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94-568: USS Liberty (AGTR-5) was a Belmont -class technical research ship (i.e. an electronic spying ship ) that was attacked by Israel Defense Forces during the 1967 Six-Day War . She was originally built and served in World War II as a VC2-S-AP3 type Victory cargo ship named SS Simmons Victory . Her keel was laid down on 23 February 1945, under a Maritime Commission contract at Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation of Portland, Oregon . In 1967, Israeli air force and naval units attacked

188-761: A break bulk cargo carrier to stints in the National Defense Reserve Fleet (being twice berthed in the Hudson River ). Most notably during this time, she made nine trips to the Far East between November 1950 and December 1952 during the Korean War "to equip American troops fighting communist North Korea" in the Military Sea Transportation Service . On 11 June 1958, Simmons Victory once again entered

282-636: A "privacy mechanism"; surveillance was stored encrypted; decryption required a warrant. The research done under this program may have contributed to the technology used in later systems. ThinThread was canceled when Michael Hayden chose Trailblazer , which did not include ThinThread's privacy system. Trailblazer Project ramped up in 2002 and was worked on by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Boeing , Computer Sciences Corporation , IBM , and Litton Industries . Some NSA whistleblowers complained internally about major problems surrounding Trailblazer. This led to investigations by Congress and

376-714: A 2010 article in The Washington Post , "every day, collection systems at the National Security Agency intercept and store 1.7  billion e-mails, phone calls and other types of communications. The NSA sorts a fraction of those into 70 separate databases." Because of its listening task, NSA/CSS has been heavily involved in cryptanalytic research, continuing the work of predecessor agencies which had broken many World War II codes and ciphers (see, for instance, Purple , Venona project , and JN-25 ). In 2004, NSA Central Security Service and

470-674: A CIA plot (ordered by the administration of President John F. Kennedy ) to assassinate Fidel Castro . The investigation also uncovered NSA's wiretaps on targeted U.S. citizens. After the Church Committee hearings, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was passed. This was designed to limit the practice of mass surveillance in the United States . In 1986, the NSA intercepted

564-779: A Technical Research Ship (AGTR-5). She was commissioned at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton , Washington, in December 1964. In February 1965, Liberty steamed from the West Coast to Norfolk, Virginia , where she was further outfitted (cost: US$ 20 million) to suit her for a mission of supporting the National Security Agency by collecting and processing foreign communications and other electronic emissions of possible national defense interests. In June, Liberty began her first deployment, to waters off

658-599: A civilian crew. She was registered at Portland, Oregon with Official Number 245473 and allocated code signal KWXB. On 20 October 1944 SS Iran Victory had job of delivering ammunition for troops of the US Central Philippine Attack Force. She was in a convoy of ships that was held at Kossol Roads in October 1944 until needed. The convoy included the ammunition ships Meridian Victory , Iran Victory and Bluefield Victory and

752-603: A file xkeyscorerules100.txt, sourced by German TV stations NDR and WDR , who claim to have excerpts from its source code) reveal that the NSA tracks users of privacy-enhancing software tools, including Tor ; an anonymous email service provided by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and readers of the Linux Journal . Linus Torvalds ,

846-542: A larger improvement on the basic Liberty ship design, carried 10,850 tons of cargo in three holds . Iran Victory measured 7,608 gross register tons and 4,551 net register tons , and had a length overall of 439.1 feet (133.8 m), a breadth of 62.1 ft (18.9 m), and a depth of 34.5 feet (10.5 m). She was powered by a pair of oil-fired steam turbines made by Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; geared to

940-399: A major cryptography conference was J. Solinas' presentation on efficient Elliptic Curve Cryptography algorithms at Crypto 1997. The IAD's cooperative approach to academia and industry culminated in its support for a transparent process for replacing the outdated Data Encryption Standard (DES) by an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). Cybersecurity policy expert Susan Landau attributes

1034-477: A result of the boomerang routing of Canadian Internet service providers . A document included in NSA files released with Glenn Greenwald 's book No Place to Hide details how the agency's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) and other NSA units gain access to hardware. They intercept routers , servers , and other network hardware being shipped to organizations targeted for surveillance and install covert implant firmware onto them before they are delivered. This

