Posted on 12/21/2005 8:54:24 PM PST by doug from upland
Jonathon Risen, New York Times
Dateline: New York
Dec. 21, 1943
In an exclusive interview with a Navajo Indian, the NEW YORK TIMES has learned that Navajo Indians have been forced into service by the U.S. military establishment.
It is shocking that, in the middle of the 20th Century, such abuse of our Native Americans could be taking place without approval of the courts. Neither President Roosevelt nor Secretary of War Stimson has given a public comment or returned a telephone call.
The TIMES has learned that so-called Navajo Code Talkers have been used by our military for secure communications. It can now be reported that they have served all six Marine divisions, Marine Raider battalions, and Marine parachute units, transmitting messages by telephone and radio in their native language. The Japanese have not been able to break the code.
In May 1942, the first 29 Navajo recruits attended boot camp. Then, at Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, California, this first group created the Navajo code. They developed a dictionary and numerous words for military terms. The dictionary and all code words had to be memorized during training.
Once a Navajo code talker completed his training, he was sent to a Marine unit deployed in the Pacific theater. The code talkers' primary job was to talk, transmitting information on tactics and troop movements, orders and other vital battlefield communications over telephones and radios. They also acted as messengers, and performed general Marine duties.
When a Navajo code talker received a message, what he heard was a string of seemingly unrelated Navajo words. The code talker first had to translate each Navajo word into its English equivalent. Then he used only the first letter of the English equivalent in spelling an English word. Thus, the Navajo words "wol-la-chee" (ant), "be-la-sana" (apple) and "tse-nill" (axe) all stood for the letter "a." One way to say the word "Navy" in Navajo code would be "tsah (needle) wol-la-chee (ant) ah-keh-di- glini (victor) tsah-ah-dzoh (yucca)."
Most letters had more than one Navajo word representing them. Not all words had to be spelled out letter by letter. The developers of the original code assigned Navajo words to represent about 450 frequently used military terms that did not exist in the Navajo language. Several examples: "besh- lo" (iron fish) meant "submarine," "dah-he- tih-hi" (hummingbird) meant "fighter plane" and "debeh-li-zine" (black street) meant "squad."
In our next report, we are prepared to name the Navajos who have assisted the Marines, and we will also name the additional personnel who are familiar with the code.
A source has come forward, exclusively to the TIMES, who has delivered to our offices what he purports to be the complete code being used in the South Pacific. If we are able to ascertain that the information is genuine, we will publish the entire code in a special edition next Sunday. It will be available at newsstands everywhere.
Smokin', Doug, just smokin'!!!
Doug, the NYT would never print the story because it was a Democrat's war.
The Navajo Code Talkers were 'expendable' should they be at an immediate 'high risk' of being captured, were they not?
It was a different time. A Democrat war president was the establishment.
I didn't see the movie, but I suspect that would have been true.
ping
Thought you might appreciate this read.
My "what if" question is, "If we had media in WW-II acting like we do now, would we in Iowa be speaking German, or Japanese now?".
We've been in this battle a long time together here. Merry Christmas, my friend.
You can`t compare WW11 and this illegal war. Back then, people actually were killed and, our country was attacked. This war is just about oil and the Bush family fortune. Everybody knows that.
Yeah, right.
Great post, Doug, but not to far from the truth. You should have laid down a little more about how the poor Navajo`s were being exploited
I saw the movie, but I do not know how authentic in all aspects. The Navajo Code Talkers had soldiers with them at all times. Their body guard, for lack of a better word, knew what his mission might entail; but the NCT were not aware they were expendable(in the movie).
If this first one is indicative of the quality, creativity and cleverness, I'm anxiously looking forward to edition's 2 thru...........?
Can't wait until the next installment when they tell us about the planned invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944!
A half year before the same newspaper published a secret war plan developed by General Albert Wedemeyer which listed the steps America would take after declaring war on Germany. The plan was reproduced in exquisite detail in the Dec 4, 1941 issue of the Chi Trb. Publisher John McCormick, an ardent isolationist, hoped knowledge that Roosevelt was preparing to buils a 100 division army would mobilize the anti war movement which had been losing steam.
