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(U) Top Linguists Take Home CLA Awards
FROM:
Crypto-Linguistic Association
Run Date: 06/16/2005
((U)This month the Crypto-Linguistic Association (CLA) presented its five annual awards, four to
honor outstanding language analysts, and one to honor dedication to CLA itself. The
achievement awards are named after four giants in the field, and the CLA award is named for
one of the organization's outstanding former presidents.
(U) Sydney Jaffe Award for long-term contributions to the cryptologic language mission by a
civilian.
(U//FOUO)
,Senior Language Authority,
President
and Anita Kulman,CLA
(S//SI)
was presented with the Sydney Jaffe Award in recognition of a career
marked by exceptional contributions as an Arabic linguist, analyst, trainer, mentor, and Middle
East expert. He has served the SIGINT community focused on the Arab Middle East for nearly 30
years, in virtually every capacity, every arena, and every crisis where his unique combination of
multiple dialects and in-depth analysis has been needed. He has long been widely recognized as
NSA's preeminent Arabic voice language analyst for Arab military targets. Even before the
watershed 1996 Al-Khobar Towers bombing in Riyadh,
had focused his language
talents on Arab terrorism issues. As a result of his dedication, his gift of understanding even
cryptic spoken Arabic, and his willingness to share his expertise:
junior military linguists working Libyan targets in Athens were ready to provide critical
intelligence on Libyan reactions to repeated U.S. operations;
the U.S. Air Force used SIGINT he provided to minimize losses in 12 years of daily air
patrols over the no-fly zones in Iraq; and
certain Al-Qa'ida mujahedin once active in Yemen and Iraq have been eliminated and can
no longer threaten the United States.
(U) Captain Joseph J. Rochefort Award for long-term contributions to the cryptologic language
mission by a military language analyst.
(U//FOUO) CTI1
(S//SI) CTI1 (AW/NAC)
USN, won the Rochefort Award in recognition of
her suberb career accomplishments as an Arabic language analyst in both the training and the
operational realms. She has served in the field, as a Military Language Instructor at the Defense
Language Institute, as an interpretor in a joint U.S.-Bahraini exercise, and as a translator on an
international team supporting UN arms inspectors in Iraq. Later she flew hundreds of hours as
an airborne intercept supervisor in hostile airspace, providing direct threat support to Operation
Southern Watch aircraft over Iraq. During Operation Iraqi Freedom,
led
65 aircrewmen conducting combat reconnaissance operations to ensure the safety of coalition
strike aircraft over Iraq. Despite near-constant enemy antiaircraft fire, she made key
contributions to the detection and exploitation of tracking data on surface-to-air missile batteries
deployed around Baghdad. Most recently
has excelled as the subject
matter expert for Arabic cryptologic development, leading a team developing interactive webbased courseware.
(U) Norman Wild Award for mid-career contributions to the cryptologic language mission by a
civilian.
(U//FOUO)
(S//SI)
winner of the Norman Wild Award, stands out as one of the few people in
the U.S. Government who have both language skills (Sudanese Arabic) and deep, substantive
area knowledge of Sudan. His fostering of customer relationships, mentoring of junior
employees, and high productivity have significantly enhanced NSA's ability to support both
diplomatic missions in a war-torn Sudan and SIGINT operations in the Global War on Terrorism
(GWOT). He enabled NSA support to national-level policy-makers and negotiators associated
with U.S. diplomatic efforts to end Sudan's civil war and monitor Sudan's counterterrorism
compliance. The CIA and State Department often relied on
judgment and insights to
gauge the Sudanese parties' flexibility at peace talks, their attitudes toward U.S. pressure, and
their willingness to compromise. Despite these accomplishments, it is readily apparent that his
work as a mentor and teacher to analysts at NSA and across the larger intelligence community
will be his legacy. He consistently places greater value on ensuring NSA's capability to maintain
and enhance mission than on self-promotion.
(U) Colonel Alva B. Lasswell Award for mid-career contributions to the cryptologic language
mission by a military language analyst.
(U//FOUO)
(S//SI)
USAF, received the Lasswell Award. His notable
accomplishments and devotion to duty have put him at the forefront of the cryptologic
community's exploitation of the Iraqi target and its support to both U.S. policy-makers and the
warfighter. Prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom he worked numerous Iraqi missions, including the
Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), telecommunications development, and the diplomatic/political
target. He performed masterfully during Operation Iraqi Freedom, providing critical support to
U.S./Coalition forces engaged in combat. Based on his outstanding performance,
was selected to lead the Iraqi High Value Targets/Force Protection Team, spearheading NSA's
linguistic efforts to locate/capture Iraqi regime remnants while protecting U.S. forces in harm's
way. He proved instrumental in the capture of several key Iraqi figures.
work
has garnered praise from the highest levels of the U.S. government.
(U) The Harry L. Rashbaum Award for service to CLA.
(U//FOUO)
(Mr. Rashbaum's grandson), Harry Rashbaum, and
(
was not present.)
(S) This year, there were two Rashbaum Award winners:
and
.
took on the challenge of creating a CLA Conversation Hour program at a
time when there were groups in only two languages, Spanish and French. She investigated and
cultivated interest in conversation in other languages, handling the publicity and coordination.
Now CLA is sponsoring conversation hours in about 15 languages including Arabic, Chinese,
German, Haitian Creole, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish and Urdu.
(Information on these conversation hours is posted on the the at CLA web page
has
been CLA's quintessential volunteer: whenever anything needs to be done, her hand is up first.
She updates the CLA bulletin boards, often coming in before or after hours if she is in class or
on other assignments outside of the main campus buildings. During National Hispanic Heritage
Month, she worked on CLA's annual banquet, teaming with POCs from the Hispanic Forum and
the Office of Diversity and Disability Affairs to organize CLA's first co-sponsored banquet.
"(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