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1128-564: A single shaft and propeller, the total power of 8,500 hp (6,300 kW) gave her a speed of up to 17 knots (31 km/h). The ship was launched as Iran Victory on 25 March 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Peter Hegge, and delivered on 23 April 1944 to the Maritime Commission, which turned her over to a commercial shipowner, the Pacific-Atlantic Steamship Company , for operation manned by

1222-937: Is believed by Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian to be the model for the comprehensive worldwide mass archiving of communications which NSA is engaged in as of 2013. A dedicated unit of the NSA locates targets for the CIA for extrajudicial assassination in the Middle East. The NSA has also spied extensively on the European Union, the United Nations, and numerous governments including allies and trading partners in Europe, South America, and Asia. In June 2015, WikiLeaks published documents showing that NSA spied on French companies. WikiLeaks also published documents showing that NSA spied on federal German ministries since

1316-615: The Chesapeake Bay bound for the Indian Ocean . The ship rounded the Cape of Good Hope on 5 October 1967, and spent the following six weeks engaged in special operations along the eastern coast of Africa. On 22 November 1967, she redoubled the cape and, after an overnight stop at Monrovia, Liberia on 2 and 3 December 1967, pointed her bow west for the homeward voyage. Belmont arrived back at Norfolk on 12 December 1967, and spent

1410-715: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court when within U.S. borders. Alleged Echelon-related activities, including its use for motives other than national security, including political and industrial espionage , received criticism from countries outside the UKUSA alliance. The NSA was also involved in planning to blackmail people with " SEXINT ", intelligence gained about a potential target's sexual activity and preferences. Those targeted had not committed any apparent crime nor were they charged with one. To support its facial recognition program,

1504-811: The National Cyber Security Division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed to expand the NSA Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program. As part of the National Security Presidential Directive 54/Homeland Security Presidential Directive 23 (NSPD 54), signed on January 8, 2008, by President Bush, the NSA became the lead agency to monitor and protect all of

1598-752: The Norfolk Naval Station bound for her first and only tour of duty with the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean . She passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 28 June 1969 and joined the 6th Fleet, two years after the Israeli attack on her sister ship, USS  Liberty . Over the next four months, Belmont ranged the length and breadth of the Mediterranean conducting a series of special operations and making stops at ports along

1692-626: The Panama Canal Zone . Belmont retransited the canal on 21 January 1966 and moored in Norfolk on the 28th, where she remained for almost seven weeks for upkeep and shipyard availability. On 16 March 1966, the ship embarked upon another deployment to the western coast of South America. She transited the Panama Canal on 28 and 29 March 1966 and, for the next eight weeks, cruised along the coasts of Peru and Chile . Belmont returned to

1786-601: The U.S. intelligence organizations in terms of personnel and budget, but information available as of 2013 indicates that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) pulled ahead in this regard, with a budget of $ 14.7 billion. The NSA currently conducts worldwide mass data collection and has been known to physically bug electronic systems as one method to this end. The NSA is also alleged to have been behind such attack software as Stuxnet , which severely damaged Iran's nuclear program . The NSA, alongside

1880-639: The US Court of Appeals . The court also added that the US intelligence leaders, who publicly defended it, were not telling the truth. NSA's eavesdropping mission includes radio broadcasting, both from various organizations and individuals, the Internet, telephone calls, and other intercepted forms of communication. Its secure communications mission includes military, diplomatic, and all other sensitive, confidential, or secret government communications. According to

1974-685: The Vietnam War by providing evidence of a North Vietnamese attack on the American destroyer USS  Maddox during the Gulf of Tonkin incident . A secret operation, code-named " MINARET ", was set up by the NSA to monitor the phone communications of Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker , as well as key leaders of the civil rights movement , including Martin Luther King Jr. , and prominent U.S. journalists and athletes who criticized

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2068-602: The Vietnam War , with about 30,000 NESTOR sets produced. However, a variety of technical and operational problems limited their use, allowing the North Vietnamese to exploit and intercept U.S. communications. In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal , a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Senator Frank Church revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with Britain's SIGINT intelligence agency, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), had routinely intercepted

2162-403: The Vietnam War . However, the project turned out to be controversial, and an internal review by the NSA concluded that its Minaret program was "disreputable if not outright illegal". The NSA mounted a major effort to secure tactical communications among U.S. forces during the war with mixed success. The NESTOR family of compatible secure voice systems it developed was widely deployed during

