American Cryptology During the Cold War, Part IV

The fourth and final part of Thomas Johnson's classified history of American SIGINT during the Cold War is available online (heavily redacted of course) on the website of the National Security Archive: American Cryptology during the Cold War, 1945-1989: Book IV: Cryptologic Rebirth, 1981-1989 was formerly classified TOP SECRET//COMINT-UMBRA/TALENT KEYHOLE.

The earlier volumes of the history are here. You can also find all of the volumes on the National Security Agency's website.

The history documents the dramatic growth that NSA underwent in the 1980s, increasing from roughly 15,000 full-time civilians in 1982 to roughly 22,000 in 1989. The number of military personnel working at NSA also rose during the decade (the combined military and civilian total was nearly 27,000 in 1990, compared to 19,000 in 1983).

The document also features some interesting and not entirely redacted discussion of the Reagan Administration's use of SIGINT for propaganda purposes, sometimes at risk to SIGINT sources and methods, and retells some of the spy episodes of the 1980s, among other topics covered.

The 1980s were also a good period for Canada's SIGINT agency. CSE's staff grew by 50% during the decade, and the agency obtained its first supercomputers, started monitoring satellite communications, began operating intercept sites in Canadian diplomatic establishments in a serious way, and revitalized its cryptanalytic capabilities. But as far as I know, there is no equivalent Canadian history of SIGINT during the last years of the Cold War -- certainly nothing in the public domain.

Canadian SIGINT sites past and present 3.0

Here's another update of my list of the main Canadian SIGINT operating sites past and present and their years of operation (previous version here). The major change is the addition of the RCN HFDF site that operated in Lambeth, Ontario from 1943 until ca. 1945. Thanks to Jerry Proc for tipping me off to its existence and to the Westminster Historical Society for providing further information about the station! As noted on earlier versions, available information on the Second World War sites still tends to be somewhat spotty, so a lot of the dates associated with those remain uncertain. Also, my guesswork still differs in a few places from the estimates made by Jerry and others (and maybe all of us are wrong on some dates), so further refinement is undoubtedly needed.

