The National Technical Information Service, part of the Department of Commerce, produces and disseminates information about economic and ancillary issues important to U. S. national security. Covering a broad range of subject matter, its reports bridge the gap between the government and the private sector. In the national security area, the NTIS publishes reports on a variety of technical subjects and disseminates the unclassified publications of intelligence agencies.
NATIONAL TECHNICAL MEANS. “National technical means” refers to the aggregate of technological methodologies for collecting intelligence information. Examples of national technical means are: intercepting diplomatic communications (signals intelligence— SIGINT), imaging target areas of the earth from orbiting satellites (imagery intelligence—IMINT), and analyzing emissions from smoke stacks (Measurement and Signature Intelligence — MASINT). National technical means also includes the collection of intelligence by means of sensors.
NAVY INTELLIGENCE. See OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
NEGATIVE INTELLIGENCE. Negative intelligence is information for countering a threat or manipulating foreign events. Negative intelligence may include propaganda, counterintelligence, forgery, and denial/deception operations.
NEGROPONTE, JOHN D. (1939- ). John D. Negroponte was appointed in February 2005 by President George W. Bush to be America’s first director of national intelligence (DNI). The position of the DNI was created by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, passed by Congress in December 2004, at the insistence of the families of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the independent 9/11 Commission that investigated those attacks. The position was established to unify America’s sprawling intelligence community (IC) of 15 agencies and to provide them greater incentives to cooperate with one another in the fight against terrorism and other significant threats against the United States. Negroponte brings substantial expertise in the political maneuverings of the U. S. government but little intelligence experience to his new assignment.
DNI Negroponte is a career American diplomat, having spent nearly 40 years in America’s foreign service. His last assignment was as Ambassador to Iraq, when the United States transferred sovereignty to the Iraqi government in spring 2004. His long career included service as U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Philippines, Mexico, and Honduras, but in between official assignments, he also had occasion to work in the private sector and as deputy national security advisor during the administration of William J. Clinton. Negroponte began his foreign service career in the early 1960s, serving in Hong Kong and Vietnam, later becoming a key advisor to National Security Advisor Henry A. Kissinger, with whom he eventually clashed during the Paris peace negotiations over the insufficient protections provided to the beleaguered government of South Vietnam.
NICARAGUA. See CONTRAS; IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR; NEGROPONTE, JOHN D.; NICARAGUA v. UNITED STAGES.
NICARAGUA v. UNITED STATES. During the administration of Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, the United States actively supported the Contra insurgency against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. As part of its support, President Reagan authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to assist the Contras and conduct covert operations against the Sandinistas. Nicaragua brought charges against the United States before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, claiming substantial injury from the covert operations. The Reagan administration in turn invoked its right not to be a party to the suit and revoked U. S. acceptance of the optional clause, first with regard to lawsuits on Central America and later for any and all disputes. The United States also refused to appear before the court during the final hearings on the merits and never recognized the ICJ rulings as binding.
The United States maintained that security issues are nonjusticiable and that Nicaragua never properly accepted the optional clause. The U. S. delegation also filed an affirmative defense for its activities in Nicaragua under the theory of collective self-defense. The ICJ, however, rejected this argument and refused to review countercomplaints filed by both the United States and El Salvador regarding Nicaraguan violations of international law in the form of active San-dinista support for Salvadoran rebels. It awarded Nicaragua an unspecified but potentially tremendous level of damages, estimated to be as large as $17 billion.
Subsequently, the United States viewed the ICJ with active hostility and distrust and has never reinstated its acceptance of the optional clause. After the civil war, Nicaragua formally withdrew its ICJ case in 1991, thereby abandoning all claims to the judgment. It did so only under intense pressure from the George H. W. Bush administration, which made future U. S. aid to Nicaragua contingent on renunciation of the case. See also NATIONAL SECURITY DECISION DIRECTIVE 17.
NICHOLSON, HAROLD (1950- ). Harold Nicholson was an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) arrested by the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on 16 November 1996 for spying for Russia. Nicholson is reputed to be the highest ranking CIA officer charged with espionage to date. During the period of his espionage, he passed a wide range of highly classified information to Russia, including biographic information on every CIA case officer trained between 1994 and 1996 and highly sensitive counterintelligence information that included a summary report of interviews with Aldrich Ames, another CIA employee who spied for the Russians. He also compromised the identities of U. S. and foreign businesspeople who provided information to the CIA.
According to investigators, he “hacked” into the CIA computer system and provided the Russians with every secret that he could steal. Nicholson received approximately $120,000 from Russian intelligence. On 3 March 1997, Nicholson pleaded guilty, admitting he had been a Russian spy. On 6 June 1997, he was sentenced to 23 years and seven months, a much reduced sentence because of his cooperation with the investigators regarding the material he had compromised.
