The Agency Whose Name May Not Be Spoken

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

> 
> Phil
> 
> PS. Does anybody consider it odd that someone from the NSA would actually
> identify themselves as such?
> 

They've been doing this for years. There's even a nice sign outside
the Fort Meade facility saying "National Security Agency." (It also
said "No photography allowed," but I snapped some anyway when I was
visiting the area in April, 1992. The NSA sign apparently went up only
months earlier.)

Such "outings" of spy agency names follow a similar progression:
ignorance, denial, revelation, overexposure, nonchalance.

I can recall when I was attending Langley High School, in Northern
Virginia of course, that the CIA headquarters next to Langley H.S.
only had a sign saying "Department of Transportation Testing Track,"
or somesuch. This was circa 1967. (Of course, keeping "secret" the
location of the CIA headquarters was a joke....we all knew it, and so
did the Russians, etc.)

-- in the early 1970s, the CIA became widely known (hated on campus,
etc.).

-- in the early 1980s, the NSA become widely known (well, widely known
to a certain class of activists and folks like us)

(Prior to the 1980s, mention of NSA was rarely made. Employees of NSA
didn't mention it, and "Fort George Meade" was the only thing
mentioned. Prior to the mid-70s, the NSA name never even appeared in
Congressional budgets or reports. Its existence was very widely known,
though.)

-- in the late 1980s, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) became
known to the public (e.g., the book "Deep Black," about spy
satellites...also the works of Richelson and others).

Makes you wonder what TLAs are still largely unknown to the public.

Paraphrasing "She," "The Agency Whose Name May Not be Spoken."

My bet is that FinCEN is just the tip of the iceberg. I have reason to
believe an economic espionage unit has been in existence for many
years, deriving from the Economic Warfare Unit in World War II. 


--Tim May


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