DOClD 4009707 1 I W Dum DGJ D 1 IllDWU mE Eo 4 lBrnWVUij Dffi WlBij $lDW $ OO $UJ MI N jFT s 6tEssiN NTSPANEL f WUJlB I1WW I 1 EVEN A FIVE-YEAR-OLDGHILD o o h Emery W letrault 4 CHARACTER-BUILDING IN TI EP L E 's REPUBLIC OFtHINAoo o 7 i c I GOLDEN OLDIES AN UNOFFICIAL GLOSSARY OF WEASEL WORDS o o 10 A LONG HARD LOOK AT THE INTERN PROGRAM P RT TWO Anne Exinterne o ll NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL oo o 14 CQMING EVENTS o o o o 15 IEXERCISE o o o o oo Vera R Filby o o 16 20 AN OCTOBER OVERLAP o o t TliEJ 1 _11M b BIIt'lSA PiSAM 118 I Fxoo ooo 'AilS 11811151 Bat B lIet_Ba ooo o BelLi i cd - TillS BOCI JMBNT EURON'fAIN OODEWORD MA'fFiRII f r I I DOCID 4009707 Published Monthly by PI Techniques and Standards for the Personnel of Operations VOL I NO 3 OCTOBER 1974 PUBLISHER WILLIAM LUTWINIAK BOARD OF EDITORS Edi tor in Chief o Doris Miller 5642s Collection o 1 lf441frS Cryptanalysis o 1 Language Machine Support Special Research Traffic Analysis Art Editor 1 P L If321SS S 5 5236 3 3 21S --------Vera R Filby 7119s William J Jackson Jr 3369s I 86-36 DOCID 4009707 SECRET P L Q 86_ 3 6 EoL4 C6 I c lignals processing and conversion is the step immediatelY followinl collection in which analytic shops This usually eventuates in Panel approval of the 000 Quarterly SPRP list- I _i_n_g_ areas are referred by the Chairman to o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oo o problem __In_t_h_e_e_v_e_n_t_O_f_l_ r_r_e ic_o_n_c_i_l_a_b_le_d_l_' f_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s ' 000 for resolution _--------------- In a follow-on process certain tasks re- quire additional staging this is accomnli hed bv intermediate orocessorsl At this second point the work of SPRP the Signals Processing Requirements Panel CPRP the Computer Processing Review Panel MARG the Machine Allocations Review Group and similar groups overlap in their endeavors to expedite the oyerall processing-exploitation cycle It is here that over-enthusiastic analytic commitmenti and exoectarions have their most drastic impact I Past The Signals Processin$ Requirements Panel SPRP was established by the Assistant Director Production in 1968 to allow for review and ex - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - peditingof signals processing of magnetic tapes The primary mission of the SPRP is to order received in PROD This review at PROD level the processing and signals-conversion of the permitted decisions regarding possible correcAgency's worldwide magnetic-tape collection tive actions and allowed broader influence to effort in such a way as to expedite the process- be brought fo bear on the ordering of tasks ing of perishable intelligence and to balance impacting onc6 the Office of Signals Processing and Field Support the flow of materials processed in accordance with their relative importance For some years the requirements levied on The Panel is charged under its charter with C6 had exceeded available processing capacity the review of all existing and anticipated sig- and mannin ' resources nals-processing and conversion requirements which will or could impact on C6 It is to advise 000 as the the validity justification and processability of tasks both existing and projected It provides a forum for review regarding the selection and processing of magnetic tapes as prioritized internally by the Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Pagel SECRET llidfflt f 'Ill e6lilllfl' e' fI S t I P L 86-36 PoL 8 6- 3 6 DOCID 4009707 1 4 c 86-36 SECRET Present The Signals Processing Requirements Panel currently chaired by the Executive for Deputy Director Operations XDDO has a basic membership of 15 representing each of the analytic groups plus C L31 and selected P and V Staff personnel R D is not presently represented though its participation would be beneficial The Panel Charter was updated and reestablished byDDO action on 29 August 1973 This restatement of DDO interest was promptly followed by issuance of Operations Policy Letter #3 Coordination of All New Collection Tasks dated 25 October 1973 The prioritizing of signals processing tasks is arrived at after thorough Panel review of anticipated volumes collectibility and potential intelligence value The listing for C6 is the single most useful guidance available to allow accommodation and adjustment of established and varying workloads Although the SPRP is faced primarily with matters of OPS concern occasionally actions can and do have impact elsewhere within the Agency C6 service is often available outside SPRP channels to meet requirements levied by S or R and serves to assist L3l in lessening the effect of problems relating to longer-term magnetic tape questions Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 2 SECREJ --_ _ ---- lWlBhE 'HA E8IIHfF EIb'dflffibS 8tlb'I DOCID 4009707 EO 1 4 c F L 86-36 SECRET Prioritizing signalS for C6 processing has to date been of preeminent concern to the SPRP and further refinements may yet be possible and necessary but other aspects of the charter relative to broader responsibilities have not been given equivalent emphasis As an initial step an int erchangeof representation between the SPRP the omputer Processing Revie Panel and the Machine Allocations Review Group has been accomplished to exchange information relating to correlated matters It is hoped that such interchange will help close the information gap between the collection and processing stages and the subsequent data processing