The progress of my old NSA freedom of information act cases or alternatively ήμουν νιος και γέρασα…

So far my remaining cases with the NSA FOIA office can be broken into two groups. One concerns requests I made in 2015 and these seem to be progressing slowly but I expect I will get responses this year.

The problem is that my old cases from 2012 seem to be stuck in time. Back then I requested several TICOM reports and even agreed to pay for two large files (~500 pages).

Since then I’ve been told that these cases are being processed, then they were in the review queue, then final review etc.

Picture of NSA foia requester waiting for the declassification of TICOM reports:

Update

I’ve added information from TICOM report I-26 ‘Interrogation of Oblt. Schubert (OKH/Chef HNW/Gen.d.NA) on Russian Military and Agents’ systems at OKM Signals School, Flensburg on 17 June 1945’ in the essay Soviet partisan codes and KONA 6.

Cipher machines of WWII

In the period 1939-45 most countries enciphered their communications using hand methods (codebooks, transposition etc). Only a few countries used cipher machines.

The following list covers these countries and the specific models they used.

United States

SIGABA

SIGCUM/Converter M-228 T/P

SIGTOT T/P (one time tape system)

CCM - Combined Cipher Machine

M-209 (US version of the Hagelin C-38)

AT&T double tape machine

Hebern cipher machine (5 rotor version)

SIGFOY/M-325 (Enigma type)

Britain

Typex (Enigma type)

Rockex T/P (one time tape system)

CCM - Combined Cipher Machine

Poland

Lacida

Soviet Union

K-37 (Hagelin B-211 copy)

Pogoda or Pagoda (copy of US AT&T double tape machine)

M-100/101 T/P

France

Hagelin B-211

Hagelin B-211 modified

Hagelin C-38 (US M-209 version)

Hagelin C-36

Sweden

Hagelin B-211

Hagelin C-38

Norway

Hagelin C-38

Holland

Hagelin C-38

Enigma G

Portugal

Hagelin C-38

Switzerland

Enigma K

Germany

Kryha

Enigma K

Enigma G

Enigma I (plugboard machine)

Enigma M4 (4 rotor naval version)

SG (Schlüsselgerät) 41 (Hagelin type)

SZ-40/42 T/P

T-52 T/P

T-43 T/P (one time tape system)

Italy

Enigma K

Enigma G

Enigma I

OMI NISTRI

Hagelin C-38

Olivetti T/P

Japan

RED/Angōki Taipu-A

PURPLE/Angōki B-gata

JADE

CORAL

Enigma T

Finland

Hagelin C-36

Romania

Enigma G

Enigma I

Hungary

Enigma I

Slovakia

Enigma I

Bulgaria

Enigma I

Croatia

Enigma K

Spain

Enigma K

OKW/Chi decodes of Turkish diplomatic traffic

In Wartime exploitation of Turkish codes by Axis and Allied powers i’ve added the following decoded Turkish diplomatic messages:

Update

In The American M-209 cipher machine i’ve added notes and I’ve also added some text (analysis of German trigram technique and a list of reports on the Hagelin C-38). 

Article on Vietnamese signals intelligence successes against French and US forces

The very interesting article ‘Cryptography During the French and American Wars in Vietnam’ by Phan Duong Hieu and Neal Koblitz is available online.

Abstract: After Vietnam's Declaration of Independence on 2 September 1945, the country had to suffer through two long, brutal wars, first against the French and then against the Americans, before finally in 1975 becoming a unified country free of colonial domination. Our purpose is to examine the role of cryptography in those two wars. Despite the far greater technological resources of their opponents, the communications intelligence specialists of the Viet Minh, the National Liberation Front, and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam had considerable success in both protecting Vietnamese communications and acquiring tactical and strategic secrets from the enemy. Perhaps surprisingly, in both wars there was a balance between the sides. Generally speaking, cryptographic knowledge and protocol design were at a high level at the central commands, but deployment for tactical communications in the field was difficult, and there were many failures on all sides.

A misogynistic mistake!

In The Finnish cryptologic service in WWII I’ve added ‘Head of the diplomatic department was Mary Grashorn’.

Mary Grashorn was mentioned in the essay ‘Finland’s codebreaking in WWII’ by David Kahn. I don’t know how I missed that. 

The quest for the missing NAASt 5 reports

During WWII the German Army’s signal intelligence agency operated a number of fixed intercept stations and also had mobile units assigned to Army Groups. These units were called KONA (Kommandeur der Nachrichtenaufklärung - Signals Intelligence Regiment) and each had an evaluation centre, a stationary intercept company, two long range signal intelligence companies and two close range signal intelligence companies.

Each KONA regiment was assigned to an Army group and was responsible for intercepting and decoding enemy traffic. KONA 5 was stationed in Western Europe and their cryptanalytic centre NAASt 5 (Nachrichten Aufklärung Auswertestelle - Signal Intelligence Evaluation Center) worked mainly on the radio traffic of the US and UK forces.

In 1944 NAAS 5 personnel started solving the settings of the US M-209 cipher machine, used at division level by the US Army.

In late 1944 the cryptanalysts of NAAS 5, led by Reinold Weber, built a cryptanalytic device in order to solve the settings of the M-209 device more quickly.

In order to learn more about this device and the way it was used I’ve tried to locate any surviving reports of NAAS 5. According to the TICOM report IF-272 - TAB ‘D’ the following NAAS 5 reports survived the war:

E-Bericht Nr. 1/44 der NAAst 5 dated 10.1.44

E-Bericht Nr. 2/44 der NAAst 5

E-Bericht Nr. 3/44 der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.4-30.6.44)

E-Bericht 4/44 der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.7-30.9.44) dated 10.10.44 

E-Bericht der NAAst 5 (Berichtszeit 1.10.44-30.12.44) dated 14.1.45

The first three can be found in the US national archives, collection RG 457 - Entry 9032 - box 22, titled ‘German deciphering reports’.

Unfortunately the last two (covering the second half of 1944) are not there.

I asked NARA if they could locate the missing reports elsewhere in collection RG 457 but they could not. I also requested the reports from the NSA’s FOIA office. In October 2016 they responded that the NAAS 5 reports were included in transfer group TR-0457-2016-0014.

I then contacted the NARA FOIA office and asked for the release of the NAAS 5 reports. 

The material in transfer group TR-0457-2016-0014 was classified so they would have to locate the reports and then review them for declassification. Unfortunately they have checked the files several times and they cannot locate any file titled E-Bericht NAAst 5.

So at this time I am trying to find a solution with the NSA and NARA FOIA office.

In the meantime if you know more about this case, if you think you have a better chance of locating the missing reports etc give it a try.