Canadian SIGINT sites past and present

Location	Years of operation
Aklavik, Northwest Territories (RCN)	1949 - 1961
Alert, Nunavut (RCAF/RCCS/SRS/CFIOG) - experimental ops began in 1956	1958 - present
Alliford Bay, British Columbia (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1943
Amherst, Nova Scotia (RCCS)	1941 - 1942
Anchorage, Alaska, USA (CFIOG det @ Elmendorf AFB)	2009? - present?
Augsburg, Germany (SRS det)	1989 - 1993
Aurora, Colorado, USA (CFIOG det @ Buckley AFB)	2009? - present?
Bermuda (RCN/SRS)	1963 - 1993
Botwood, Newfoundland (DOT)	1939 - 1946
Cap D’Espoir, Quebec (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1946?
Cheltenham, UK (CANSLO @ GCHQ + SRS/CFIOG det from 1953?)	1953 - present
Churchill, Manitoba (RCN/SRS)	1948 - 1968
Coal Harbour, British Columbia (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1942
Coverdale, New Brunswick (RCN/SRS)	1944 - 1971
Darwin, Australia: McMillan’s Road Camp (RCCS)	1945 - 1945
Digby, United Kingdom (CFIOG det @ RAF Digby)	2011? - present?
Eastcote (London), UK (CANSLO @ GCHQ)	1949 - 1953
Esquimalt, British Columbia (RCN intercept for RN)	1925 - 1940?
Esquimalt, British Columbia (MARPAC support element)	? - present?
Flin Flon, Manitoba (AFTAC only)	1959? - ?
Forrest, Manitoba (DOT)	1940 - 1942
Fort Chimo (now Kuujjuaq), Quebec (RCN)	1949 - 1952
Fort Gordon, Georgia, USA (CFIOG det @ Gordon RSOC)	2003 - present?
Fort Meade, Maryland, USA (CANSLO @ NSA HQ + SRS/CFIOG det from 1993)	1956 - present
Frobisher Bay (now Iqaluit), Nunavut (RCN)	1953 - 1967
Gander, Newfoundland (RCN/SRS/CFIOG)	1942 - present
Gloucester, Ontario (RCN HF-DF/training/admin site)	1943 - 1972
Gordon Head, British Columbia (RCN)	1940 - 1945
Grande Prairie, Alberta (RCCS)	1942 - 1947
Halifax, Nova Scotia (MARLANT support element)	? - present?
Harbour Grace, Newfoundland (RCN)	1940 - 1946?
Hartlen Point, Nova Scotia (DOT)	1941 - 1946
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (CFIOG det @ NSA Hawaii)	2009? - present?
Inuvik, NWT (RCN/SRS)	1961 - 1986
Kingston, Ontario (SRS/CFIOG training)	1972 - present
Kingston, Ontario (21 EW Regt/2 EW Sqn of 1 CSR/1CDHSR/CFJSR)	? - present
Kingston, Ontario (Res EW Sqn/772 EW Sqn) - merged with 21 EW Regt in 2010	1986 - 2010
Ladner, British Columbia (RCCS/SRS)	1949 - 1971
Lambeth, Ontario (RCN)	1943 - 1945?
Leitrim, Ontario (RCCS/SRS/CFIOG)	1942 - present
Louisbourg, Nova Scotia (DOT)	1939 - 1946
Lulu Island, British Columbia (DOT) (AKA Steveston)	1944? - 1945
Masset, British Columbia (RCN/SRS/CFIOG)	1942 - 1945 and 1949 - present
Nanaimo, British Columbia (DF outstation for Victoria)	1942? - ?
Norfolk, Virgina, USA (CFIOG det @ NIOC Norfolk)	2009? - present?
Northwest, Virginia, USA (SRS/CFIOG det @ NSGA Northwest)	1997 - 2001
Ottawa, Ontario (various headquarters)	1939 - present
Ottawa, Ontario (DOT)	1939 - 1945?
Ottawa, Ontario (771 CRS)	1987 - 2002
Pennfield, New Brunswick (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1945?
Point Grey, British Columbia (DOT)	1940 - 1945?
Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1945?
Prince Rupert, British Columbia (RCN)	1946 - 1948?
Resolute, Nunavut (RCAF) - experimental site only	1956 - 1956?
Riske Creek, British Columbia (RCCS; never operational)	1944 - 1946
Rivers, Manitoba (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1945?
Rockcliffe, Ontario (RCCS)	1939 – 1942
San Antonio, Texas, USA (SRS/CFIOG det @ Medina RSOC)	1995 - present?
Shediac, New Brunswick (DOT)	1939 - 1946
St. Hubert, Quebec (DOT)	1939 - 1946
Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec (training)	1944 - 1945?
Strathburn, Ontario (DOT)	1939 - 1945?
Sydney, Nova Scotia (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1945?
Ucluelet, British Columbia (RCN @ RCAF)	1941 - 1942
Victoria, British Columbia (RCCS)	1942 - 1949
Washington, DC, USA (CANSLO @ AFSA/NSA)	1949 - 1956
Whidbey Island, Washington, USA (SRS/CFIOG det @ NSGA Whidbey Island)	1997 - 2002
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (RCAF/SRS)	1948- 1968
Winnipeg, Manitoba (DOT)	1942 - 1945
Winnipeg, Manitoba (1 Cdn Air Div support element)	? - present?

The list does not include the various operating sites of the Special Wireless Sections Type “A” and Type “B” in Britain, Italy, and North-West Europe from 1941 to 1945 or similar operations that may have taken place in the years since the Second World War when Canadian forces have been operationally deployed. Also not included are the covert intercept sites reported to operate in some Canadian embassies and consulates.

In addition to the personnel posted to the Canadian Special Liaison Offices (CANSLO) at NSA and GCHQ, a number of CSE personnel are posted to exchange positions inside the agencies of Canada's UKUSA partners. Canadian military personnel are also posted to a number of U.S. sites under the CF-USN Personnel Exchange Program (PEP). The History of Canadian Signals Intelligence and Direction Finding (p. 18) listed the following PEP locations as of 2005: Naval Security Group Headquarters (now the Naval Network Warfare Command Information Operations Directorate, Fort Meade, Maryland); NSGA Norfolk (now Naval Information Operations Command Norfolk), Virginia; Kunia RSOC, Hawaii; and Gordon RSOC, Georgia. The Gordon RSOC is also listed as the location of a CFIOG detachment (p. 133); these listings may refer to the same personnel. In the list above "det" is used to refer both to detachment locations and to sites where exchange personnel have been posted. Sites reported in 2009 are listed here. At various times, Canadians have also been posted to other U.S. sites under the PEP program, including Homestead, FL; Skaggs Island, CA; Imperial Beach, CA; and Wahiawa, HI. There was also at one point during the Cold War a personnel exchange program with the British Army that saw Canadian personnel serving with the 13th Signal Regiment at Birgelen, West Germany.