2256-695: The Virginia Capes into the Atlantic Ocean and laid in a course for the West Indies . Two days at sea, the ship received orders to proceed to the vicinity of the Dominican Republic where, four days earlier, a revolt of left-wing factions had broken out. Belmont remained on station observing conditions until the middle of July. On 13 May, she headed back to Norfolk where she arrived four days later. After almost two months in port,

2350-571: The War Shipping Administration 's Emergency Shipbuilding program under cognizance of the U.S. Maritime Commission . Iran Victory was laid down on 25 January 1944 at Portland, Oregon , by the Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation as Yard Number 1010 under a Maritime Commission contract (MCV hull 94) as a merchant cargo ship , one of the numerous VC2-S-AP3 Victory design . The Victory ships,

2444-511: The West Indies , which included shakedown training and concluded with port visits to Kingston, Jamaica , and Key West, Florida . She returned to Hampton Roads, Virginia , on 1 March 1965 and entered the Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a month of post-shakedown availability. Final acceptance trials occupied 29 and 30 March 1965, and preparations for her first operational deployment followed. On 26 April, Belmont passed between

2538-399: The gasoline tanker Kishwaukee , protected by the destroyer escorts Lovelace , Neuendorf and Thomason , under the command of Comcortdiv Thirty-Seven. On SS Iran Victory ' s third voyage she loaded at Port Chicago and traveled to Finchaven, Manus Island , Babelthuap , Leyte , Ulithi Atoll , Guam and home to San Pedro, Los Angeles . On 11 March 1945 while she was at

2632-516: The public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships . See also, similar role:- Empire ship , Fort ship , Park ship , Ocean ship . National Security Agency Originating as a unit to decipher coded communications in World War II , it was officially formed as the NSA by President Harry S. Truman in 1952. Between then and the end of the Cold War, it became the largest of

2726-486: The 1990s. Even Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel 's cellphones and phones of her predecessors had been intercepted. Edward Snowden revealed in June 2013 that between February 8 and March 8, 2013, the NSA collected about 124.8  billion telephone data items and 97.1  billion computer data items throughout the world, as was displayed in charts from an internal NSA tool codenamed Boundless Informant . Initially, it

2820-574: The AFSA was unable to centralize communications intelligence and failed to coordinate with civilian agencies that shared its interests, such as the Department of State , the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In December 1951, President Harry S. Truman ordered a panel to investigate how AFSA had failed to achieve its goals. The results of the investigation led to improvements and its redesignation as

2914-687: The CIA, maintains a physical presence in many countries across the globe; the CIA/NSA joint Special Collection Service (a highly classified intelligence team) inserts eavesdropping devices in high-value targets (such as presidential palaces or embassies). SCS collection tactics allegedly encompass "close surveillance, burglary, wiretapping, [and] breaking and entering". Unlike the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), both of which specialize primarily in foreign human espionage ,

USS Liberty - Misplaced Pages Continue

3008-471: The Cape of Good Hope and steamed back into the Atlantic Ocean. The ship stopped over at Recife, Brazil , from 13 to 16 November 1968, and then headed for the northeastern coast of South America and a series of operations in that vicinity. Belmont completed the last mission of the cruise on 24 November 1968 and headed home. She moored at Norfolk on 28 November 1968 and remained there for the rest of 1968. During

3102-724: The Chamber's initial successes, it was shut down in 1929 by U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson , who defended his decision by stating, "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail." During World War II , the Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) was created to intercept and decipher the communications of the Axis powers . When the war ended, the SIS was reorganized as the Army Security Agency (ASA), and it

3196-831: The Maritime Administration for disposal. In 1973, she was sold for scrapping to the Boston Metals Company of Baltimore , Maryland . As a result of the crew's heroic response to the Israeli attack, Liberty is the US Navy's "most highly decorated ship ... for a single action". For the action with Israeli forces, she was awarded the Combat Action Ribbon (8-9 June 1967) and the Presidential Unit Citation (8 June 1967). Although President Lyndon B. Johnson signed

