Menwith continues successful counterterrorism survey along Af Pak border

DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL (TS//SI//REL) MHS Continues Successful Counterterrorism Survey Along Af-Pak Border FROM: , USA Menwith Hill Station (F77) Run Date: 12/27/2007 (U//FOUO) This article is reprinted from MHS's Horizon newsletter, November edition. (TS//SI//REL) With the deployment of DARKSIDE on 10 October, Menwith Hill Station continues its sole-sourced, remoted collection of ex-filtrated data from the Afghan-Pakistani border. DARKSIDE is a quick reaction collection package. (TS//SI//REL) The New Mission Development Center at MHS worked with the Office of Target Reconnaissance and Survey (OTRS - S316) at NSAW to get the collection package set up and operational before the end of Ramadan, specifically, Eid al-Fitr, in order to monitor terrorist activities. Ramadan is the Muslim time of fasting, when there is not much activity throughout the day. It was theorized that the afterholiday flurry of activity would reveal plans and tactics. In its first few weeks of collection, DARKSIDE has proven extremely successful. 1 (TS//SI//REL) Originally, the task was scheduled to last five days, but because the collect has been so lucrative, it has been amended to be an open-ended task. Several reports have been written on the data collected from DARKSIDE. Of particular note was a hit on a low-level development number for The number provided useful collection of a and further targeting information. The caller was requested a number for another associate from the user of the development number. The requested number was also collected. (TS//SI//REL) The site near the Afghan-Pakistan border was chosen because military and terrorist activity was suspected in the area. Initial efforts were focused on peaking and acquiring the signal. By the end of the second day of collection, four microwave links were copied and processed through HERETIC producing multiple Priority 1 and Priority 2 dialed-number-recognition hits and approximately 20 pages of classified fax. All of the traffic on these links is . Two additional microwave links were detected but were not able to be processed. Close coordination between the Pakistan, Taliban and al-Qa'ida TOPIs (target offices of primary interest) and the MHS Production Division has helped to maximize collection efforts. (TS//SI//REL) During the week of 3-7 December, local testing of the DARKSIDE Phase II hardware was completed and the system was ready for operational use. The front-end equipment was installed in Pakistan on 5 December. (TS//SI//REL) On 6 December, DARKSIDE Phase II began. The signal and processing structure are still in a testing phase at this time. Initial results were very good with a better signal quality than what had been seen with Phase I. DARKSIDE Phase II will allow for dynamic capture and processing of multiple signals, demultiplexing and remultiplexing tributaries of interests, to optimize tasking directly supporting regional and CT targets.

2 of 3 (TS//SI//REL) Selected Public Switched Telephone Network CEPT 3 level 1 signals will be on sustained collect while other CEPT level 1 signals will be surveyed on rotation to determine intelligence value for future collection efforts. (U//FOUO) POC: CW2 ( ) (U) Notes: 1 (U//FOUO) . 2(S//SI//REL) HERETIC - PCM and FDM signal processor that looks at emitters, characterizes channels and forwards them to the metadata server at NSAW. HERETIC can process up to 16,000 four Khz channels at a given time. (U) CEPT - European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations attempt, wherever possible, to harmonize the use of frequencies on a Europe-wide basis. Procedural rules and technical 3 regulations are also harmonized by the CEPT. 22/06/2016 22:30