9/11 ATTACKS. See TERRORIST ATTACKS OF 11 SEPTEMBER 2001.
9/11 COMMISSION. See NATIONAL COMMISSION ON TERRORIST ATTACKS UPON THE UNITED STATES.
NIXON, RICHARD MILHOUS (1913-1994). The 34th president of the United States between 1969 and 1974. A controversial politician
For most of his life, President Nixon was the first chief executive to resign from office because of a scandal. A conservative politician and vice president to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, President Nixon was almost obsessive about world stability. To that end, he established relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and sought to reduce tensions with the Soviet Union. His summit meetings with Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev produced a treaty to limit strategic nuclear weapons. He pursued peace negotiations to end the Vietnam War, and, in January 1973, he announced an accord with North Vietnam to end American involvement in Indochina. Moreover, his secretary of state, Henry A. Kissinger, negotiated disengagement agreements in 1974 between Israel and its opponents, Egypt and Syria, arising out of the 1973 war.
After the 1972 election, the Nixon administration was embroiled in the Watergate scandal, stemming from a break-in at the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the 1972 campaign. The break-in was traced to officials of the Committee to Reelect the President. A number of administration officials resigned; some were later convicted of offenses connected with efforts to cover up the affair. President Nixon denied any personal involvement, but the courts forced him to yield tape recordings that indicated that he had, in fact, tried to divert the investigation. Faced with what seemed almost certain impeachment, President Nixon announced on 8 August 1974 that he would resign the next day to begin “that process of healing which is so desperately needed in America.” His resignation allowed Vice President Gerald R. Ford to assume the presidency.
NONPROLIFERATION TREATY (NPT). The NPT was an arms control agreement negotiated in the late 1960s to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and to foster an environment for nuclear disarmament. The NPT remains the only international agreement committed to disarming nonnuclear states. Opened for signature in 1968, the treaty went into force on 5 March 1970, and to date over 185 nations have signed the pact.
The NPT provides for two categories of states. Nuclear weapons states—the United States, Russia, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), France, and the United Kingdom—commit themselves not to spread nuclear weapons or weapons technology to states that do not possess them. Nonnuclear weapons states commit themselves to forego developing or acquiring nuclear weapons. The treaty also tasks the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) with the inspection of nonnuclear states’ nuclear facilities and establishes safeguards for the transfer of fissionable materials between nuclear weapons states and nonnuclear weapons states. Nonnuclear states retain the right to research, develop, and use nuclear energy for nonweapons purposes. Finally, the NPT commits the nuclear weapons states to end the nuclear arms race and to seek a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.
The NPT envisaged a review 25 years after coming into force. Signatory parties met on 11 May 1995 and agreed to extend the treaty indefinitely despite charges by some nonnuclear weapons states that the treaty creates a discriminatory regime that works to the detriment of nonpossessing states. The role of U. S. intelligence concerning the NPT is limited to verifying compliance with its provisions.
NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION (NATO). Established by treaty on 4 April 1949, NATO was designed to be a collective defense arrangement to counter perceived Soviet expansionist goals in Europe at the beginning of the Cold War. NATO’s founding states were: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Four more states joined NATO in subsequent years: Greece (1952), Turkey (1952), Germany (1955), and Spain (1982). During the 40 years of East-West confrontation, NATO also evolved into a club of democratic states.
Following the end of the Cold War, 10 East European states, most former members of the Warsaw Pact, joined NATO: the Czech Republic (1999), Poland (1999), Hungary (1999), Estonia (2004), Lithuania (2004), Latvia (2004), Romania (2004), Slovakia (2004), Slovenia (2004), and Bulgaria (2004).
NORTH, OLIVER LAURENCE (1943- ). Oliver North, a Marine Corps lieutenant colonel, acquired notoriety in the mid-1980s for his role in the Iran-Contra Affair. North, at the time a staff member of the National Security Council (NSC), directed a network of former military and intelligence officials and businesspeople in the resupply of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. He was also implicated in the sale of weapons to Iran to raise the money for assistance to the Contras. The operations, conducted outside the normal covert action channels of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in contravention of the law, had their own personnel, equipment, communications, and secret bank accounts. North was convicted in 1989 on criminal charges for his role in the affair, but his conviction later was overturned because the prosecution at the trial had used congressional testimony that had received immunity. North has since had a career as a talk-show host and conservative columnist. In 1994 he ran unsuccessfully for the U. S. senate, from Virginia.