stages Future The SPRP and C6 as the Office of Signals Processing function at one of the more crucial junctures in the overall cycle of collection orocessin and exoloitation I The impact of new collection conceots c hr'l111 il 1 0 f hp PRP I Notwithstanding significant progress made in efforts to coordinate collection processing and analytic requirements plans for future collection systems often do not cons der the impact they may have elsewhere This is particularly true of existing signals-processing capacities and more important perhaps our analytic capacity to digest and exploit o These are but a few of the questions that must be asked and discussed by panels like the SPRP the CPRP and the NSOC Users' Group If they are not considered efforts towards balanced collection and processing will once again be submerged by hyperconcern for volume in l'ieu of content Unless a thorough review and thinning out of spurious requirements is undertaken no computer will ever keep pace with collection nor will storage capacity ever be sufficient to All aspects of the SPRP charter need to be store materials never looked at and perhaps implemented and the Panel encouraged in courses never desired of action which will more directly assist DDO in the decision-making process particularly reESE6nE'f 1 f 66Q garding possible equipment and manpower savings P L 86-36 EO 1 4 c Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 3 I SECRET IhtdiBbE VIA eOMfl4T e1'tA1414 L OI4Lt DOCID 4009707 The chief difficulty facing the person who comes new to the study of linguistics is that of being prepared to look at language objectively For language is something we tend to take for granted something with which we are familiar from childhood in a practical unreflecting way And as has been often observed it requires a particularly strong effort to look at familiar things afresh Nor is it merely our intuitive or practical familiarity with language that stands in the way of its objective examination There are all sorts of social and nationalistic prejudices associated with language and many popular misconceptions fostered by the distorted version of traditional grammar that is frequently taught in the schools To free one's mind of these prejudices and misconceptions is indeed difficult but it is both a necessary and a rewarding first step John Lyons Introduction to TheoreticaZ Linguistics 1968 If this statement needed substantiation I The second generalization is far more NSA would be a good place to do the field work difficult to deal with because it is in some True not everyone needs to become a language respects true theoretician but those who are called upon to make decisions and formulate policy regarding LEARNING A LANGUAGE CAN'T BE ALL THAT language matters should attempt to do so in a HARD EVEN A 5-YEAR-OLD CHILD CAN manner consonant with the realities of natural LEARN TO SPEAK CHINESE FLUENTLY language Limitations of space time and energy make even a sampling of dubious language generalizations a practical impossibility However two such conclusions both about Chinese can serve to illuminate a very important fact of language The first of these has the immediate virtue of being totally untrue even though it has been one of the cliches of Chinese language instruction CHINESE HAS NO GRAMMAR What is presumably meant by this is that written Chinese has far fewer overt markers of case and subordination than English and virtually no expZicit categories such as number and tense Ordering and context fill the resultant gaps or what seem like gaps to the speaker of English The fact remains however that Chinese indeed has a grammar in the sense of the word that is current today that is a code which enables two speakers of the language to communicate with each other There is in addition every reason to believe that the grammar of Chinese presents as many complexities as that of English in snite of its lack of surface markers This is a reasonable statement on the face of it After all the streets of Peking are teeming with children many of whom are 5 years old and all or almost all of whom speak Chinese with the speed of summer lightning The implications of this statement if it is true are staggering In theory the average adult should have no difficulty mastering any behavior learned by a 5-year-old child In practice few of our language analysts military or civilian achieve even a 5-year-old's command of Chinese Why is it that a healthy reasonably intelligent and well-motivated 20-year-old American cannot match the achievements of practically any 5-year-old resident of Peking even after 47 weeks of intensive training The answer lies not in any general defect in 20-year-old Americans or in our trainingsystem per se Rather we should seek it by trying to analyze the linguistic accomplishments of our hypothetical Chinese 5-year-old If a Chinese child is like an American child at the age of 5 he possesses a sizeable stock of lexical items well beyond 1 000 Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 4 DOCID 4009707 almost all of which are intelligible and what is more important he commands an array of sentence forms which approximate those of adult colloquial usage with grammatical anomalies limited to less frequently encountered structures all in all an impressive feat of the frontal lobe He also states that such cortical specialization is not present in early life but develops gradually in a process similar to that of