Sides change. Tactics don't.
I hate it when some of you ruin surprises. :)
Brilliant. Thank you.
Thanks, hno. You and your family have a great Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you and yours, FRiend!
NITPICK ALERT
The Navajo code wasn't a code. It was the use of a language.
END ALERT
Home » blogs » Brent Baker's blog
Kudos to CBS's Roberts for Picking Up Democrat Harman's Defense of Bush's “Spying”
Posted by Brent Baker on December 21, 2005 - 21:14.
Though Bob Schieffer introduced Wednesday's CBS Evening News by using loaded language as he pointed out how, “to protest the President's decision to continue spying on American citizens, a federal judge took the unprecedented step of resigning from the court that issues warrants in such cases,” an event also highlighted by ABC and NBC, unlike those networks, CBS White House correspondent John Roberts informed viewers how “the President got support today from an unusual quarter: Democrat Jane Harman, a key figure on the House Intelligence Committee.” He highlighted how she asserted that “I believe the program is essential to U.S. national security” and, in a slam at the leaker and the New York Times, that the “disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.” Schieffer, however, remained most interested in the resignation. After Roberts wrapped up his story, Schieffer marveled to him: “I want to go back to this federal judge resigning. I must say in all my years in the news business, I've never heard of a federal judge resigning in protest over anything.”
ABC held its “eavesdropping” coverage to an anchor-read brief, but one devoted to the judge, while in a full story on the Patriot Act and Bush's “decision to order spying inside the U.S. without a warrant,” NBC's Kelly O'Donnell highlighted the resignation. (Transcript excerpts follow.)
(As of the time of this posting, Harman's Web site does not have the statement posted, nor do the press or minority pages for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, on which she is the ranking Democrat. And I can only find brief references to in online news services, such as a sentence in an AP story on Yahoo News.)
On the December 21 CBS Evening News, over matching text on screen from Harman's statement, Roberts relayed:
"The President got support today from an unusual quarter: Democrat Jane Harman, a key figure on the House Intelligence Committee. 'I believe the program is essential to U.S. national security,' she said in a statement, 'and that disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities.' But Harman added she's worried the spying goes beyond what she was briefed on. New concerns were raised today that the eavesdropping accidentally swept up purely domestic conversations. But the deputy National Intelligence director insists that 'One end of these communications are always outside the Unites States of America.'"...
Over on ABC's World News Tonight, anchor Elizabeth Vargas announced, over video of Robertson walking on a sidewalk:
“And one more item from Washington: There is more fallout over President Bush's program to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants. A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance and intelligence cases. James Robertson reportedly did so to protest the President's actions. The Washington Post says the judge is worried that the President's surveillance program is tainting the work of the court and may, in fact, be illegal.”
In a story on the NBC Nightly News pegged to the debate over the Patriot Act, Kelly O'Donnell interjected:
“But in the President's war on terror, defining the line between liberty and security is drawing new fire and new fallout over his decision to order spying inside the U.S. without a warrant. In protest, this federal judge, Judge James Robertson, has resigned from the special court known as FISA, set up to oversee government wiretaps. The White House vigorously defends the surveillance program, saying it's limited to al-Qaeda suspects and those associated with the group and had no comment on the judge's resignation.”
Scott McClellan: “I don't know the reason why the judge resigned from the FISA court. The FISA court's important one.”
O'Donnell: “Another FISA judge confirmed the resignation to NBC News, and says the remaining ten judges on the court plan to meet soon to discuss the once secret program.”
Ping
This is for real? If they do this, then they most assuredly are guilty of treason. There is no question this time.
And yes, I am tired.
According to Michael Medved that was not the case. It's a Hollywood embellishment.
The title is WHAT IF IN HISTORY. This was an attempt to stick it to the NEW YORK TIMES. Had today's reporters worked at the TIMES thens, we might have not won WW II.
I got it. Went back and read again. I got confused when I saw Risen's name. Sorry.
The Navajo code wasn't a code. It was the use of a language.
Sage to Sage. It's after midnight. GO TO BED! lol!
