its allies
o spy on its own citizens; and
o perform "favors" that helped its allies evade domestic laws against
spying.
[snip]
Although I visited NSA headquarters at Fort Meade dozens of times, it was
at the Special Collection Services (SCS) at College Park, Maryland, that
I received my covert operation training and assignments.
This facility, set in suburban Washington, DC, dealt exclusively with
covert operations. [The facility was relocated closer to Fort Meade in
the early 1990s]
The first time I was driven there in 1978, I entered through a strip mall
and then through a door in the back of a restaurant; the second time, via
a dry cleaners.
These dinky businesses in a fake shopping center were all owned, operated,
and staffed by US espionage agencies. From the street, the installation's
high-tech capacity, its antennae and satellite receptors, were camouflaged
and it is unlikely that neighbors suspected anything out of the ordinary.
But the inside was anything but ordinary. There were scores of rooms crammed
with administrative functions, equipment, wires, jury-rigged gizmos, a
currency bank, and computers.
Every electronic intercept capability NSA denied having was right there.
In a small black box, not much bigger than a briefcase, was "Oratory."
This portable key-word selection computer could be taken almost anywhere
and set to pick out pre-se