Snowden Archive
——
The SIDtoday
Files
Browse the Archive

Meet the Central Command

SUMMARY

NSA personnel are integrated with U.S. Central Command at the Tampa headquarters and in deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, and other locations. Gen. John Abizaid says the NSA relationship with CENTCOM is “excellent.”

DOCUMENT’S DATE

Oct 21, 2005

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

Mar 01, 2018

1/2
Download
Page 1 from Meet the Central Command
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL (U) Meet the Central Command FROM: CENTCOM Account Manager (S113) Run Date: 10/21/2005 (U) CENTCOM occupying center stage in military operations... (S//SI) Turn on the evening news, and you are likely to see a substantial amount devoted to issues related to the United States Central Command's (CENTCOM) mission. That level of national interest is also clearly reflected in the resources and energy the SIGINT system devotes to CENTCOM targets, which include Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran. This is the first in a series of SID today articles on the SIGINT relationship between NSA/CSS worldwide and CENTCOM. (U) Introduction to CENTCOM (S//REL) CENTCOM, located in Tampa, Florida, was established in January 1983 as the successor to the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. As its name implies, CENTCOM covers the "central" area of the globe located between the European and Pacific Commands. See CENTCOM's Area of Responsibility . (S//REL) Army General John P. Abizaid (pictured), Commander of CENTCOM, focuses CENTCOM and the Intelligence Community with his quarterly Top Ten mission list - here is the latest one: 1. Defeat al-Qaida and associated movements. 2. Stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan to sustain political progress and promote self-reliance. 3. Build and mentor loyal, well trained, sustainable partner security forces capable of taking the lead in the fight against extremists. 4. Sustain the flow of strategic resources by protecting key infrastructure and lines of communication. 5. Deter Iran and Syria. 6. Protect the force against asymmetric threats, with priority against improvised explosive devices and suicide bombers. 7. Reshape our strategic posture in the AOR for the Long War: smaller, more expeditionary US forces, enabling others to help themselves. 8. Seize the strategic communications initiative - amplify moderate voices and de-legitimize extremist leaders. 9. Develop war-fighting networks to optimize joint, coalition and inter-agency capabilities. 10. Prevent proliferation of WMD/E throughout the region. (U) NSA/CSS SIGINT Support to CENTCOM (TS//SI) The NSA/CSS relationship with CENTCOM is "excellent," according to GEN Abizaid. CENTCOM views NSA as a critical operational partner, due to our relentless application of transformational activities, such as expeditionary SIGINT, for CENTCOM. Through a strong physical, integrated, presence with SERIES: (U) SID Support to CENTCOM 1. Meet the Central Command 2. Challenges - What Can You Do For the Nation? 3. CENTCOM's 'Long War'
Page 2 from Meet the Central Command
CENTCOM both in Tampa and in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar (CENTCOM's Headquarters in the field), and other locations, NSA/CSS has a National Cryptologic Representative (NCR)/Cryptologic Support Group (CSG)/Combat Support Team (CST) contingent of about 180 personnel overseas, and 40 personnel in Tampa who provide direct, face-to-face customer support. In addition, there are 95 Special Collection Service (SCS) people in theater. We have created four NCR positions (more than for any other customer), with accompanying CSGs, to ensure NSA understands CENTCOM's intelligence needs and that we deliver actionable SIGINT to them. (S//SI) There is a much larger team of U.S., 2nd and 3rd Party people at NSA/CSS-Washington, NSA/CSS-Georgia, and around the world, collecting, processing, analyzing, and producing that valuable SIGINT. It is no exaggeration to state that SIGINT daily directs when and where CENTCOM engages the terrorists and other enemies. In fact, NSA/CSS is part of the CENTCOM operational action team, with our people on the phone, internet and sometimes in person with them as they defeat the terrorists. (U//FOUO) Read about our analytic effort in support of CENTCOM, and our serialized reporting output . (U) In the next installment, we'll look at the challenges in supporting CENTCOM, and ask you to consider how you may contribute to the fight. (U) POC: , CENTCOM Account Manager, S113, "(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)." DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108