OCTOBER SURPRISE. The October surprise refers to allegations in the early 1980s that William Casey, Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan’s campaign chief in 1980, worked to delay the release of the American hostages held by Islamic militants in Iran in order to prevent Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter from arranging a release in October 1980, just prior to the general election. However, there appears to be no evidence to corroborate the charges, which remain unproven. William Casey went on to become President Reagan’s director of central intelligence (DCI).
OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE (DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY).
The Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Intelligence is the intelligence community’s (IC’s) premier intelligence resource in nuclear weapons and nonproliferation technologies, energy security, nuclear safety, and nuclear waste disposal. DOE’s Office of Intelligence also taps the DOE’s national laboratories to provide timely analytic assessments to the national policy community, as well as specialized technological applications and operational support to the intelligence, law enforcement, and military communities.
Regulating nuclear energy dates back to the Manhattan Project, which produced the first atomic bomb. The DOE’s predecessor, the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), initially provided specialized analysis of the nascent atomic weapons program of the Soviet Union. By the 1970s, that program—like the functions of the old AEC—had come to reside within the DOE.
OFFICE OF INTELLIGENCE SUPPORT (TREASURY DEPARTMENT). The Treasury Department’s Office of Intelligence Support openly collects financial and monetary data from around the globe and subjects this information to analysis for government and business consumers. Treasury intelligence, a member of the intelligence community (IC), also seeks intelligence information about technology transfers and the spread of weapons technology. As such, it is an important element in identifying money flows, collecting trade information, ferreting out money laundering schemes, and distributing licensing data.
OFFICE OF NATIONAL ESTIMATES (ONE). Established by Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Walter Bedell Smith in 1950, the one’s mandate was to produce and disseminate national intelligence estimates (NIEs). DCI William Colby disbanded the ONE and created the National Intelligence Council (NIC) system in September 1973.
OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (ONI). America’s premier source for maritime intelligence, the ONI employs civilian and military personnel around the world in support of navy operational commanders and war fighters. The ONI is also the nation’s oldest continuously operating intelligence service. Located in the Federal Center in Suitland, Maryland, the National Maritime Intelligence Center (NMIC) is the home and nerve center of the ONI. The NMIC also supports the Coast Guard Intelligence Coordination Center, the Naval Information Warfare Activity, and the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity (MCIA).
The ONI was established on 23 March 1882 to seek and report on global maritime technological developments. Naval attaches and military affairs officers soon began a systematic collection of technical information about foreign governments and their naval advancements. Reports of foreign technology advances circulated between the various bureaus of the navy, stimulating new interest in naval matters.
During the Spanish-American War of 1898, the ONI provided vital information about Spanish fleet capabilities as well as details about harbor defenses that had great value in shaping naval strategy. By the time the nation entered World War I in 1917, the ONI was the recognized authority on technical information to help improve fleet capabilities. While the ONI had few responsibilities in war planning, it took on new responsibilities for all aspects of physical security for installations, security checks for navy personnel, censorship, and ferreting out spies and saboteurs. Following the war, the navy was scaled down, but the primary duties for the collecting, evaluating, and disseminating of information were retained on a temporary basis. The Chief of Naval Operations in 1929 made these functions permanent.
As the world slid into another world war, the ONI assumed responsibilities in disseminating decrypted Japanese materials. The decoding function was controlled by navy’s Office of Communication, but the translation, evaluation, and dissemination fell to the ONI. The two functions eventually were combined into one unit. Breaking the Japanese naval code was a major breakthrough, but it did not come in time to prevent the surprise attack on the fleet in Pearl Harbor on the morning of 7 December 1941. The navy did use the Japanese intercepts to score a major victory at Midway in June 1942. Despite demobilization and downsizing following World War II, the ONI continued to play an important role in the Cold War and after, from Korea all the way to the invasion of Iraq in 2004.
OFFICE OF POLICY COORDINATION (OPC). Established on 1 September 1948 by National Security Council Directive 10/2, a directive of the National Security Council (NSC) issued on 18 June 1948, the OPC was given responsibility for organizing and managing covert actions. NSC 10/2 specified that the OPC, although within the bureaucratic structure of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was to take its guidance from the Department of State in peacetime and the Department of Defense (DOD) in wartime. The OPC’s relatively autonomous existence continued until 1950, when the arrangement was modified to ensure that policy guidance came through the director of central intelligence (DCI). NSC 10/5, issued in October 1951, reaffirmed the CIA’s covert action mandate, thereby placing the OPC squarely within the CIA, and expanded the CIA’s authority over guerrilla warfare. The OPC merged with the CIA’s Office of Special Operations (OSO) in 1952 to form the Directorate of Plans (DP), predecessor of the Directorate of Operations (DO).