embryological history Thus in adults left-sided central cortical lesions cause some form of aphasia in 70 percent of all such cases and in half of these the condition is irreversible The awe which a child's language proficiency inspires begin to grow in a geometric Comparable traumata in childhood have progression when we consider one further fact Evidence suggests that a child does not learn significantly different consequences however the utterances of his language at least not in according to the age at which the damage is incurred As Lenneberg notes any stimulus-response model of the learning process but rather he infers the rules of his ' Lesions of the left hemisphere in children language from the speech of those around him under age 2 are no more injurious to future One aspect of this evidence is the fact that he language development than are lesions of produces novel utterances utterances which he the right hemisphere Children whose brain could not possibly have heard from others is traumatized after the onset of language but before the age of 4 usually have One class of novel utterances contains transient aphasias language is quickly reforms resulting from an inappropriate but perestablished however if the right hemifectly consistent application of inferred sphere remains intact Often these rules e g children regain language by going through Bang you fall down I deaded you stages of language development similar to Our cat has four foots those of the 2-year-old but they traverse each stage at greater speed Lesions in Parent Eat your peas curred before the very early teens also Child I don't want some peas carry an excellent prognosis permanent It could be that the rule-governed or residues of symptoms being extremely rare analogous formations such as foots are some Lenneberg On Explaining Language in how a consequence of the relatively low freLester ed 1973 quency of occurrence of the lexical item in the child's speech Yet such irregular strong The picture is far bleaker for people who verbs in English as come go and sit ap- have suffered damage to the left hemisphere after pear with high frequency in the past tense but the early teen years Lenneberg notes that tend to be far less stable than the less prac- young men suffering such lesions as the result ticed regularized d and t forms of the weak of war wounds have symptoms not unlike those of verbs as indicated by the fact that at a cer- elderly stroke victims with a similar prognosis tain point in the child's development he sudregarding the reestablishment of language denly abandons the irregular form in favor of the regularized form and produces comed In cases where damage to the left hemisphere goed and Sitted of the brain occurs early enough in life language functions aontinue to be aontroZZed by the If we adopt the view that our hypothetical right hemisphere The operative words here are 5-year-old has somehow inferred the rules of continue to be controlled Lenneberg emphaan adult-like grammar from the speech of those sizes that it is not a question of the right around him according to some built-in timeside of the brain taking over language functable of his own then we must allow that he tions from the left side but rather that before has performed a truly prodigious feat one a certain critical age both hemispheres are inwhich outstrips anything done by the best minds volved in language This apparently is the key in scientific linguistics to explaining the linguistic prowess of our 5year-old Peking resident the ability of young What makes a 5-year-old virtually any children to recover from aphasias that adults 5-year-old such a good linguist Is there overcome and the often noted ease with which some way that we could bottle it and distribute young children assimilate foreign languages it among our language analysts The work done when their parents take them to an overseas post by E H Lenneberg and others in the area of Alas beyond the early teen years leftthe biological aspects of language provides at least the outline of an answer to these hemisphere specialization of language functions questions is firmly established and language acquisition becomes a true learning process an academic Lenneberg states that adult language exercise at which some excel and some fail but functions take place predominantly in the left in which no one will ever begin to match the hemisphere of the brain in the precentral area achievements of a 5-year-old child Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 5 DOClD 4009707 In summary Chinese does have a grammar and we are only beginning to perceive its complexities a Chinese 5-year-old has mastered most of these complexities a tep having infelTed them fpom 1'ahJ data and this remarkable facility is somehow connected with the fact that language functions are not yet confined to the left hemisphere of the brain a specialization which occurs at some time during the teen years If we accept Lenneberg's findings and conclusions and there are stronger reasons for doing so than those which appear in this necessarily brief outline what are the implications as far as NSA is concerned First of all it appears that we have to take still another look at the wayan adult learns a second language Mo languageteaching methods in use today appear to depend at least in part on the assumption that the adult student is able to infer many of the foreign language's grammar rules from exposure to carefully selected