is entirely possible that only a relative few
historians/researchers are seriously interested in them.  Those who are
interested may be viewed by some folks in the NSA, or their friends,  as
attempting to resurrect an unfortunate period of history (NOT my view, I
hasten to insert), to prove or disprove one point or another of Cold War
domestic arguments.   A couple of years ago when books began to appear
documenting the Soviet connections of the CPUSA, etc, the Washington Post
ran an article "Cold War Without End," tsk-tsk-ing that such publications
only opened old wounds, and (shudder) resurrected the spectre of
McCarthyism.

The other side of this is that there were approximately 200 code names for
US agents in the uncracked ciphers.  Who were these?  Were some of them part
of the security apparatus of the GUS during the war or after?  Their
identities would indeed raise the prospect of  having to deal with
uncomfortable legal and ethical challenges, Cold Case Files of a different
sort.

It seems to me that failure to pursue this a quarter of a century ago
reflected a determination not to go there.  From what I know of some NSA
leadership at the time, I could see a conscious decision to close what might
have turned out to be a further source of embarrassment.

It may surprise some of you who are considering some of these points for the
first time to realize that not everyone at NSA was a Cold Warrior.  Just the
opposite (and I don't mean they were spies)

One other point:  The sort of work involved in breaking down the Soviet
messages was not supported by computers.  The capacity to handle such work
may now exist.  However, given NSA's current tasking with world wide
terrorism, I can see a reluctance to devout the manhours necessary to set up
the raw, encrypted stuff, for computer treatment.

Jon D. Holstine


Intelligence Forum (http://www.intelforum.org) is sponsored by Intelligence
and National Security, a Frank Cass journal (http://www.frankcass.com/jnls/ins.htm)