DYNAMIC PAGE -- HIGHEST POSSIBLE CLASSIFICATION IS
TOP SECRET // SI / TK // REL TO USA AUS CAN GBR NZL
(C) SEMESTER's Over -- Let's Do TexMex: New GCHQ Tools for Sharing
Transcripts
FROM:
NSA integree to GCHQ
Run Date: 04/24/2006
(C) New tools are now available to allow Voice Language Analysts at NSA and GCHQ (the UK's
Government Communications HQ) to collaborate directly. A demonstration of these tools will be
held at Ft Meade in early May.
(C) The word "TexMex" conjures up for many the spicy cuisine and lively music of the
Southwestern United States. Project TexMex, however, comes not from the arid deserts of the
Mexican borderland, but from the green and fertile plains of England, from NSA's closest SIGINT
partner, GCHQ. TexMex is an acronym for Transcription EXchange, Modernization and EXpansion
.
(S) TexMex came about when NSA announced in 2003 that it would be decommissioning
SEMESTER, the UNIX-based computer system used for over 20 years by NSA, GCHQ, CSE
(Canada) and other SIGINT partners. In order to preserve and enhance the close collaboration
and divisions of effort enabled over the years via SEMESTER, GCHQ took the lead* in developing
a web-based replacement tool which would allow collaboration not only on traditional targets,
such as MENA, Balkans, and Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (SRF), but across all SIGINT
production areas and targets.
(C) Early this year, GCHQ analysts began using a TexMex tool called Crest Lite to peer into
NSA's Crest repository of voice, fax, and C2C transcripts. Starting just last month, NSA analysts
began using the TexMex tool Leptonyx Lite to review similar transcripts in GCHQ's Leptonyx
repository. The TexMex tools have several advantages over their SEMESTER predecessor, such
as the ability to search a complete pool of transcripts and built-in feedback buttons allowing
interested analysts to contact their colleagues who originated the transcripts. As of now, TexMex
is in use at GCHQ and NSA, and could in principle be made available to the other SIGINT Second
Parties as well.
(C) With the deployment of these "Lite" tools, voice, fax and translations of C2C intercept
from a much wider range of targets will now be available to share among all analysts at NSA and
GCHQ. This may be a new way of working for some, but it fulfills the vision of the Second Party
SIGINT Directors, including MG Quirk, that we move to a Need to Share, not Need to Know **
environment. Increased collaboration will bring a host of advantages, such as allowing greater
flexibility in drawing up divisions of effort, jumpstarting new dialogues, and making it easier for
linguists to share expertise. For this to work, TexMex will require the commitment of workinglevel analysts on both sides of the pond.
(C) Analysts, how can you get started? Come see TexMex tools demonstrated at the 4th
Annual NSA Advanced Analysis Laboratory Analysis Conference , May 1 - 4, 2006. Or request a
tailored demonstration during that period from
(
) or
, who will be tdy from Cheltenham to provide training.
Here is the link to GCHQ's TexMex: TexMex website .
Also see GCHQ's TexMex tool Leptonyx Lite .
Footnotes:
*(C) Thanks to NSA offices who contributed to the development of TexMex, especially personnel
from the Sheetlightning New Voice Architecture office (S202B3). (Note that TexMex is a
separate system, not part of the NVA project.)
**(U) See a related article which links to the 5-Eyes SIGINT Partnership Statement of Principles.
See Principle #3: The 5-Eyes SIGINT Enterprise will subscribe to sharing as the preferred,
default option.
"(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