utterances in the language If Lenneberg is right about the critical age for language acquisition we have to review this assumption and consider returning to an explicit presentation of second-language grammar to language students something which I understand is already happening in the case of the proposed revision of the DLI Spanish course The second set of implications touch upon the selection of linguists either students for language courses or applicants for language jobs We should ask ourselves whether all adults are alike in left-hemisphere dominance or whether this factor varies from one individual to another Is there a correlation presumably negative between hemisphere dominance of language and second-language acquisition This appears to be getting into an area of investigation described by Dr Ruth Day of Yale and Haskins Laboratory in an excellent paper which she presented to SIG VOICE the CryptoLinguistic Association's Special Interest Group for Voice Her findings imply that left-hemisphere dominance of language is not invariable in adults since some people can hold raw language auditory stimuli in a short-term memory bank while others begin linguistic grammar processing of such input right away She has devised tasks which clearly discriminate between these two classes of individuals We might want to investigate whether either type of person presents a better prognosis for second-language learning particulary for aural comprehension and related functions Finally we should come away from this with an increased appreciation of the linguistic accomplishments not only of S-year-old children but also of adults who either through choice or necessity are attempting to replicate however feebly a truly prodigious feat -- the acquisition of a human language with all of its complexities of expression and content with all of its unknown and in some cases unknowable cultural implications What the child can do as naturally as he runs or throws a ball the adult must learn in a painstaking academic process involving literally thousands of units hundreds of rules and an infinitely innumerable set of possible combinations Note Two papers by Eric H Lenneberg for Language Acquisition and On Explaining Language both reprinted in Lester ed Readings in AppUed formationat Linguiatic8 Second Edition Holt Rinehart 1973 are the source of much of what is contained above Capa ity UNCLASSIFIED ONE ECALL Without looking at your own telephone dial can you convert the MI from the MItchell exchange to the correct digits a telephone retired NSA employee living in Mexico had with digits but no letters on the dial Learning that direct dialing was possible he tried to call a friend in Maryland whose number in his ancient address book was Area Code 310 MItchell 7 Retired Employee discovered he had problems Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 6 L 86-36 E 1 4 c P L 86-36 P L 86-36 Rf iEROBlILDJN $ f 'lS Pb nrpUl ll iil qh Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 7 SECRET SPOIf h YI 1 ana I' DOC J -D -4 009-1 0-1------------- ---- SECRET SPOKE Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 8 SECRET SPOKE 1 4 c L 86-36 -DOCID 4009707 1 4 SEem SPOKE o o Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 9 SKRET SPOKE oLo c 86-36 DOCID 4009707 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 SECRfT SPOKE An Unofficial Glossary of Date Pre-1955 Author Unknown or do know An accumulation of traffic analysis evidence reveals It was lost in our files and we just found it Advance field sources report this is wrong don't blame us In case These changes have not been fully recovered o We can't break the system Tenuous evidence suggests the possibility that This did not come out of a whisky bottle--we got it from tea leaves Another center has identified We don't know how they did it but we're afraid to argue the point Very probably o persuasive talker The analyst is a There are some indications o We feel sure of it but we've never uped this kind of argument before Spasmodic intercept for months Haven't heard it Valid messages You oan't prove they're praotioe Thought to serve It 1J ls oarned that way on an 0 ld diagram someone SCll 1 onoe A historical survey of the net reveals We were dopes not to notioe this last year Fragmentary evidence The rest of the traffio has been misplaced The c haJta c t eJU wUh the lJ t tf e 4 ke tc h tell U6 U6e u u mlied btLt knowl edge L6 bOu ndl e 44 A re-evaluation of evidence in light of recently available material r e really missed the boat on this one Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 10 SKRfTSPOKE - '-r- __ -- - _ - - - - - J -__ -- ---- ----- DOCID 4009707 ALONG HARD LOIK AT 1 E Intern 'rogram PART TWO SELECTION AND ORIENTATION JrlJlwriting this I was initially reluctant to comment on some aspects of my experience as a college hire because there have been changes in the hiring and training procedures for college graduates in recent years I decided to include these comments because I believe many of the changes were not made for philosophical reason but for budgetary ones and that some of the procedures in practice when I came on board might be reinstated In fact I recently heard that the LIC Limited Interim Clearance hiring program which was in effect in the mid-60's is to be revived and that the intern program will again be restricted to college graduates Thus my experience might be very relevant for FY-7S college hires The method by which