Snowden is not the first failure of American intelligence. History tour

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While government ministries and human rights activists are contemplating statements by the former CIA officer and the US National Security Agency Edward Snowden about his intention to stay in Russia, which he made at Sheremetyevo Airport, it is curious to find out that Snowdengate is not the first epic failure of the most classified American espionage service.

The National Security Agency was created in 1952 for the conduct of the Cold War against the USSR and the countries of the socialist camp and differed from the CIA constantly flashing in Hollywood films with the highest level of secrecy in their work. Information on the activities and financing of the NSA was not even provided to congressmen. In a joke, the NSA was called "The Agency, which is not" ("No such Agency", from the English-language name of the Agency "NSA"). It was only known that the Agency was responsible for the communications of the United States and its opponents in the Cold War: it had to protect American channels of communication, and to detect, intercept and hack the channels of the enemy.

However, after the US victory in the Cold War, the Agency’s activities were not only not curtailed, but, as it turned out later, it was extended even to former allies, not excluding the countries of Western Europe. After the 11 attacks of September 2001 and the declaration of war to international terrorism, the activities of the NSA finally acquired a global, if not to say total, justification for which was the elusiveness of the leaders of international terrorism. With the development of Internet communications and social networks, it took billions of people to spy, for which the PRISM project declassified by Snowden was launched. And among the people behind whom she spied the NSA, the entire population of the United States, who uses modern means of communication, has fallen, which is a violation of American laws.

Nevertheless, all this did not mean that our country was in blissful ignorance regarding the NSA intelligence activities.

The first failure of the NSA is associated with Joseph Petersen, a former army cryptanalyst who, after World War II, began working at the Agency. Petersen was caught by the NSA security service on having made copies of several secret documents in order to pass them on to help his Dutch colleagues, with whom he had friendly relations. The management decided to demonstratively punish the imprudent cryptologist and referred the case to a public court. October 9 1954 on the front pages of the largest daily American newspapers got a message about his arrest for stealing classified documents from the NSA. But, as his lawyer said, “having made such a decision, they were mistaken,” since the arrest was received too widely in the American press. Peterson, who admitted his guilt, received 7 years in prison. Since then, the leadership of the Agency has diligently avoided any publicity.

However, the demonstrative flogging of the guilty did not save the Agency from the flight of potential defendants beyond the limits of the jurisdiction of the US federal authorities: they moved to the Soviet Union. The most famous of these were cryptoanalytics from the NSA, William Martin and Bernon Mitchell. In June, 1960, Martin and Mitchell, who had made friends with each other while serving in the army, decided that it was time to bring down and asked for another vacation. The request was granted, but instead of leaving Martin and Mitchell flew to Mexico City, and from there to Havana. From the Cuban capital, they sailed on a Soviet trawler to Russia.

In 1960, during the 90-minute press conference at the Central House of Journalists in Moscow, they told the whole world about the efforts of American intelligence in the field of cryptanalysis more than any other known defectors did. They stated that they were “outraged by the practice of intercepting and decrypting secret messages of their own allies by the United States government,” and said that the NSA regularly listens to communications in more than 40 countries. Their revelations forced many states to change their ciphers along with the keys to them. The result was temporary difficulties in the activities of the NSA. The Pentagon announced to Martin and Mitchell that one of them was “insane” (without specifying who it was) that both of them were “obviously confused”, and then called the confessions made by them “lies”. To date, this episode was considered the most severe failure in stories Agencies.

Three years later, a new defector appeared in Moscow - Syrian who received American citizenship, a specialist of the Middle East at the NSA, Victor Hamilton. At the Agency, Hamilton opened the encryption systems of Arab countries, but was fired after he wanted to resume contacts with relatives living in Syria. In retaliation, Hamilton asked political asylum in the USSR and 23 on July 1963 told the newspaper Izvestia that he and his colleagues were engaged in opening military and diplomatic codes and codes of different countries, as well as listening to UN channels.

On the same day, July 23, 1963, under mysterious circumstances, suffocating with carbon monoxide gas in his car, NSA courier Sergeant Jack Dunlap died. An investigation by the Agency showed that Dunlap worked for Soviet intelligence and handed over secret documents to her for a large remuneration at that time: 60 thousand dollars. Before his death, he spent them on the purchase of a motor yacht, a sports car brand "Jaguar", two "Cadillacs" of the latest model, as well as numerous drinks at expensive resorts across the Atlantic coast of the United States and a pompous blond mistress.

Finally, it is worth noting that Edward Snowden is also not the first NSA agent to oppose the system in the aftermath of the Cold War. Another former Agency official, William Binnie, for several years opposed the NSA in American courts and the press, warning of the illegal collection of information about US citizens. However, Binnie, unlike Snowden, did not publish secret documents confirming the global scope of the NSA spying. History shows that Binnie would not have been able to do this, being in his own country. The path of the American dissident, as half a century ago, irreversibly passes through Moscow.