3290-444: The Mediterranean littoral. However, this technical research ( spy ) ship spent the majority of her time in the eastern portion of the sea near Kythira , Greece , and the island of Crete . Belmont concluded this last deployment of her career at Rota, Spain (never made it to Rota) on 21 October 1969, and steered a course back to the United States that same day. Belmont arrived back in Norfolk on 3 November 1969. Three weeks later,

3384-411: The NSA and DoD Inspectors General . The project was canceled in early 2004. Turbulence started in 2005. It was developed in small, inexpensive "test" pieces, rather than one grand plan like Trailblazer. It also included offensive cyber-warfare capabilities, like injecting malware into remote computers. Congress criticized Turbulence in 2007 for having similar bureaucratic problems as Trailblazer. It

3478-714: The NSA and other U.S. defense cryptanalysis components. To further ensure streamlined communication between the signals intelligence community divisions, the NSA Director simultaneously serves as the Commander of the United States Cyber Command and as Chief of the Central Security Service. The NSA's actions have been a matter of political controversy on several occasions, including its spying on anti–Vietnam War leaders and

3572-497: The NSA does not publicly conduct human intelligence gathering . The NSA is entrusted with assisting with and coordinating, SIGINT elements for other government organizations—which are prevented by Executive Order from engaging in such activities on their own. As part of these responsibilities, the agency has a co-located organization called the Central Security Service (CSS), which facilitates cooperation between

3666-590: The NSA is intercepting "millions of images per day". The Real Time Regional Gateway is a data collection program introduced in 2005 in Iraq by the NSA during the Iraq War that consisted of gathering all electronic communication, storing it, then searching and otherwise analyzing it. It was effective in providing information about Iraqi insurgents who had eluded less comprehensive techniques. This "collect it all" strategy introduced by NSA director, Keith B. Alexander ,

3760-447: The NSA that allowed the export of a version that supported stronger keys with 64 bits, but 24 of the bits were encrypted with a special key and included in the message to provide a "workload reduction factor" for the NSA. This strengthened the protection for users of Notes outside the US against private-sector industrial espionage , but not against spying by the US government. While it is assumed that foreign transmissions terminating in

3854-567: The NSA's Tailored Access Operations (TAO) group implant catalog, after implanting Cottonmouth, the NSA can establish a network bridge "that allows the NSA to load exploit software onto modified computers as well as allowing the NSA to relay commands and data between hardware and software implants." NSA's mission, as outlined in Executive Order 12333 in 1981, is to collect information that constitutes "foreign intelligence or counterintelligence" while not "acquiring information concerning

USS Liberty - Misplaced Pages Continue

3948-583: The NSA's ability to surveil the domestic Internet traffic of foreign countries through " boomerang routing ". The origins of the National Security Agency can be traced back to April 28, 1917, three weeks after the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany in World War I . A code and cipher decryption unit was established as the Cable and Telegraph Section, which was also known as the Cipher Bureau. It

4042-653: The NSA's harmonious collaboration with industry and academia in the selection of the AES in 2000—and the Agency's support for the choice of a strong encryption algorithm designed by Europeans rather than by Americans—to Brian Snow , who was the Technical Director of IAD and represented the NSA as cochairman of the Technical Working Group for the AES competition, and Michael Jacobs , who headed IAD at

4136-673: The NSA's role in economic espionage in a report entitled 'Development of Surveillance Technology and Risk of Abuse of Economic Information'. That year, the NSA founded the NSA Hall of Honor , a memorial at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland. The memorial is a, "tribute to the pioneers and heroes who have made significant and long-lasting contributions to American cryptology". NSA employees must be retired for more than fifteen years to qualify for

4230-414: The National Defense Reserve Fleet, being berthed this time at Olympia, Washington, where she remained until 1963. In February 1963, the U.S. Navy acquired Simmons Victory and converted her to a "Miscellaneous Auxiliary" ship at Willamette Iron and Steel of Portland. On 8 June, the vessel was renamed USS Liberty and given the hull classification symbol AG-168. On 1 April 1964, she was reclassified

4324-404: The National Security Agency. The National Security Council issued a memorandum of October 24, 1952, that revised National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 9 . On the same day, Truman issued a second memorandum that called for the establishment of the NSA. The actual establishment of the NSA was done by a November 4 memo by Robert A. Lovett , the Secretary of Defense , changing

