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(U) One Day with the Signals Intelligence Director
FROM:
Persian Language Analyst, HUMINT Operations Support (S2D31)
Run Date: 04/19/2005
(U) I really wanted to get an idea of how our leadership runs this extremely vast and disparate
organization, especially against the backdrop of a new and increasingly more complex and
dangerous world, and I must say I was certainly not disappointed. The day began at about 0730
in the SID office, and the vast majority of my time "shadowing" the SIGINT Director was spent
there (and ended there at 1900). MG Quirk is a very engaging and friendly fellow, and he
started out with a joke about how I wouldn't fit into his shadow (I'm 6'5''). From that point on,
the day was a whirlwind of mentally-taxing meetings, high-level briefings, and even a couple of
impromptu visits to certain SID organizations.
(TS//SI) Throughout the day, it became clear to me that MG Quirk is indeed very passionate
and focused on the complete transformation of the way the U.S. SIGINT system (USSS) does
business. A few common themes emerged throughout the day:
1. The USSS must become a globally integrated network in which SIGINTers pursuing the
same or closely-related issues must be completely networked with each other; and
2. The SIGINT elements of the various military services must be wholly transformed and
brought fully into the network-centered realm of the new national (read: global) SIGINT
system.
General Quirk recognizes this transformation is difficult and not without its share of natural and
man-made obstacles, but I can tell you that it was quite obvious to me that he is completely
committed to its implementation in the very near future; indeed, the transformation is moving
full-steam ahead at the present time, as evidenced by the mission build-out.
(S//SI) The SIGINT system of the future, General Quirk notes, is not hierarchical, as in the past,
but rather a network-centric, interoperable, self-correcting, mechanism operated at the level of
the individual analysts, collectors, linguists, engineers, mathematicians, and technicians - all in
collaboration with each other toward a common objective. It was interesting to hear that
General Quirk does not consider the primary consumers of our SIGINT products to be the
"drivers" of SIGINT but rather collaborative partners who work toward the common goal of
enabling decision-making in accordance with national policy. The actual information needs,
oriented toward support of decision-making about policy, then, are the rightful drivers of
SIGINT.
(U//FOUO) I found MG Quirk, as I mentioned earlier, to be a very engaging man. He was also
quite funny and down-to-earth. I was impressed by General Quirk's genuine concern for folks in
OPS 1 who had been exposed earlier in the day to diesel fumes that had become trapped in the
building. General Quirk walked through the entire spaces of the Information Warfare Support
Center (IWSC), which had been evacuated earlier due to the air quality, and asked each
individual analyst how his or her health had been affected as a result of the air quality problem.
(TS//SI) One particularly interesting briefing involved a proposal to install a SIGINT package on
a multi-disciplined intelligence collection platform designed to more aggressively enable the war
fighter to pursue, capture, kill, and thwart the terrorists who are wreaking havoc in Iraq's
fledgling new democracy and plotting to inflict even greater harm against the U.S. and its allies.
The meeting was attended by some very high-ranking officials throughout both SID and the
Research Associate Directorate (RAD), as well as executives from external Intelligence
Community partner agencies.
(S//SI) Besides the sheer "gee-whiz" factor of this bold new platform, for which MG Quirk must
decide what role SIGINT will play, I was also struck by the tenor and tone of some of the
participants. Never before had I attended a government meeting in which people were so direct
and forthcoming with their opinion. There were no insults, but disagreements were obvious.
Additionally, I had never attended a meeting where multiple participants had spending authority
over literally millions of taxpayer dollars. Being in that environment was a bit surreal, to say the
least.
(U) There's a lot more I could talk about, of course, but I'd like to end by simply recommending
a shadowing session for anyone working in the Signals Intelligence Directorate. It will provide a
new and fresh perspective to your role in the emerging global and network-centric SIGINT
system.
(U) To sign-up for a shadow opportunity or any of the other Workforce Outreach events type "go
SC" and look under SID Workforce Outreach .
"(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