college hires were oriented and selected when I arrived ignored one characteristic of most recent college graduates--they honestly want to work and want to sink their teeth into a job We were immediately put into a three-month orientation course taught for the most part by other recent hires who had not been cleared by the time they finished the course and were consequently promoted to instructors Since the ink was barely dry on our diplomas the last thing most of us wanted to see was another classroom and having these people as instructors did little to change our feelings about that or to instill confidence we were taught elementary CA TA and Signals Analysis in a manner that made those subjects seem as little related to anything in the real world as metaphysics had six weeks before At the end of the orientation course we were asked to indicate the career fields we preferred and depending upon the time of year and the number of vacant billets left might get our first second third or even fourth choice of assignments Then the orientation process shifted almost 180 degrees All recruits were fully cleared when they came on board and those who were to be interns were hired for a specific intern program If a college recruit came in with a group of other college hires he might get as much as two or three weeks of orientation before being put to work but frequently he was turned over to his panel office to begin his new assignment with no more than a briefing on the relative merits of Blue Cross over GEBA the Agency structure and how to report in on sick leave For a more complete orientation he was at the mercy of the panel office and more directly the organization he was assigned to it might be months before the work meant anything to him We may now see a revival of the threemonth orientation class but an alternative that would probably be better for both the Agency and the employee than either of the above methods would be to enroll new people in a two or three month's work-study program with half the day in a class room and half in operations In TA work for instance I know from personal experience and contacts with ' other interns that there are areas that have backlogs of routine TA work callsigns to be broken work to be done on frequencyrotas etc that could be done by novices with a minimum of instruction This would satisfy the new hire's desire to be productive and would at the same time make the course work more meaningful A 'variation of this proposal would be to give the new hires the self-study course Introduction to Cryptology CYI20 and put them in an area where they could observe a number of skills being practiced with one analyst designated to serve as a reference point if trouble spots with the course came up as well as a guide to what was going on in the area I would enroll every new employee in at least two of the following courses Basic Traffic Analysis TA 100 IntroductiOTI1tcJ Manual and Machine Cr tos stems CADIS Introduction to COMINT ELINT Technology EAOIO and Introduction to Computer Science MPI60 during his first 18 months at the Agency This would provide him with more information on what field he might be best suited for while giving him an appreciation of other disciplines I would have him tour the agency to actually see how materials come in how they are disseminated and how the finished p oduct leaves th building Some employees have been here a number of years have only the vaguest idea of what happens to their product once it leaves their desks Who Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 11 --------------------- ' - _ _ ' ' i DOClD 4009707 The hires who had specific skills would be assigned to areas that would make use of them those who did not would be given assignments based on the testing described previously While I would attempt to make use of existing skills I would classify all new hires by a general term such as SIGINT Technician rather than immediately identifying them with a specific career field 2 It would avoid the danger of identifying new employees too quickly and irrevocably with one career field I and some of my friends shared similar experiences in this respect After periods ranging from six months to a year as interns we felt that we were not really in the right niche Several of us discussed these feelings with representatives of Personnel and our respective panels In each case we were told that we hadn't really given the field a I would not put any new hires directly into fair chance and that it usually takes several an intern program Many college hires who went years on the job to begin to feel at home We directly into a program as I did felt that followed the advice but when things didn't look their first 6 to 12 months were not as meaningful any more encouraging after another 8 to 12 as they could have been because they didn't months we returned to our advisors At that really understand the Agency's organization or point we were told that since we had completed operations for that period of time A study more than two year of our internship the conducted last summer raised this question and Agency had invested too much time and money in concluded that college hires should not be retraining us in our current field to let us quired to begin with work in an operational as- transfer before graduating and trying an opersignment I'm not sure of the reasoninR that ational assignment in that field Apparently prompted that conclusion since