4418-408: The Pacific coastal waters of South America. She transited the Panama Canal again on 19 September 1966, and two days later shaped a course for her zone of operations. At the conclusion of that assignment, the ship returned to the Canal Zone on 4 November 1966. She proceeded through the canal on 8 November 1966 and then set course for Norfolk. Belmont reentered her homeport on 14 November 1966, and spent

4512-492: The Panama Canal Zone for a five-day visit between 23 and 28 May 1966. On the latter day, she departed Panama and embarked upon five weeks of operations in order to spy on French atomic tests in French Polynesia (12 June 1966). The ship arrived back in the Panama Canal Zone on 13 July 1966, transited the canal the next day, and reentered Norfolk on 20 July. After seven weeks of upkeep in her homeport, Belmont stood out to sea on 7 September 1966, bound for her third assignment in

4606-417: The Presidential Unit Citation in 1968, it was not formally presented to the crew until June 1991. President George H. W. Bush declined to attend the 1991 White House ceremony, instead merely waving at the crew while passing by. Commander (later Captain) William McGonagle , Liberty ' s commanding officer, received the Medal of Honor . Numerous members of the crew were decorated, including 11 members of

4700-525: The San Francisco- Suisun Bay area navy munitions depot at Port Chicago for Operation Downfall , the planned invasion of Japan. According to Harry Morgan, who served as an engineer on the ship, the Simmons Victory arrived in the Philippines about six weeks before V-E Day on 8 May 1945. She made one trip north in support of Operation Downfall and returned to the Philippines . She was in Leyte Gulf when Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. Simmons Victory departed Leyte Gulf on 6 October 1945, en route to

4794-539: The U.S. (such as a non-U.S. citizen accessing a U.S. website) subject non-U.S. citizens to NSA surveillance, recent research into boomerang routing has raised new concerns about the NSA's ability to surveil the domestic Internet traffic of foreign countries. Boomerang routing occurs when an Internet transmission that originates and terminates in a single country transits another. Research at the University of Toronto has suggested that approximately 25% of Canadian domestic traffic may be subject to NSA surveillance activities as

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4888-403: The US West Coast via Eniwetok , and dumped ammunition at sea two days later. She arrived in San Francisco on 3 November 1945 and departed for the US east coast on 9 December 1945, reaching New York on Christmas Day, 1945. Her 5-inch, 3-inch, and 20-mm guns were removed there on 9 January 1946. From December 1946 until 1963, the ship moved back and forth several times from commercial charters as

4982-502: The Ulithi Atoll the aircraft carrier USS  Randolph was hit by a Kamikaze plane while Iran Victory was berthed next to her. During the Korean War Iran Victory transported ammunition, mail, food and other supplies as part of the merchant marine support that moved about 90 percent of supplies to the war zone. She was subsequently laid up at Astoria, Oregon , with the National Defense Reserve Fleet some time between April 1954 and April 1955. In February 1963, Iran Victory

5076-431: The United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the International Organization for Standardization (aka ISO). This memo appears to give credence to previous speculation by cryptographers at Microsoft Research . Edward Snowden claims that the NSA often bypasses encryption altogether by lifting information before it is encrypted or after it is decrypted. XKeyscore rules (as specified in

5170-447: The ability to monitor a large proportion of the world's transmitted civilian telephone, fax, and data traffic. During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill. Investigative journalist Duncan Campbell reported in 1988 on the " ECHELON " surveillance program, an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence SIGINT , and detailed how

5264-500: The agency's participation in economic espionage . In 2013, the NSA had many of its secret surveillance programs revealed to the public by Edward Snowden , a former NSA contractor. According to the leaked documents, the NSA intercepts and stores the communications of over a billion people worldwide, including United States citizens. The documents also revealed that the NSA tracks hundreds of millions of people's movements using cell phones metadata . Internationally, research has pointed to

5358-421: The army cryptographic section of Military Intelligence (MI-8) moved to New York City on May 20, 1919, where it continued intelligence activities as the Code Compilation Company under the direction of Yardley. After the disbandment of the U.S. Army cryptographic section of military intelligence known as MI-8, the U.S. government created the Cipher Bureau, also known as Black Chamber , in 1919. The Black Chamber