I used some fact about the Navajo Code Talkers and wove a story about a treasonous NEW YORK TIMES.
Sorry. . . .
(sad)
In particular, I wanted to stick it to Risen.
I had the extreme priveledge of meeting 8 of the Code Talkers this year at the Albuquerque Balloon Festival this year. I think that they would understand your article.
BRAVO Doug!
That's okay. I'm looking for other good ideas to use to stick it to the traitors.
You qualify for today's scrappleface award. :) Nite, Doug.
I heard a segment from an interview that Donald Rumsfeld did recently (I can't remember who interviewed him, damnit - I'm drawing a blank!). He said he remembered that the press just hammered FDR mercilessly all during WWII. So it's not a democrat president issue - the media just can't stand having America win any war, even one where our survival as a nation was so clearly threatened by a "traditional" enemy.
That must have been a great experience. We owe them an incredible debt.
Send away, my friend. I bet James Risen might like to see it.
Fear of Phoning / communicating - al Qaeda
strategypage ^ | Dec 19th, 2005
Posted on 12/21/2005 8:01:19 PM PST by DevSix
Fear of Phoning
December 19, 2005: Fear of Western technological espionage capabilities appears to have caused al Qaeda serious communications problems. Apparently some personnel and operations have been compromised because of hi-tech monitoring of telephone (both wire and cell), radio, and internet communications, even when relatively complex encryption techniques have been used. As a result, al Qaeda appears to have fallen on less sophisticated means of keeping in touch, such as couriers.
This has slowed al Qaeda activities considerably, since couriers may take months to move from place to place, particularly if they are traveling from some wild remote area, such as from the Northwest Frontier region of Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding, or trying to enter or leave a war zone.
Although al Qaeda is a “flat” organization, with its tentacles largely autonomous, the central leadership plays an important role in providing guidance, funding, and coordination.
Osama bin Laden’s apparent inability to curb some of the anti-Moslem violence perpetrated by Abu Musab al Zarqawi, leader of Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, is perhaps partially attributable to the organization’s increasing communications difficulties. Even the couriers are not safe, and there has been a considerable effort to track down and capture them. Some have apparently been caught, which results in a valuable trove of intel information.
That was great. The NYT would probably done the dirty on the Code Talkers if they knew. Just as they have done everything in their power to try and make the War in Iraq just like Nam.
Home » blogs » Noel Sheppard's blog
NY Times’ James Risen Not As Concerned With NSA Eavesdropping Under Clinton
Posted by Noel Sheppard on December 21, 2005 - 13:44.
The New York Times reporter whose National Security Agency eavesdropping article last Friday started a national debate about this issue didn’t appear as concerned with such espionage tactics when Bill Clinton was in the White House.
As reported by NewsBusters on Monday, an intricate international communications espionage network, codenamed Echelon, has been in existence for many years. Yet, a LexisNexis search of the word “Echelon” and the name “James Risen” produced only one result. The article, entitled “The Nation: Don’t Read This; If You Do, They May Have to Kill You” appeared in the Times on December 5, 1999. By contrast to last Friday’s article condemning NSA eavesdropping, this 1999 one by Risen almost praised it:
“No government organization has been better insulated from public scrutiny than the National Security Agency. Its very existence as America's premier eavesdropper and code-breaker was classified for decades, and the N.S.A. -- also known as "No Such Agency" -- has been able to keep the press and Congress largely at bay even as the Central Intelligence Agency has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of its cold war excesses and failures.”
Risen then addressed technological problems impeding the NSA’s ability to effectively eavesdrop: “At the same time, sophisticated, commercially available encryption technology is making it much tougher for the agency to sift through that mountain of intercepted communications and decipher the few messages that are actually important to the nation's security.”
