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(S//SI//REL) Renewed Interest in the Tunisian Partnership
FROM:
Country Desk Officer for Tunisia (DP12)
Run Date: 12/22/2006
(S//SI//REL) Tunisian partner has language and target expertise on terrorist group.
(S//SI//REL) In early September, several NSAers* traveled to Tunisia for meetings with the
Tunisian partner (DSC). While the focus was on the upcoming joint SATCOM collection effort,
significant time was spent discussing other Global War on Terrorism areas on which NSA and
DSC could work more closely.
(S//SI//REL) With the recent elevation of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC)
terrorist group from a Tier 1 to Tier 0 target, there is renewed TOPI** (ESOC) interest in
broader SIGINT cooperation with the Tunisian partner. DSC offers language and target expertise
that NSA cannot obtain from other Second or Third Party partners. They also have territorial/
signal accesses that are unique to the successful prosecution of this high priority target. These
include both fiber and V/UHF collection accesses along the Libyan and Algerian borders.
(S//SI//REL) All discussions proceeded smoothly and the TOPI was extremely pleased with the
Tunisian partner's willingness to collaborate more closely on regional Global War on Terrorism
(GWOT) collection efforts, and the GSPC target in particular. Their offer of language support and
access to existing DSC collection sites makes them an excellent candidate for broader SIGINT
cooperation. During the course of their visit, the FAD and CT team were provided the
opportunity to visit one of three Tunisian collection sites along the Algerian border. This site,
located near Kasserine at an elevation of 5,000 feet, provides a unique look along the eastern
Algerian border. The other two sites, at Ain Draham and Le Kef, offer similar views at 2500-foot
elevations.
(S//SI//REL) The three sites are currently collecting VHF/UHF Algerian comms, however with
more advanced collection suites there is potential for intercept of higher value targets to include
locally active North African and GSPC extremists. A future initiative that the ESOC would like to
explore is a GSM and terrestrial microwave signal survey from these Western border sites to
characterize these comms and their related infrastructure. Although the subject was not
discussed with the partner on this trip, indications are that they would welcome the opportunity
to collaborate on this initiative and provide operational and personnel resources to support the
effort.
(S//SI//REL) Overall, the trip was a success. It afforded the ESOC and NSA/CT TDYers an
opportunity to meet with the partner in order to assess their language and analytic capabilities.
The technical members of the ESOC team were also able to make determinations on what
equipment and infrastructure upgrades may be needed to better support the upcoming SATOM
survey. Higher-level discussions resulted in a dialogue on greater cooperation in the GWOT. All
TDYers were pleased with the outcome of the trip.
(U) GSPE seal.
(U) Notes:
* (S//SI//REL) The NSAers included: the Country Desk Officer and Technical Language Mentor
for Tunisia, the European Security Operations Center (ESOC) Counterterrorism (CT) Division
Chief, and an NSA CT Issue Managers Team (IMT) member.
**(U) TOPI = Target Office of Primary Interest
(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)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108