5452-431: The attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as the incident occurred during the Six-Day War . In total, Israel gave close to $ 13 million (about $ 117 million in 2022) to the U.S. in compensation for the incident. This includes compensation to the families of those killed and wounded, and to cover damage of the ship. The incident has become a subject of controversy and debate, with many books written on

5546-463: The coasts of Africa. On 2 July 1968, she arrived off Cape Palmas and commenced operations along Africa's western coast. That phase of the assignment lasted until 25 September 1968, at which time she passed the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean . That portion of her mission proved relatively brief, occupying her time during the last week in September 1968 and the month of October 1968. On 1 November 1968, Belmont retraced her course around

5640-423: The communications of the Libyan government during the immediate aftermath of the Berlin discotheque bombing . The White House asserted that the NSA interception had provided "irrefutable" evidence that Libya was behind the bombing, which U.S. President Ronald Reagan cited as a justification for the 1986 United States bombing of Libya . In 1999, a multi-year investigation by the European Parliament highlighted

5734-461: The crew who were awarded Silver Stars , 20 with Bronze Stars , and over 200 who received Purple Hearts . The unidentified remains of six of Liberty' s crew are buried under a single headstone in a mass grave in Arlington National Cemetery . Liberty was also awarded the National Defense Service Medal . See also, similar role:- Empire ship , Fort ship , Park ship , Ocean ship . USS Belmont (AGTR-4) USS Belmont (AGTR-4/AG-167)

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5828-417: The decrypted traffic of many of the conference delegations, including the Japanese . The Black Chamber successfully persuaded Western Union , the largest U.S. telegram company at the time, as well as several other communications companies, to illegally give the Black Chamber access to cable traffic of foreign embassies and consulates. Soon, these companies publicly discontinued their collaboration. Despite

5922-416: The eavesdropping operations worked. On November 3, 1999, the BBC reported that they had confirmation from the Australian Government of the existence of a powerful "global spying network" code-named Echelon, that could "eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet" with Britain and the United States as the chief protagonists. They confirmed that Menwith Hill was "linked directly to

6016-412: The equivalent agencies in the United Kingdom ( Government Communications Headquarters ), Canada ( Communications Security Establishment ), Australia ( Australian Signals Directorate ), and New Zealand ( Government Communications Security Bureau ), otherwise known as the UKUSA group, was reported to be in command of the operation of the so-called ECHELON system. Its capabilities were suspected to include

6110-410: The federal government's computer networks from cyber-terrorism . A part of the NSA's mission is to serve as a combat support agency for the Department of Defense. Operations by the National Security Agency can be divided into three types: "Echelon" was created in the incubator of the Cold War . Today it is a legacy system , and several NSA stations are closing. NSA/CSS, in combination with

6204-433: The first half of 1969, Belmont stayed in or, infrequently, operated near Norfolk. A restricted availability followed by sea trials occupied the first three months of the year. Early in April 1969, she began installation of additional equipment. May 1969 brought tests and type training in the Virginia Capes operating area. In June 1969, she began preparations for overseas movement. On 17 June 1969, Belmont left her berth at

6298-440: The five-month voyage as did visits to sundry South American ports. Belmont completed her circuit of the South American continent on 3 June 1967 when she transited the Panama Canal and laid in a course for Norfolk. The technical research ship pulled into her homeport on 9 June 1967 and commenced a repair period. Her hull and various items of equipment received repairs over the next two months. On 14 August 1967, she stood out of

6392-410: The founder of Linux kernel , joked during a LinuxCon keynote on September 18, 2013, that the NSA, who is the founder of SELinux , wanted a backdoor in the kernel. However, later, Linus' father, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), revealed that the NSA actually did this. When my oldest son was asked the same question: "Has he been approached by the NSA about backdoors?" he said "No", but at

6486-414: The headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland". NSA's United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 (USSID 18) strictly prohibited the interception or collection of information about "... U.S. persons , entities, corporations or organizations...." without explicit written legal permission from the United States Attorney General when the subject is located abroad, or

6580-423: The international communications of prominent anti-Vietnam war leaders such as Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock . The NSA tracked these individuals in a secret filing system that was destroyed in 1974. Following the resignation of President Richard Nixon , there were several investigations into suspected misuse of FBI, CIA and NSA facilities. Senator Frank Church uncovered previously unknown activity, such as