Then, Risen addressed Echelon:
“But the N.S.A. has also been attacked for accumulating far more power than it needs. Its huge international communications collection and monitoring operation, called Echelon, which is conducted jointly with the agency's counterparts in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is criticized both in this country and overseas as an excessive intrusion into the private communications of Americans and their allies. As James Bamford, the author of the classic study of the agency, ‘The Puzzle Palace’ (Houghton Mifflin, 1982), recently noted in The Washington Post, the Echelon system relies on satellites and ground stations to intercept and then sort global communications, searching for specific names, words or phrases. The N.S.A.'s computers can then sort out intercepted communications that include names of drug dealers or political leaders or references to espionage or terrorist actions. The agency is prohibited from intercepting strictly domestic communications unless it gets a special court order.”
That last sentence is quite fascinating, and implies that the NSA at the time didn’t need a “special court order” to intercept non-domestic communications, a claim that the Bush administration is making today.
From what is available through LexisNexis, this is the only time Risen wrote about Echelon, including after CBS’ February 27, 2000 installment of “60 Minutes” dealing with this issue. This makes one wonder why Risen is so much more concerned about similar espionage activities being waged by the Bush administration in a post-9/11 world.
Below is the entire December 5, 1999 Risen article in question:
December 5, 1999, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section 4; Page 5; Column 1; Week in Review Desk
LENGTH: 859 words
HEADLINE: The Nation: Don't Read This;
If You Do, They May Have to Kill You
BYLINE: By JAMES RISEN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
NO government organization has been better insulated from public scrutiny than the National Security Agency. Its very existence as America's premier eavesdropper and code-breaker was classified for decades, and the N.S.A. -- also known as "No Such Agency" -- has been able to keep the press and Congress largely at bay even as the Central Intelligence Agency has come under increased scrutiny in the wake of its cold war excesses and failures.
But the N.S.A.'s isolation may be finally coming to an end. Critics on one side are now complaining that the N.S.A. has become obsolete in the Internet age, while critics on the other flank are attacking the agency for emerging from the cold war as a Big Brother without a cause, listening to everything around the globe for no good reason.
"N.S.A.'s problems are people and management problems," said one agency consultant. "They just haven't been willing to change the way they have always done things."
Some of its failings were on display last week, when the government announced that a Navy code expert had been charged with passing secrets to Russia five years ago while working at the N.S.A.
But N.S.A.'s problems go far deeper. In effect, the agency is under attack today both for incompetence and omnipotence. Its predicament suggests that its own obsession with secrecy has left it prey to conspiracy theorists, while at the same time making it difficult for the agency to seek the help it needs to fix its real problems.
Some current and former American intelligence officials argue that the agency has become overly bureaucratic and outdated, a cold war relic that is no longer able to lure the best young computer wizards to its headquarters at Fort Meade, Md. They warn that the N.S.A. is struggling to keep up in an era in which the daily volume of e-mail messages and cell phone calls threatens to overwhelm it.
At the same time, sophisticated, commercially available encryption technology is making it much tougher for the agency to sift through that mountain of intercepted communications and decipher the few messages that are actually important to the nation's security.
Still other critics complain that a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall the agency is still vacuuming telephone, fax, e-mail and other Internet traffic as if the Soviet Union had never collapsed. To them, the agency is not a cold war relic but a cold war beast in need of taming.
Created in 1952 to consolidate the nation's far-flung communications intelligence and code-breaking operations into one agency within the Defense Department, the N.S.A. quickly became the crown jewel of the intelligence community. Its code breakers enabled American presidents to regularly read the mail of America's enemies -- and its friends. The agency's high-tech collection efforts were so highly prized that it grew into the country's biggest intelligence agency.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Congress and the White House have reduced the N.S.A.'s budget. But those cutbacks have come just as the Internet has exploded, revolutionizing communications technology. The use of telephone and computer encryption is also certain to expand sharply over the coming years, as Washington moves to open up the export of advanced encryption software.
As Seymour M. Hersh wrote in the Dec. 6 New Yorker, the spread of such technology has already crippled the agency's collection efforts. In a speech last year, John Millis, the staff director of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, warned that while the N.S.A. had traditionally been at the cutting edge of technology, "in the last four or five years technology has moved from being the friend to being the enemy" of the agency.