the study state there is a month or a week we missed when these that most of the managers and executives favore people would have agreed that we had spent direct assignments and the interns were divide enough time in the field to give it a fair on the question in general SR and TA interns chance but not too much to transfer favored direct assignment while CA OS and Language interns did not This touches on a related problem Some Under the system I propose new hires woul supervisors seem to feel that if a subordinate requests a release it is a negative reflection be eligible to apply for intern programs after on them that their authority is being threat12 to 18 months in their assignments and no ened or that their cache of talent will dwindle organization would be permitted to hold a canaway Whatever their reasoning they seem to be didate who had been accepted By that time the more willing to see an employee resign than to hires would have an idea of what fields they were really interested in while for their part see him go elsewhere in the Agency Some applicants for an intern program have been misled the panels would not have to choose between about it some have been given unjustifiably related experience and academic training as negative evaluations and some even warned that they often do now in selecting interns from if they are not accepted for the program they both on-board and college hire candidates may regret having applied for it My own single To avoid the possibility of new hires experience in getting a transfer was so frusbeing stuck in a corner somewhere and never trating that I now appreciate why some people even hearing of the intern program Personnel spend 30 years on the same job could have a follow-up interview with them afte they had been on the job for 12 months - at one 3 It would make for more realistic career time this was done routinely I believe--and as development I believe that the college gradpart of that interview explain the possibiuates who came to the Agency in the late 60's lities of the program began careers that were too heavily front loaded as far as rewards were concerned ThirtyThis would also alleviate some billet eight months after I came on board I was certiplanning problems for the panels Currently as fied as a professional analyst through no a panel executive with 8 vacant billets and 7 special effort on my part and had received two promising on-board applicants would you go promotions This is pretty heady stuff and is ahead and select all 7 or try and keep some another reason why some interns in those fiscal J billets open in case there will be an active ly carefree years saw thelllSelves as Future hiring program for your field which will proSuper Grades In addition to automatic produce applicants you will be interested in motions and in the case of some panels almost hiring automatic certification we received virtually every course we requested Some of us also had The method of having new hires work for a opportunities for downtown or overseas assignYear or so before putting them into an intern ments During all this we could do as much or program might solve several related problems as little as we wanted It was virtually im1 It might weed out of the program the un- possible to be dropped from a program despite instances of low and even failing grades and committed who had no idea whether they wanted poor performance This front loading did two to stay six weeks months or years things one was to take new hires who began Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 12 DOCID 4009707 as ambitious workers and demonstrate that they could have all the rewards of effort even if they did not elect to put forth very much The second was to create a sense of disillusionment when the pace slowed -- as it had to even if the money had continued to flow simply because there are only so many grades in the GG scale The above picture may seem far removed in these more austere days of 1974 but I believe there is a proposal under consideration now to promote interns when they are approximately halfway through the program if they meet the standards established by the panels and to graduate them as GG-Il's if they meet certification requirements While the association of such standards with intern promotions is a definite improvement it could be the first step toward reestablishing the old norm of two virtually automatic promotions for every intern I j 4 It would make the OJT supervisor's job easier particularly when on-board interns or military convertees are involved Interns were initially a fairly homogeneous group and the supervisor had a pretty good estimate of the type and amount of guidance he would have to provide for those coming into his area While the stereotype of interns as twenty-one to twenty-four-year-old bright-eyed recent college graduates typically women persists the fact is that in recent years on-board employees have been a prime source of input for some panels The interns of one panel were studied and it was found that men outnumbered women 2 to 1 that the age range was 23-37 meaning that some supervisors had to wait to tell their war stories until they had heard the interns' and that both the mean and median age were 30 The amount of Agency experience ranged from less than one year to 17 years with 6 the average and median number but over half the interns had prior government or military experience which brought their government service to