body-of-secrets-anatomy-of-the-ultra-secret-national-security-agency-2002

secret version of CNN. As the Defense Intelligence Network (DIN) logofades from the screen, an anchor introduces "Global Update," a TopSecret roundup of world events. Although the lead story might be thesame as the one on Ted Turner's twenty-four-hour news network, DINhas unique advantages: up-to-the-second photos from spy satellites,secret conversations from NSA intercepts, and the latest diplomaticgossip from the DIA's worldwide corps of defense attachés.Another difference from CNN is that the classification (Secret, TopSecret/Umbra, and so on) of the intelligence or the commentary appearsin the corner of the screen, sometimes changing as often as every twentyseconds. While on occasion a bit slower than CNN to pick up a story, DINoften soars ahead, as it did when viewers were able to watch reports ofthe attempted coup in Venezuela "long before CNN made the world awareof it," said one DIN official.Tired of TV, an NSAer can boot up his or her computer and log on toCrypto City's own, very secret intranet. Based on the ideas andtechnologies that are currently wrapping the world in an ever-tighteningmesh of interactive electrons, NSA's "Intelink" has one key difference: it istotally hidden from the outside world.At the same time that NSA's money and personnel were being cutback as a result of the post—Cold War intelligence drawdown, more andmore data were streaming into the agency's earth station atop a smallwooded hill on the northern edge of the city. The problem was similarthroughout the intelligence community. The solution was to go online,using cyberspace to move, distribute, and access the mountains ofintelligence reports.Connected through a system of highly secure and encrypted cablenetworks, Intelink allows NSA's technospies and analysts to surf throughsecret home pages and databases. Within seconds, they can downloadeverything from the latest intercepts on Chinese submarine activity offthe Paracel and Spratly Islands to satellite imagery and video footage ofPakistani tank movements near Kashmir. "If Warren Christopher wantsto know about Korea," said Ross Stapleton-Gray, a former CIA official,"he just goes over to the Korea page and he can see the DIA analysis, theCIA analysis, the NSA intercept, and an FBI report on Korea."Linking NSA with the CIA, the National Reconnaissance Office, andother members of the intelligence and defense community, the newsystem is "a major breakthrough," according to a senior Pentagonintelligence official. "Intelink," he said, "for the first time, in a userfriendlyenvironment, allows every element of the intelligence communityand every element of the Department of Defense to reach into every otherelement." A CIA official added, "Essentially, to a great extent we've clonedthe technology from the Internet into our communications system."437