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Austrian Partner Receives Time-Sensitive Report in Total Team Effort

SUMMARY

Within 45 minutes, the NSA was able to relay a tip to the Austrian intelligence service about a possible terrorist carrying explosives on a bus headed from Bosnia to Austria.

DOCUMENT’S DATE

Dec 23, 2005

PUBLICLY AVAILABLE

Mar 01, 2018

TAGS

Austria

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Page 1 from Austrian Partner Receives Time-Sensitive Report in Total Team Effort
DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL (TS//SI) Austrian Partner Receives Time-Sensitive Report in Total Team Effort FROM: Foreign Affairs Officer in Regional Targets (DP13/S2A) Run Date: 12/23/2005 (S) Subtitled: The Three Stooges Engineer a Foreign Release Request (TS//SI) What do you do when its nearing the end of the business day in Europe, on a Friday, and you suddenly come across a TS//SI SIGINT report with the description of possible terrorist carrying explosives traveling to a partner's country? And to make matters worse, SLO (Senior Liaison Officer) Budapest/Vienna's email is not working and she's just told you she is packing up for the day? Well, you call on your friends and colleagues to help you work the system as quickly as possible! (TS//SI) On the morning of 4 November, FAO RT, found a report that indicated a woman named "Inga" had boarded a bus in Bosnia and departed for Linz, Austria. Not only was Inga possibly associated with terrorists, but she was also believed to be carrying explosives. Even better, the report contained a complete description of darling Inga. (TS//SI) Realizing that the Austrian partner needed to get this information as quickly as possible, (who sits in the old Headquarters building) called over to DP1, where CDO (Country Desk Officer) Croatia answered the phone. After learning of the situation, he gamely agreed to call SLO on the STU-III and tell her to not leave. "ran" (ok, she wobbled as fast as her high heels would allow her to!) over to 2B only to be greeted by with the information that SLO could listen on the STU, but could not talk classified as the CIA Station was having a reception and full of uncleared people!!! (TS//SI) As SLO had not been able to receive the report via e-mail, it was read to her over the phone. She agreed the Austrians needed it and asked for the foreign release procedure to begin. While was drafting a proposed sharable S//SI text, SLO managed to catch her Austrian counterpart, on his cell phone just as he was leaving for the day and told him that something very important would be coming on his computer from us. (TS//SI) , a branch manager in the Balkans Division, was cc'd on email to the Foreign Release folks and approved the text with slight changes before the official request from in CRD (Customer Relationships Directorate) arrived. Moments after that, the slightly altered text -- both a COMINT and tearline section -- was passed across the Baybridge circuit to the partner, who acknowledged receipt. (TS//SI) This exceptional teaming by FAD (Foreign Affairs Directorate) and SID personnel, both at headquarters and in the field, worked the entire release process in less than 45 minutes! We are hoping to receive feedback from the Austrian partner when SLO visits with them this month. (U//FOUO) This article is reprinted from the Foreign Affairs Digest, November edition. "(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