David Kahn on National Encryption Policy
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This was published in the October 22 Congressional Record as part of a statement by Senator Moynihan on the retirement of NSA Deputy Director William Crowell: [From Newsday, Oct. 6, 1997] National Security Official Retires--Helped Refocus Agency's Aims (By David Kahn) The National Security Agency has said goodbye to its retiring deputy director, who largely brought the super- secret spy organization into its public, post-Cold War posture. William P. Crowell was the force behind the establishment of the National Cryptologic Museum, which exhibits what had been some of the nation's deepest secrets; the revelation of the VENONA project, which broke Soviet spy codes early in the Cold War; and the National Encryption Policy, which seeks to balance personal privacy with national security. Succeeding Crowell will be Barbara McNamara, who, like Crowell, is a career employee of the agency, which breaks foreign codes and makes American Codes for the United States government. McNamara is the second female deputy director of the agency. The first, Ann Z. Caracristi, who served from 1980 to 1982, is the sister of the late Newsday photographer Jimmy Caracristi. More than 500 present and past members of the agency attended Crowell's recent retirement ceremony at its glossy, triple-fenced headquarters at Fort Meade, Md. They applauded as he was presented with awards for his intelligence and executive services and with a folded American flag that had flow over the agency. They laughed as a picture, claimed to be his retirement portrait, was unveiled: It was a photograph of Crowell, notorious for his love of motorcycles, astride his fancy bike. During his acceptance speech, Crowell choked up when he thanked his wife, Judy, a former agency employee and fellow motorcyclist, for her help. The agency director, Air Force Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minihan, recited some of the administrative landmarks of Crowell's career. Crowell, 58, a native of Louisiana, began in New York City in 1962 as an agency recruiter. In 1969, when he sought an assignment to operations, he became instead an executive assistant to the then-director. He eventually got to operations, where he rose to be chief of W group, whose function remains secret, and then chief of A group, which focused on the then-Soviet Union. After a year in private industry, he rose through other posts to the deputy directorship on Feb. 2, 1994. Among his organizational accomplishments were conceiving a crisis action center and linking the agency with other producers of intelligence to improve information exchange. His more public initiatives included the museum and the VENONA disclosures, which sought to maintain public support for the agency after the disappearance of the Soviet Union. The National Encryption Policy seeks to enable the agency to read the messages of terrorists and international criminals who use computer-based, unbreakable ciphers while enabling individuals to use good cryptosecurity to preserve such rights as security on the Internet. ---------- See Moynihan's statement: http://jya.com/nsa-crowell.htm
participants (1)
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John Young