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(U) This Could Be the Start of a Beautiful Friendship....
FROM:
FAD's Central/Eastern Europe Office (DP13)
Run Date: 08/26/2005
(S//SI) No, we're not on the movie set for "Casablanca," but this line is apropos for NSA's
budding SIGINT relationship with the Czech Republic. Karel Randak, the Director General of the
Czech External Intelligence Service (UZSI), and his senior leadership team recently concluded
their initial visit to NSA and during the final session of this historic meeting, the visitors
commented, "The agenda was perfect," this visit was "really exceptional," we have "never seen
such openness," "everyone was very well prepared and very professional.... The presentations
were brilliant!" We expect formal approval for this relationship from the Director of
National Intelligence within the near future , and these meetings will have laid the
foundation for collaboration with our newest Third Party partner.
(S//SI) Bill Black, the Acting DIRNSA, and Gary Grantham , Principal Director for Foreign Affairs,
set the tone for this visit by charging NSA associates to openly engage the Czechs in frank
discussions focused on areas of potential cooperation. Their main points to our foreign visitors
were that they want UZSI to benefit from NSA's capabilities, that UZSI should not suffer through
mistakes that NSA has already made, and that we can work together in areas of common
interest. In his opening remarks to the Czechs, Gary stressed, "The more effective we can make
you, the more we will get out of the relationship." The agenda included:
conversations with five different Product Lines;
a tour of NSOC;
technical discussions concerning HF modernization, FORNSAT collection and processing,
SIGINT development, machine translation and OCR issues; and
talks about establishing a signal analysis relationship and cryptologic training.
(S//SI) For their part, the Czechs also came prepared. They gave NSA three Analyst Notebook
files that graphically display the communications of BELTEKHEXPORT, a Belorussian company
involved in weapons proliferation, and its contacts within the Syrian and UAE military
establishments. Another file contained telephone numbers for the Russian arms dealer
ROSOBORONEXPORT in Russia, Syria, UAE, Viet Nam, and India. Information on the Russian
SBERBANK and BANKIR VSAT banking networks was turned over to NSA, as were many pages of
SIGINT information concerning Russian counterintelligence targets, general satellite
communications and specific Russian satellite communications. NSA and UZSI will continue
an existing partnership on Russian counterintelligence issues, but we will also identify
additional areas for collaboration based on information exchanged during these
meetings.
(S//SI) Though the Czechs were at NSA for only two days and the agenda was packed, the visit
was not all work. A/DIR hosted a dinner at McCormick and Schmick's Seafood Restaurant in
Baltimore's Inner Harbor and the visitors enjoyed a brief stroll around the harbor. MG Quirk and
Fran Fleisch, FAD's Assistant Director for SIGINT Operations, hosted lunches at which the
visitors got to know some NSA associates on a more personal level. On their final evening in
town, the Czech Embassy hosted a buffet dinner in Rockville, MD, at the home of Miroslav
Toman, who is the UZSI representative working at the Czech Embassy in Washington. Our
ability to jointly produce valuable SIGINT while enjoying each other's company and learning
about our cultural differences may indeed make this the start of a beautiful friendship.
(U) This article is reprinted from the Foreign Affairs Digest July edition.
"(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