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(U//FOUO) Rodehouse: SID's Offsite Language Processing Center
(Part I)
FROM:
Deployment Services
Run Date: 09/08/2003
(U//FOUO) Note from SIGINT Communications: This is the first in a two-part article. The
conclusion will appear tomorrow.
(TS//SI) What happens when NSA suddenly needs to find more linguists to process a certain
language? It takes a long time to train a person in a language, and hiring native speakers has its
own difficulty: sometimes these linguists are not fully cleared. The Agency has faced this
problem a number of times over the years. The solution? To house these not-fully-cleared
linguists in a separate facility where appropriate security procedures can be put in place. Let's
take a look at how this idea has evolved...
(U) The Cold War
(TS//SI) Does the coverterm CLOISTER mean anything to you? If you began work at NSA after
1980, probably not. But in the 60's and 70's NSA had a language center in College Park, staffed
by contractor native speakers of Russian and Eastern European languages who worked under the
supervision of government managers. Language materials traveled up and down the Baltimore
Washington Parkway by secure courier, as these linguists churned out thousands of transcripts
in support of former A Group targets.
(U) Somalia
(TS//SI) Fast forward to 1993 and the crisis in Somali. During Operation Restore Hope, the
company BDM had an in-country contract with the Army to provide Somali language support. As
U.S. troops withdrew from Somalia, NSA contracted with BDM to employ Somali linguists here in
Maryland to transcribe intercept from a remote collection package, thus giving rise to the urban
legend of D.C taxi cab driver doing SIGINT. Because of their ties to their homeland, it was not
possible to fully clear these linguists quickly and bring them into NSA spaces. So a facility for the
linguists was opened in Columbia, Md., where they worked along with Army analysts and
reporters until 1995.
(U) Haiti and the Balkans
(TS//SI) The Haitian crisis of 1994 employed a similar model, using less-than-fully cleared
native speakers at the offsite facility. In 1995, a Serbo-Croatian mission was established at the
facility in support of the Balkans. This mission, however, differed significantly from the previous
two. Instead of transcribing from a single collector, the linguists worked as extensions of the
target offices, transcribing material from national collectors. In 1998, an Albanian mission was
added to the facility. At this point, the contract changed from BDM to PSC and moved from
Columbia to a small office in the Airport Square complex. Only the Balkans missions remained.
Then came 9/11.
(U//FOUO) Coming in part two: Rodehouse since 9/11 and future opportunities.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108