6674-412: The memorial. NSA's infrastructure deteriorated in the 1990s as defense budget cuts resulted in maintenance deferrals. On January 24, 2000, NSA headquarters suffered a total network outage for three days caused by an overloaded network. Incoming traffic was successfully stored on agency servers, but it could not be directed and processed. The agency carried out emergency repairs for $ 3  million to get

6768-409: The name of the AFSA to the NSA, and making the new agency responsible for all communications intelligence. Since President Truman's memo was a classified document, the existence of the NSA was not known to the public at that time. Due to its ultra-secrecy, the U.S. intelligence community referred to the NSA as "No Such Agency". In the 1960s, the NSA played a key role in expanding U.S. commitment to

6862-481: The post-September 11 era, Snow was replaced as Technical Director, Jacobs retired, and IAD could no longer effectively oppose proposed actions by the offensive arm of the NSA. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks , the NSA created new IT systems to deal with the flood of information from new technologies like the Internet and cell phones. ThinThread contained advanced data mining capabilities. It also had

6956-524: The remainder of the year engaged in holiday leave and upkeep. January 1968 found Belmont still at Norfolk. On 26 January, she began regular overhaul at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard . She emerged revitalized on 14 May 1968 and put to sea to conduct refresher training in the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba , operating area. The ship completed post-overhaul training on 14 June 1968 and, after a visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico , embarked upon her second deployment to

7050-589: The remainder of the year in the Norfolk Naval Shipyard installing communication gear. The spy ship spent the first month of 1967 completing the installation of her new communications equipment and testing it. On 1 February 1967, Belmont loosed her mooring lines to begin an extended cruise to the Southern Hemisphere , one that included a circumnavigation of the South American continent. Hydrographic and communications research highlighted

7144-497: The research ship during the Six-Day War. Israel later apologized for the attack, stating it had mistaken Liberty for an Egyptian ship, although the reason for the attack has been disputed. Liberty would eventually be decommissioned some time after the attack, was sold for scrapping in 1973 as it had been damaged beyond feasible repair. The ship was delivered to the War Shipping Administration on 4 May 1945. The next day, she

7238-556: The same time he nodded. Then he was sort of in the legal free. He had given the right answer, everybody understood that the NSA had approached him. IBM Notes was the first widely adopted software product to use public key cryptography for client-server and server–server authentication and encryption of data. Until US laws regulating encryption were changed in 2000, IBM and Lotus were prohibited from exporting versions of Notes that supported symmetric encryption keys that were longer than 40 bits. In 1997, Lotus negotiated an agreement with

7332-586: The ship once more got underway on 14 September and spent about a month cruising in the West Indies before transiting the Panama Canal in mid-October. For the remainder of the year, she conducted operations along the western coast of South America, including visits to Valparaíso, Chile , and Callao, Peru . New Year's Day 1966 found her at anchor in Callao. Two days later she weighed anchor to return to

7426-692: The ship received the close scrutiny of a board of inspection and survey . As a result, she was found to be of limited naval value. Accordingly, Belmont was decommissioned at Norfolk on 16 January 1970, and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register that same day. On 24 June 1970, over 26 years after her construction during World War II, she was sold to the Boston Metals Co. in Baltimore, Maryland , for scrapping . [REDACTED]   This article incorporates text from

7520-488: The system running again. (Some incoming traffic was also directed instead to Britain's GCHQ for the time being.) Director Michael Hayden called the outage a "wake-up call" for the need to invest in the agency's infrastructure. In the 1990s the defensive arm of the NSA—the Information Assurance Directorate (IAD)—started working more openly; the first public technical talk by an NSA scientist at

7614-405: The time. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , the NSA believed that it had public support for a dramatic expansion of its surveillance activities. According to Neal Koblitz and Alfred Menezes , the period when the NSA was a trusted partner with academia and industry in the development of cryptographic standards started to come to an end when, as part of the change in the NSA in

7708-548: The topic. After the attack, she was escorted to Valletta , Malta , by units of the Sixth Fleet and given temporary repairs. After the repairs were completed, Liberty returned to the United States on 27 July 1967. She was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 June 1968. She was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet of Norfolk until December 1970, when she was transferred to

