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(S) How SIGINT Helped Liberate an American Hostage in Iraq
FROM: the Iraq Issue Manager Team and SIGINT Communications
Unknown
Run Date: 10/14/2005
(S) You may have seen a recent "60-Minutes" broadcast that told the story of Roy Hallums, an
American freed recently after being held hostage in Iraq for 10 months. What you didn't see,
however, was the story of how SIGINT played a major role in his release.
(U) Mr. Hallums worked as a contractor for a Saudi company that supplied food to the Iraqi
Army. On November 1, 2004 insurgents attacked the firm's Baghdad office and a shoot-out
ensued. When the dust had cleared, one Iraqi guard and one insurgent lay dead, and Mr.
Hallums and several of his coworkers had been captured.
(U) Hallums held hostage (Reuters)
(U) Roy Hallums going home (Reuters)
(TS//SI//REL) In the ensuing months, there were times when no one was even sure that Mr.
Hallums was alive. Then, in the summer of 2005, hostage negotiators asked for a ransom
payment for his release, probably prompted by Mr. Hallums' declining health. Meanwhile,
SIGINTers at Fort Meade, NSA/CSS Georgia, and personnel deployed to Iraq were exhaustively
analyzing a mountain of communications related to groups in Iraq that might have ties to the
kidnappers.
(TS//SI//REL) In July of this year, the Cryptologic Support Team (CST) for the 3rd Infantry
Division began tracking a group known as the Abu Salih Group (ASG), which has extensive ties
to al-Qa'ida. Through coordination with Special Collection Service Baghdad and NSA/CSS
Georgia, the CST identified mobile phone handsets that appeared to be involved in previous
kidnappings in Iraq. Despite the fact that these individuals regularly change phones and internal
SIM cards, the CST developed the target to a detailed level and, on 29 August, passed the
information to our National Intelligence Support Team with the Special Forces.
(TS//SI//REL) Analysts at the NIST managed to conclusively link ASG to the earlier negotiations
to free Mr. Hallums. Furthermore, they concluded that the people posing as middlemen were
actually the hostage-takers themselves -- people who were aware of Hallums' location! The NIST
briefed this information to the Task Force commander, who proceeded to launch several key
Special Forces operations that netted several members of ASG.
(S) One of these detainees was an ASG affiliate named Abu Muhammad. Using the SIGINT
analysis to steer their interrogation, FBI interrogators learned from him that Hallums was still
alive and being held at an unspecified farmhouse. Further arrests and interrogations bore fruit:
on 7 September a detainee provided the precise location south of Baghdad where Hallums was
being held. A rescue operation was launched immediately, and U.S. troops broke into the
farmhouse, setting Hallums free.
(U//FOUO) The very next day, 8 September, Mr. Hallums penned the following note of thanks:
(U//FOUO) Note from Roy Hallums. It reads:
"Dear NIST, Please accept my most grateful thanks for all of your work on my case. Your
devotion to my case helped greatly to my eventual rescue. I will be forever grateful for all of
your help. -- Roy Hallums, Sept 8, 2005"
"(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