At 4:43 PM -0700 11/16/97, Joichi Ito wrote:
who also have domestic political strength. Also, I looked into the "Chobetsu" that you refered to in a previous message and I think you are refering to the "Naikaku Chosashitsu Betsushitsu" which is the group that engages in the often rather shady "super-legal" actions like stamping out political parties and going after cults. I don't think they have any direct involvement in the current RSA issue and I wouldn't call them "Japan's NSA." They are more like some kind of secret police. (I can already image the kind of messages I'm going to receive on this list for engaging with you at this level of dialog, but for ...
As I said earlier, Richelson's comprehensive study of foreign intelligence agencies describes it as Chobetsu, as does Hersh. Perhaps there is an issue of transliteration here? I found one of my Web page bookmarks, http://www.onestep.com/milnet/iagency.htm and it lists various SIGINT agencies. As these may be of interest to others, I will include the full list below, including the description of Chobetsu: Principle SIGINT Collection Organizations Mnemonic Service Name Branch Country AFMBW Amt Fur Frenmeldwesen Branch of the West Bundeswehr (Office for Bundeswher Germany Radio Monitoring) AMAN Agaf Modiin (Intelligence Intelligence Corps, Israel Branch of Israeli Defense SIGINT Forces) Chobetsu Ground Self-Defense Forces Investigation Japan Division, Second Section, Annex Chamber CSE Communications Security Under the Department Canada Establishment of Defense DGSE Direction Generale de Information France la Securite Exterieure Directorate, Technical Means Branch, and Evaluations, Prospectives, Orientation Branch GCHQ General Communications Directorate of UK Headquarters SIGINT Operations GCR Groupement de Communications - France (Radio-Electric Communications Group) HSR Hlavni Sprava Rozvedky Directorate D Czecho. (Main Directorate of the Third Department General Staff) NSA National Security Agency Office of SIGINT US (P Group), Analysis of SIGINT SIOS Secondo Reparto (Second Under each of Navy Italy Department Army, and Air Force Intelligence SISMI Servizio perle Informazioni ? Italy e la Sicurezza Militaire (Service for Information and Military Security) TD Technical Department ? China The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."