But the N.S.A. has also been attacked for accumulating far more power than it needs. Its huge international communications collection and monitoring operation, called Echelon, which is conducted jointly with the agency's counterparts in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, is criticized both in this country and overseas as an excessive intrusion into the private communications of Americans and their allies. As James Bamford, the author of the classic study of the agency, "The Puzzle Palace" (Houghton Mifflin, 1982), recently noted in The Washington Post, the Echelon system relies on satellites and ground stations to intercept and then sort global communications, searching for specific names, words or phrases. The N.S.A.'s computers can then sort out intercepted communications that include names of drug dealers or political leaders or references to espionage or terrorist actions. The agency is prohibited from intercepting strictly domestic communications unless it gets a special court order.
The N.S.A., in a prepared statement, said that its new director, Lt. Gen. Michael Hayden, is trying to address the technological and management problems facing the agency by launching a restructuring program this winter that he calls "100 days of change." The program is designed to "provide the momentum for the workforce to shape the agency, so that it can thrive in the years to come."
/sarcasm
I wonder what FDR would have done with this nauseating and disgusting puke of a woman if she were around in the 1940s ---
Babs Boxer petition-Stop Bush's illegal wiretaps-postpone Alito hearings
e-mail | Boxer Shorts
Posted on 12/21/2005 7:13:08 PM PST by hipaatwo
----- Original Message ----- From: Barbara Boxer To: xxxx Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 4:15 PM Subject: Stop Bush's illegal wiretaps -- act now!
Dear xxxx,
It's now been 5 days since President Bush admitted to authorizing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without court order -- a system he reauthorized as many as 3 dozen times since 2001. Yet despite the outcry from millions of Americans -- both Democrats and Republicans alike -- President Bush has stubbornly promised to continue this illegal and unconstitutional activity.
How can the President of the United States -- the highest elected official in our land, a leader who swore an oath to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution" -- so egregiously and repeatedly violate our most basic civil liberties?
It's time for Congress to act -- to thoroughly investigate the President's actions now.
Urge Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter to hold hearings into the President's conduct, before beginning Supreme Court nomination hearings for Judge Alito -- sign my petition today!
Clearly, protecting Americans from terrorism here at home must be the top priority of any Administration. But we certainly can do that without trampling on the Constitution in the process. Defending America means protecting our homeland as well as preserving our rights and freedoms as citizens.
Through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted by Congress in 1978, the Bush Administration already has the tools it needs to obtain court orders for domestic wiretaps within minutes -- even retroactively, in urgent circumstances.
Why did President Bush consciously choose to violate federal law, and disregard a system that is already in place to deal with the very national security threats that the President is talking about, even though the Act clearly states that FISA "shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance...and the interception of domestic wire and oral communications may be conducted"?
This is just one of the many questions we need answered. That's why Congress must act now. We can't afford to wait when such critical civil liberties hang in the balance.
Urge Senator Arlen Specter to hold hearings now, before dealing with the Alito nomination -- sign my petition today!
This egregious and repeated violation of American civil liberties by President Bush and his Administration requires a thorough investigation.
That's why I urge Chairman Specter to hold hearings before the Senate takes up Judge Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Sandra Day O'Connor has agreed to stay on the bench as long as necessary, so there's no urgency on that front.
So again, join me in calling on Chairman Specter to schedule thorough public hearings into President Bush's actions as a first order of business for the Senate Judiciary Committee in the New Year -- sign my petition today!
Thank you so much for your support on this critical issue.
In Friendship,
Barbara Boxer
P.S. I'll be presenting our petition demanding thorough hearings to Senator Specter, so please add your name today! And then invite everyone you know to join us.
Sign the Petition Today!
Paid for by PAC for a Change, www.barbaraboxer.com, Treasurer Sim Farar, FEC#C00342048. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee
Very Funny!
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
Actually that isn't it. Following operation Barbarrossa, the Comintern issued to its agent's and fellow travelers to support their respective country's war efforts. It was only after the war the Comintern issued the "Peace at all costs" the fellow travels turned against America.
Following the abolishment of the Comintern, they took orders straight from the KGB. Since the fall of the KGB it's a mystery where exactly their getting their orders from.
I bet James Risen might like to see it.
yeah, so he can collect backpay!
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