7802-536: The west coast of Africa. She carried out several more operations during the next two years, and went to the Mediterranean Sea in 1967. During the Six-Day War between Israel and several Arab nations, she was sent to collect electronic intelligence in the eastern Mediterranean. On the afternoon of 8 June 1967, while in international waters off the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula , Liberty

7896-498: Was commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on 2 November 1964. Belmont completed outfitting at Puget Sound during November 1964, and on 2 December 1964 departed Bremerton, Washington , bound for her permanent assignment with the U.S. Atlantic Fleet at her new homeport, Norfolk, Virginia . She arrived there on 21 December 1964 and, exactly one month later, got underway for a five-week cruise to

7990-469: Was acquired by the U.S. Navy and entered the Willamette Iron and Steel Co. yard at Portland, Oregon for conversion to a spy ship , the first in her class of larger electronic spy vessels. On 8 June 1963, she was renamed USS Belmont , the second naval vessel of that name, and designated a miscellaneous auxiliary AG-167. She was redesignated a technical research ship AGTR-4 on 1 April 1964, and

8084-528: Was attacked and damaged by aircraft of the Israeli Air Force and motor torpedo boats of the Israeli Navy ; 34 American crewmen were killed and 174 wounded. Though Liberty was severely damaged, with a 39-by-24-foot (11.9 m × 7.3 m) hole amidships and a twisted keel , her crew kept her afloat, and she was able to leave the area under her own power. Later, Israel apologized for

8178-521: Was described by an NSA manager as "some of the most productive operations in TAO because they preposition access points into hard target networks around the world." Computers seized by the NSA due to interdiction are often modified with a physical device known as Cottonmouth. Cottonmouth is a device that can be inserted in the USB port of a computer to establish remote access to the targeted machine. According to

8272-634: Was headquartered in Washington, D.C., and was part of the war effort under the executive branch without direct congressional authorization. During the war, it was relocated in the army's organizational chart several times. On July 5, 1917, Herbert O. Yardley was assigned to head the unit. At that point, the unit consisted of Yardley and two civilian clerks. It absorbed the Navy's cryptanalysis functions in July 1918. World War I ended on November 11, 1918 , and

8366-788: Was placed under the leadership of the Director of Military Intelligence. On May 20, 1949, all cryptologic activities were centralized under a national organization called the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA). This organization was originally established within the U.S. Department of Defense under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . The AFSA was tasked with directing the Department of Defense communications and electronic intelligence activities, except those of U.S. military intelligence units. However,

8460-526: Was reported that some of these data reflected eavesdropping on citizens in countries like Germany, Spain, and France, but later on, it became clear that those data were collected by European agencies during military missions abroad and were subsequently shared with NSA. In 2013, reporters uncovered a secret memo that claims the NSA created and pushed for the adoption of the Dual EC DRBG encryption standard that contained built-in vulnerabilities in 2006 to

8554-639: Was the United States' first peacetime cryptanalytic organization. Jointly funded by the Army and the State Department, the Cipher Bureau was disguised as a New York City commercial code company; it produced and sold such codes for business use. Its true mission, however, was to break the communications (chiefly diplomatic) of other nations. At the Washington Naval Conference , it aided American negotiators by providing them with

8648-407: Was the first of two Belmont -class technical research ships , (a class of US spy ships of the early Cold War ), acquired by the U.S. Navy in 1963 and converted for the task of conducting "research in the reception of electromagnetic propagations " (electronic signals intelligence gathering). She was originally built during World War II as a Victory cargo ship named SS Iran Victory by

8742-417: Was to be a realization of information processing at higher speeds in cyberspace. The massive extent of the NSA's spying, both foreign and domestic, was revealed to the public in a series of detailed disclosures of internal NSA documents beginning in June 2013. Most of the disclosures were leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden . On 4 September 2020, the NSA's surveillance program was ruled unlawful by

8836-402: Was transferred to the "Coastwise - Pacific Far East Line " and designated as a "Fleet Issue Ship". Her complement included a 17-man Navy Armed Guard detachment to operate the ship's gun battery ; a three- or four-man communication liaison detachment; and 16 Navy enlisted people serving as "winchmen and hatchmen". SS Simmons Victory was tasked with delivering ammunition , which was loaded at

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