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS (ORA). Predecessor of the Directorate of Intelligence (DI) in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the ORA was established in the early 1950s to produce and disseminate intelligence analyses to mid - and senior-level decision makers.
OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES (OSS). Established on 13 June 1942 to replace the coordinator of information (COI), the OSS was America’s wartime intelligence and sabotage organization. Headed by William J. Donovan, the OSS was placed under the jurisdiction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), and its personnel came from all the branches of the armed forces as well as civilians. “Wild Bill” Donovan was not too keen on intelligence analyses but wanted the OSS to support military operations in the field by providing research, propaganda, and commando support.
OSS “cloak and dagger” operations focused on actions behind enemy lines as well as liaison with the underground in Nazi-occupied countries. Despite Donovan’s preoccupation with the action-oriented part of the OSS, some of the most valuable work was done by the research and analysis (R&A) section, which was headed by Harvard historian William L. Langer.
Even in wartime, coordination of intelligence remained a problem in Washington. The Pearl Harbor disaster underscored the problems with interservice cooperation. The army and navy signals intelligence (SIGINT) organizations barely cooperated, jealously guarding their reports and their access to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They also prevented intelligence analysts from reading signals intelligence at all. Outside the White House, no one collated and analyzed the totality of the intelligence data collected by the U. S. government. This lack of government-wide coordination limited the success of intelligence analysis and prompted efforts to reform the intelligence establishment after the war. The OSS was disbanded in 1945. In 1946, many of its functions were transferred to the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), and, in 1947, to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE (OSINT). OSINT is intelligence information collected from overt sources, such as newspapers, books, journals, and similar publications. Because it is widely available, OSINT is easy to collect but often difficult to use. For one thing, the sheer volume of open-source information makes it difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. For another, intelligence analysts, accustomed as they are to relying on classified sources, are suspicious of the reliability of open-source materials. During the Cold War, only about 20 percent of intelligence information about the Soviet Union came from open sources. Following the Cold War, over 80 percent of intelligence information about Russia has come from open sources.
OPERATION AJAX. See AJAX (OPERATION).
OPERATION CHAOS. See CHAOS (OPERATION).
OPERATION COLDFEET. See COLDFEET (OPERATION).
OPERATION CONDOR. See CONDOR (OPERATION).
OPERATION DEEP BLUE. See DEEP BLUE (OPERATION).
OPERATION EAGLE CLAW. See EAGLE CLAW (OPERATION).
OPERATION FEATURE. See FEATURE (OPERATION).
OPERATION FUBELT. See FUBELT (OPERATION).
OPERATION FU GO. See GENETRIX (OPERATION).
OPERATION GENETRIX. See GENETRIX (OPERATION).
OPERATION GOLD. See GOLD (OPERATION).
OPERATION HISTORY. See HISTORY (OPERATION).
OPERATION IVY BELLS. See IVY BELLS (OPERATION).
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OPERATION MKULTRA. See MKULTRA (OPERATION).
OPERATION MONGOOSE. See MONGOOSE (OPERATION).
OPERATION MOUNTAIN. See MOUNTAIN (OPERATION).
OPERATION PHOENIX. See PHOENIX (OPERATION).
OPERATION RAINBOW. See RAINBOW (OPERATION).
OPERATION RED SOX/RED CAP. See RED SOX/RED CAP (OPERATION).
OPERATION SENIOR BOWL. See TAGBOARD (OPERATION).
OPERATION SHAMROCK. See SHAMROCK (OPERATION).
OPERATION STAR GATE. See STAR GATE (OPERATION).
OPERATION SUCCESS. See SUCCESS (OPERATION).
OPERATION TAGBOARD. See TAGBOARD (OPERATION).
OPERATION TROPIC. See TROPIC (OPERATION).
OPERATION TRUST. See TRUST (OPERATION).
OPERATION VEIL. See VEIL (OPERATION).
OPERATION VENONA. See VENONA (OPERATION).
OPERATION WINTELPRO. See WINTELPRO (OPERATION).
OPERATION WINTER HARVEST. See WINTER HARVEST (OPERATION).
OPERATION ZAPATA. See BAY OF PIGS INVASION.
OPERATIONS ADVISORY GROUP. Established by President Gerald R. Ford’s Executive Order 11905, dated 18 February 1976, the Operations Advisory Group of the National Security Council (NSC) was set up to review and approve covert action programs. The group replaced President Richard M. Nixon’s 40 Committee, which had engaged in similar functions since 1969.
OVERSIGHT. See INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT.
World History
