DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(S//SI//REL) Haiti Elections: An Outpouring of SIGINT
FROM:
Technical Director for Reporting, Latin America/Caribbean Division (S2A3)
Run Date: 02/10/2006
(S//SI//REL) Editor's note:
sent the below message to all of his Haiti-watching
colleagues on 8 Feb., the day after the Haitian elections (their first since Aristide was toppled
two years ago):
(S//SI//REL) To everyone who contributed to yesterday's Extended Enterprise coverage of Haiti's
day at the ballot box, let me just say "chapo ba" -- hats off!
(S//SI//REL) From Texas to Ottawa, with a little detour through Fort George G. Meade, our
combined efforts, dedication, and know-how resulted in one of the most impressive single-day
outpourings of SIGINT most of our customers have ever witnessed.
(S//SI//REL) Not only the sheer volume (about 3 dozen reports all told, not to mention an equal
number of e-mail sitrep bulletins) was important, but the wide range of targets covered, ranging
from the Haitian government, to the UN officials and blue hats on the ground, plus their bosses
"on the mainland," to virtually all serious presidential candidates plus Duvalier, to enraged gang
leaders, to exiled Lavalas gang coordinators in the DomRep, to Haitian diplomats in Washington,
to the Aristide entourage in Pretoria: we covered it all, and not just in Port-au-Prince, but in
many of the far-flung provincial centers as well.
(S//SI//REL) It was also the way we did business that made a tangible difference: getting
reports out the door was secondary -- indeed, our State/INR counterpart told me early on
that she didn't care if we didn't produce a single report all day, as long as we got the e-mail
tippers to her upon recognition of significant events. Things developed so quickly and in so many
places that many brief gists were "reported" only as e-mail sitreps, "fingers on the pulse" of
events, you might say. Together, we are the ear over the horizon, the ones who get the
information from places the folks on the ground cannot, or dare not, travel to. We are the ones
who can confirm or refute what the folks in the front lines are being told.
(S//SI//REL) That said, we all had record days in terms of reports published: Texas,
CFIOG* , CSE*, S2A32, and BICENTENNIAL (our contractor support operation) all shattered
previous "personal bests!"
(S//SI//REL) We all know that in Haiti it's never "over" -- things can always go dramatically
wrong. Our job continues to be: doing our utmost to make sure that the folks on the ground
who are trying to make things go right -- U.S. & Canadian diplomats, MINUSTAH*, CIVPOL*,
and so on -- get the best and most comprehensive support we can give them. The next time we
are called upon to provide herculean efforts could be just around the corner.
(S//SI//REL) We know from our customers/clients -- including some really heavy-hitters in
Washington, Ottawa, New York, and Port-au-Prince -- that what we do matters : it helps
those in charge better understand things, and helps them change the course of events. Keep
that in mind the next time you feel like "Lucy in the candy factory," thinking, "will it ever stop?"
Pity those colleagues who go home wondering what they did that particular day, week, month, or
year. We don't have to wonder -- we know. We DID it.
Congratulations again,
-
(U) Haitians wait to cast their ballots outside a polling station in Gonaives (Reuters)
(S//SI) Notes:
CFIOG = Canadian Forces Information Operations Group. See an earlier SIDtoday story about
CFIOG's work on Haiti.
CSE = Canada's Communications Security Establishment
MINUSTAH = United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti
CIVPOL = civilian police
"(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