an average of 8 years Only 17 per cent were direct college hires and only SO per cent college graduates Such diversity puts a considerable burden on the supervisor One month he has Bill Brown reporting to hia just after graduation with a degree in comparative governmept and no work experience other than being a summer camp counsellor Bill is intrigued by his new environment and would willingly listen to explanations of what NSA is all about from dawn to dusk The next month he gets John Smith who has converted from the military and has a total of ten years in the SIGINT business two more than the supervisor has Smith is already certified in another field and is ready and more than willing to fill in for the boss should the need arise The supervisor may not even know ahead of time which type he is getting It takes adaptability and resourcefulness to tailor a tour to interns with such diverse backgrounds--and the wisdom of Solomon to write their performance appraisals The recent ruling that the program will again be limited to college graduates coupled with the revival of a college recruitment program will very likely do much to reduce this heterogeneity however I believe that the situation I have just described merits study by Agency managers because it invites questions such as a Why does someone with many years of Agency experience apply for an intern program b Who should be considered overqualified for an intern Program c Was the ruling that interns will now be required to have a degree based on a study of the performance of interns who do not have a degree My own feelings concerning these questions are as follows a Since the intern program is the only comprehensive formal training program the Agency has at the technician level on-board applicants have tried to become interns for a variety of reasons such as getting popular training courses satisfying a desire for diversification escaping from an unchallenging or dead-end position becoming certified in the shortest possible time etc In short the intern pro gram has been viewed as the solution to a number of problems technicians have I do not think that it is reasonable to expect to satisfy the needs of the veteran and the new employee through one program Agency and employee needs would be better served by differentiating levels of training As mentioned previously I think every new employee should be given introductory level training in several fields Those selected for the intern program would then already have some of the courses required of most interns and the level of training provided through the intern program could be raised to that of an intermediate level training program This might also alleviate the problem some panels currently face of interns who have completed the program but who can not be certified because they can not pass the PQE While some Panels are searching for the course or the type of assignment needed to correct this problem I think the answer is that the intern should dig deeper into the field b There are currently arying even conflicting schools of thought on who should be considered overqualified for an intern program Some panels seem to exclude the candidates with the best potential for success For instance a college recruit coming into the Agency with a master's degree in data systems is automatically certified and therefore is not considered for the data systems intern program while a recruit with a degree in English may be accepted This means that the data systems Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 13 DOCID 4009707 EONFIDINTIAL major does not get the benefit of the variety of operational tours and training courses that his new colleague does Similarly the college graduate linguist who converts from the military is likely to be considered overqualified for the language intern program while the girl from Sunnyvale Academy is readily taken in However the military convertee could apply for the SR program and until very recently probably would have been accepted c Since the study that was done on the intern program last year did not indicate that the performance of hires who went directly into the program was superior to that of on-board interns I would advocate further research before re-imposing the requirement that all interns must have a degree For some fields a degree is more relevant'than prior ryptologic experience but for other fields the reverse is true I am concerned that a blanket requirement for a degree will eliminate some good candidates for the program In fact the program initially did have a requirement for a degree but it was removed several years ago because of a number of high quality on-board applicants who did not have a degree To summarize Given the goals that have been set for the intern program I would establish the following entry requirements 1 a score of 5 or above in the applicable CQB category 2 grades of B or better in course work at the National Cryptologic School 3 performance at or above the strong level during an initial 12 to 18 months' assignment in operational work I would put the people thus selected into a two-year program beginning with broad exposure to a particular field and becoming increasingly specialized as the intern progressed At the end of the two years the interns would be returned to operational work with the understanding that at a later time-perhaps a minimum of three years later--their records and those of other qualified employees would be