SIGINT: Origins

Jerry Proc has added a new document on The Beginnings of Canadian Signal Intelligence to his resources on Canadian signals intelligence sites.

The page covers the period from 1925 to the end of the Second World War, summarizing S.A. Gray's 1993 paper "Getting to the Roots of a 291er" (released by DND under the Access to Information Act).

April 2013 CSE staff size

2042.

(If you click through on the link and get a different figure, it's probably because the Canada Public Service Agency has updated its website; they update the numbers once a month.)

I can call badges from the vasty web

Way back in my pre-blogging days I used to have a website dedicated to CSE, which I decorated with what I considered to be a slightly cheeky reworked version of the CSE badge that depicted its middle section swinging open like a door to allow access to the secrets within (see below).



(Compare to the actual badge here.)

That ancient website long ago lapsed, and I thought that my reworked badge had slipped from all human ken along with it. But no.

You never know what will emerge when you launch something into the Intertubez, and in the case of my badge, it appears that a real, bona fide cloth version has somehow been called into existence (see below).



Found the badge here, but where you can obtain your own copy I do not know. I'd love to get one!

A G: CSE gets an A- on Contracting Sec

The chapter on Security in Contracting in the Auditor General's 2013 Spring Report gives CSE a more-or-less clean bill of health:

Communications Security Establishment Canada complies with the Policy

2.74 We found that Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) is consistent with the Policy on Government Security. It uses the Security Requirements Check List to identify security requirements, has implemented a quality assurance program, and has approved its departmental security plan. CSEC’s requirement for clearances of firms went beyond the requirements in the Policy on Government Security. CSEC recently approved a policy on key activities related to security in contracting, which will help ensure that the process is carried out uniformly.

2.75 From our interviews and file review, we found that individual contractors had been granted security clearances at the appropriate levels before contracts began. We also reviewed the security in place for CSEC’s Long-Term Accommodation Project (Exhibit 2.9).


Exhibit 2.9—Security has been well considered in Communications Security Establishment Canada’s Long-Term Accommodation Project

We looked at a major project currently under construction to replace Communications Security Establishment Canada’s (CSEC’s) facilities and consolidate its workforce. For this project, Defence Construction Canada is the contracting authority. We found that security had been well considered and integrated into project planning and delivery. The projected cost of this Long-Term Accommodation Project is $880 million, with completion planned for 2014. Given the highly classified nature of CSEC’s business, the design and construction of the new facility took security considerations into account with a view to enhancing monitoring and eliminating the need for costly retrofits. CSEC conducted the personnel screening and provided the results to the Industrial Security Program for inclusion in the Program’s database. It also signed a service-level agreement with Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to conduct the facility security clearances. At the same time, CSEC conducted contractor clearances and requested clearances of firms from PWGSC. Until a firm was cleared, there was no access to the site and no work was permitted. Together, these procedures ensured that both firms and contractors would be appropriately cleared. CSEC cleared or provided site access clearance to more than 6,000 individuals, from truck drivers to consultants—no individual was allowed on site without first being cleared. CSEC also took additional precautions, such as the following: It ensured that firms providing construction materials and equipment were granted access only to specific sections of the work site as necessary. It restricted access to drawings of the building and the building site. It established verification procedures to ensure that there were no unobserved breaches of security. While the cost of these additional procedures was considerable, in CSEC’s opinion they provided the assurance that its Chief needed—that risks had been mitigated appropriately.

2.76 We also reviewed 18 CSEC contracts unrelated to the Long-Term Accommodation Project. We found that for 14 contracts entered into with six firms, the firm had not been cleared when the contract was awarded. While CSEC had a security clause in these contracts for firms to be cleared, clearance was obtained only after the work had started.

2.77 Recommendation. Communications Security Establishment Canada should ensure that all contract security requirements related to firm clearances are met prior to awarding the contract.

The Agency’s response. Agreed. Communications Security Establishment Canada acknowledges the audit’s finding that CSEC met all requirements of government policy. With respect to the additional requirements that CSEC put in place over and above the policy, CSEC accepts the findings of the Auditor General, although additional risk mitigation measures were put in place. CSEC’s guidelines have been amended accordingly.

CBNRC/CSE staff 1946 to 2013

An updated version of the graph featured in this post.

March 2013 CSE staff size

2075.

(If you click through on the link and get a different figure, it's probably because the Canada Public Service Agency has updated its website; they update the numbers once a month.)