When writing the article, the following books were used: David Kahn, Code Crackers; Pykhalov I. V. “US special services”.
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12 comments
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  1. +5
    16 July 2013 07: 58
    I wish more such failures to the Americans
    1. +3
      16 July 2013 08: 04
      Quote: Nikolai S.
      I wish more such failures to the Americans

      And what is this Snowden saying that someone did not know?
      Why is Snowden considered an NSA failure?
      And Snowden, this is not a mishandled Cossack?
      Maybe all this noise with its issuance is just a cover operation?

      Think about this option. Valuable defectors are not kept in the transit zone, but are quickly and quietly hidden.
      1. +1
        16 July 2013 09: 36
        In our country, too, no fools are sitting in offices, he will still have to confirm his value, but the authorities say that he can temporarily be in Russia and after following formalities on all four sides.
      2. Norady.
        0
        16 July 2013 12: 00
        I also think that this shot has nothing to do with failure, the maximum is a snowy media tool of internal showdowns of the powerful elites in the USA / England / Israel. the same clown as an assange.

        But as I understand it, most people, even from the local readership, still believe that competition and struggle in the world are between countries ...
      3. fedorovith
        0
        16 July 2013 15: 34
        They will do everything legally and democratically as the "international community" demands now. And they will not have to hide it. They themselves handed it over to us having canceled our passport. For which we are sincerely grateful.
      4. 0
        16 July 2013 16: 03
        Quote: ATATA
        And what is this Snowden saying that someone did not know?

        We don’t know much of what ... we guess a lot ... But these are topics for discussion in the kitchen and over a beer.
        And for official bodies of the state we need either documents ... or living witnesses! Then you can talk not only over a glass of beer!
        Yes! I'm very, very not sure that everything that SNOWDEN said is published in print ... and whether it is necessary ... is it ... for us, the general public. Let the experts understand the AMER programming and coding system ... this is their "bread".
  2. shpuntik
    +1
    16 July 2013 13: 01
    Good article, in short everything. I think Snowden has something to say to our experts, not for nothing that he stayed at the airport.
    Anyway, he is "respect" and "respect" -one, against such a machine, popper. He does not look like a burner, a drug addict, apparently really ideological.
    1. NOBODY EXCEPT US
      +1
      16 July 2013 23: 09
      In our history, there were also ideological ones, they didn’t take money from enemies, they donated their money for ideological reasons, if it’s interesting to read about General Polyakov who reached the very top in the service, he was responsible for agents and for more than half a century he poured everything to Amers, and volunteered himself, they thought for a long time what a setup .... still it is not known how many people he passed ...... he was shot in my opinion at 86 .. what he did not repent of .....
  3. AVV
    0
    16 July 2013 13: 15
    This is not a failure, there will be a failure when all the information spills out and gets into the press, that’s what the Americans are so afraid of! Then there will be a world-wide scandal !!! It’s not enough !!!
    1. Norady.
      +3
      16 July 2013 15: 38
      Comrades, where is critical thinking? Can't you see that the whole Snowden is a media circus, everything that he "exposed" was known to everyone, espionage is the regular work of all intelligence services. And the fact that he will "give out" the methods of work is only threatened. Even if something like that "gives out" it will probably no longer have value.
      Look how almost every hour the information is updated, how Snowden had a tasty meal, how he went to the toilet, that he wants not only to move around the territory of Russia, but wants to have a special certificate ...
      Well, nonsense
  4. +2
    16 July 2013 17: 16
    Personally, I am surprised by something else. It is quite an ordinary worker who knows that he should even urinate under heavy guard. Do they have other principles for sharing information? Or is it cretinism elevated to the absolute? Every defector or seeker of justice takes out a wagon of secrets that really undermine national security. Asange, Snowden - the level of awareness pulls a minimum of deputy. Chef of any intelligence of the world. Not weird?
    And here it is worth considering. After all, if these are not the developmental defects that I mentioned, then we are dealing with a well thought out and planned operation, the goals of which remain a secret.
    Personally, I have never considered all Americans to be complete idiots.
    1. 0
      17 July 2013 07: 55
      Quote: IRBIS
      Personally, I never considered all Americans to be complete nerds.


      Uncontrollability corrupts, and makes even adequate people - impassable dumbasses.
  5. GEO
    GEO
    +1
    16 July 2013 21: 21
    Quote: ATATA
    Quote: Nikolai S.
    I wish more such failures to the Americans

    And what is this Snowden saying that someone did not know?
    Why is Snowden considered an NSA failure?
    And Snowden, this is not a mishandled Cossack?
    Maybe all this noise with its issuance is just a cover operation?

    Think about this option. Valuable defectors are not kept in the transit zone, but are quickly and quietly hidden.

    and you read more newspapers. Have you seen him in the transit zone?
  6. 0
    16 July 2013 22: 01
    Quote: Norady
    Comrades, where is critical thinking? Can't you see that the whole Snowden is a media circus, everything that he "exposed" was known to everyone, espionage is the regular work of all intelligence services. And the fact that he will "give out" the methods of work is only threatened. Even if something like that "gives out" it will probably no longer have value.

    Whether it doesn’t have it will be appreciated by our experts, I think we also have no absolute suckers. What is voiced at any price does not have. If even the cover does not think that he will get somewhere, in very secret places.
    So you can fantasize anything. Or maybe this is our operation, with the escape.
  7. +1
    16 July 2013 22: 13
    cool photo

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