reviewed and that at that time depending on the size and future needs of their career fields some of them would be invited back for 12 to 18 months of additional training--either advanced technical courses or management training Next issue Motivation and Morale UNCLASSIFIED NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL AGENCY RESUMES HIRING OF LIC'S NCS OFFERS COURSE IN SIGINT APPRECIATION In recent years most new NSA employees have had to be fully cleared before being hired but employees who came in in the middle 60's will remember the initials L I C which stood for Limited Interim Clearance and for an arrangement under which new hires not yet fully cleared were brought into the Agency and put on the payroll while awaiting final sanction This arrangement is now being reactivated and several hundred recruits in critical skill areas primarily language certain fields of engineering and mathematics will be hired under it The School which is tasked with keeping them usefully occupied while awaiting final clearance has worked out a course of training which will give the new hires a good background in cryptologic and intelligence work The first phase is expected to last about 9 weeks Some of the material studied will consist of standard School courses such as MP-060 Survey _i I c i oT l eand Cryptosystems for which the the students will receiv Agency credit and which will count toward eventual certification By the end of the course saysl hiefo E33and Project Officer for the program the LIC's should have a pretty good idea of what the Agencyand the intelligence cornnnmity are all about Oct 74 1 4 c P L 86-36 ver 300 DIA intelligence analysts will be attending a special course at NCS this fiscal year to learn more abou SIGINT processes and analytic techniques It all began when Dr Hall Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence looked over the post-mortem re orts of the USIB Intelli ence Committee He felt that DIA analysts needed to be cross-trained thoroughly in the use of SIGINT sources so that they Icouldl understand its capabilities and become familiar with the methods of SIGINT analysis and with the modes and highly specialized terminology of SIGINT reporting To meet this need the National Cryptologic School has organized a one-week course SIGINT Exploitation foruser-AgenC Analysts CYZ-600 to be presented once a mont at FANX II for about 35 Jle rS JIS Please note that enrollment is limited to non-NSA personnel t e6 fFIBEIl'FIAb IPv eeQ CRYPTOLOG Page 14 GGNF BENIIAl Ib'c NBcE 'ilA e6 lIIf1' elllldft41 L3 614Li P L 86-36 DOCID 4009707 mum $3393 I I 4-3 I I 1 WJLI Emu-13310 sen i btjgitli iiau Wm The - I 191950 5 women mat new I m nb mck 39kmVOICE DER rm 12 15 3 mm ct Ambassador onand Itisu a Future Pom-r Park Lat discus mgaggroce B ing me h on menuJOHN Bruadierwhs y gm 930 Dr simian er Tho Rattan-I mlolu'mce Of cer for Economics 0w commiclntelligence- nu NSA AUDITORIUM Oct 74 Page 15 DOCID 4009707 TOP SECRET UMBRA 1 4 c P L 86-36 THE iS A CASE STUDY IN SPECIAL RESEARCH ANALYSIS bY VERA R FI LIY article is adapted from a reportwriting exercise formerly used in the SIGINT reporting course It is presented here as a case study in COMINT analysis research and reporting not only for SRAs but also--and even more--for the purpose of showing readers not well acquainted with the SRA field some of its variety and complexity its frustrations and rewards The message around which it centers and all the research data are authentic Except in the message itself Cyrillic letters have been transliterated into English letters for the purpose of this article Some Agency organizational elements and procedures have changed since this was written but the essentials of special research analysis and reporting remain the same and the case described is not at all untypical Here then is a day and then another in the life of an SRA Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 16 TOP SECRET UMBRA - DOCID 4009707 TOP SKIA' UM8RA t Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 17 TOP SECRET YMBRA o 1 4 c L 86-36 DOCID 4009707 TOP SECRET UMBRA Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 18 TOP SECRET UMBRA I EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009707 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 TOP SECRET C JM81tA 'PEW SE6RE'f UIoIBIb't Subj ect To SRA SYMPOSIUM Mr IL - Ic oucrypto og P L 86-36 I highly endorse your proposal on page 20 of the first issue of Cryptolog to hold a two-day or two and-a-half day seminar for Special Research Analysts Almost every professional community including its subspecialists needs this sort of thing to heighten professional awareness and to promote the cryptologic commonweal I would be willing to present a short paper on techniques of tactical SIGINT reporting and integrated intelligence support in the tactical situation or a short paper on how to report when you have a reportable item at a collection site but no 4uthorized reporting vehicle into which the substance will legallv fit I EO P L s I SIGINT Directives Staff Oct 74 CRYPTOLOG Page 19 TOP SECRET UMBRA ----- ------- --- u -- c _u 4 c 86-36 P L 86-36 DOCID 4009707 CTOBEE 1 VERLAP PTOLOG Page 20 ELL 86 36 4009707 next month Oct 74 Page 21Jf E0 P L 86 36 This document is from the holdings of The National Security Archive Suite 701 Gelman Library The George Washington University 2130 H Street NW Washington D C 20037 Phone 202 994-7000 Fax 202 994-7005 nsarchiv@gwu edu