¹ Never mind that last time President Obama’s former national security adviser James Jones went through the Tel Aviv airport, he had asked the security guards, “Don’t you want my shoes?” Jones, who had read top secret assessments of terrorism every day for nearly two years, certainly didn’t think the Israelis were lax on security. He had realized again how conditioned he had become to U.S. practices, even if he actually believed they were an overreaction.

² The Department of Homeland Security ended the color-coded alerts in April 2011, but many airports and other government facilities continued to use them.

³ The U.S. intelligence community, or IC, consists of sixteen agencies and organizations within the Executive Branch: Air Force Intelligence, Army Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, Coast Guard Intelligence, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy’s intelligence arm, the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence arm, the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the Department of the Treasury’s intelligence arm, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Marine Corps Intelligence, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Security Agency, and Navy Intelligence. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence is the seventeenth member of the intelligence community; and some consider the Department of Defense another member; but by executive order, the IC consists of sixteen agencies.

¹ The National Security Agency, established in 1952, eavesdrops around the world. Its mission is to protect U.S. national security information systems and to collect and disseminate foreign signals intelligence (called SIGINT, or intercepts). Its areas of expertise include cryptanalysis, cryptography, mathematics, computer science, and foreign language analysis. It is part of the Department of Defense and is staffed by civilian and military personnel.

² The official term of the Department of Defense is the Global War on Terrorism, though the GWOT is often referred to by many as the Global War on Terror. President Bush established the GWOT Expeditionary Medal for members of the armed forces by Executive Order 13289 of March 12, 2003. The EO serves as the only formal definition, referring to “operations to combat terrorism in all forms throughout the world.”

³ A Presidential Finding (formally called a Memorandum of Notification) for covert action under the National Security Act, as amended, requires the president to explain why a covert action is necessary to support a foreign policy objective. “The finding must: be in writing; not retroactively authorize covert activities which have already occurred; specify all government agencies and any third party that will be involved; not authorize any action intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies or media; not authorize any action which violates the Constitution of the United States or any statutes of the United States. Notification to the congressional leaders must be followed by submission of the written finding to the chairmen of the intelligence committees and the intelligence committees must be informed of significant changes in covert actions. Any department, agency or entity of the executive branch may not spend funds on a covert action until there has been a signed, written finding” (Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference, HR 1455, July 25, 1991, quoted in Alfred Cummings, “Covert Action: Legislative Background and Possible Policy Questions,” Congressional Research Service Report, April 6, 2011).

⁴ Sometimes there was actually little difference between the two, as Leon Panetta told the Senate Armed Services Committee in June 2011 in response to questions during his confirmation hearing for the post of secretary of defense. Panetta admitted that “as a practical matter” the line between covert actions and clandestine military operations “has blurred” (U.S. Congress, Senate Armed Services Committee, Questions for the Record, Nomination of the Honorable Leon E. Panetta, n.d. [2011]).

⁵ Executive Order 12356 says a classification of secret “shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause serious damage to the national security.” What exactly that means is a judgment call, but examples of serious damage include “disruption of foreign relations significantly affecting the national security; significant impairment of a program or policy directly related to the national security; revelation of significant military plans or intelligence operations; and compromise of significant scientific or technological developments relating to national security.”

⁶ Executive Order 12356 says a classification of top secret “shall be applied to information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” Examples of exceptionally grave damage include armed hostilities against the United States or its allies, disruption of foreign relations vitally affecting the national security, the compromise of vital national defense plans or complex cryptologic and communications intelligence systems, the revelation of sensitive intelligence operations, and the disclosure of scientific or technological developments vital to the national security.

¹ National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs), produced by the interagency National Intelligence Council, located at CIA headquarters, are the authoritative overall future assessments of the intelligence community, usually produced at the top secret classification level. Before the creation of the position of director of national intelligence (DNI) in 2004, they were delivered by the director of Central Intelligence (DCI), who was also the director of the CIA. Subjects can range from projections of Russian and Chinese nuclear forces to the national security impact of climate change. Unclassified summaries of NIEs are occasionally prepared for Congress and the public, but these mostly lose the detail and the nuance of actual NIEs, which are often lengthy and contain numerous footnotes and appendixes laying out analytic disagreements among the various intelligence agencies.

² The odd term dates from the secret preparations for the D-Day invasion in World War II; it refers to the invasion planners coming over from the North African campaign by way of Gibraltar. BIGOT is TOGIB—for “to Gibraltar”—backwards.

³ “Black” is a slang expression for a program or unit that is clandestine or covert in nature, meaning its operations are always secret.

⁴ President Bush and various members of his national security team asked the Washington Post not to publish the secret prison story because, they argued, it would gravely damage relations between the United States and the countries involved. The executive editor of the Post, Leonard Downie, decided not to publish the exact locations of the secret prisons but to go ahead with the rest of the story. A barrage of criticism followed from the predictable places, mainly the administration’s political supporters. The American public reacted largely with disinterest, although the issue entered the presidential primaries two years later. In Europe, however, publication caused a political firestorm, and each country began an internal inquiry into whether its leaders had hosted a secret prison or had allowed the CIA’s aircraft to land or even fly over its airspace with its covert human cargo.

⁵ As of publication, none of the leaders or former leaders in the several Eastern European countries that hosted the black sites has admitted to doing so. Human rights groups and various European commissions have identified countries they believe hosted them. The Post and the author continue to abide by the initial decision not to name the countries.

¹ NorthCom, established on October 1, 2002, is supposed to be in charge of the Defense Department’s homeland defense efforts and the coordination of defense support to civil authorities when requested. Its area of operation includes the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the surrounding water out to approximately five hundred nautical miles. But many of its missions are already performed by other entities (see chapter 6).

² The Joint Chiefs of Staff is the senior staff of military officers who advise the president, the defense secretary, and the National Security Council on military matters. It is made up of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (VCJCS), and the chiefs of the army, navy, air force, and Marine Corps, all appointed by the president following Senate confirmation. Headquartered in the Pentagon, the JCS has no operational authority but has become increasingly important in planning the strategy and tactics of the military’s counterterrorism efforts.

³ In July 2006, the FBI consolidated its WMD-related activities into a single WMD Directorate within the newly formed National Security Branch. Composed primarily of special agents, intelligence analysts, program managers, and policy specialists, the directorate provides national-level WMD crisis management and intelligence support to the U.S. government in matters involving domestic threats associated with biological, chemical, nuclear, and radiological weapons and materials. The directorate also designs training for federal agencies; state and local law enforcement organizations; and public health, industry, and academia partners. At the local level, the FBI has a designated WMD coordinator in each of its fifty-six domestic field divisions.

⁴ JSOC was created in 1980 as a hostage rescue force. It began to be revamped after 9/11 as a secret offensive military force engaged largely in intelligence gathering and analysis, killing and capturing top terrorist leaders, and training foreign antiterrorism units in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Yemen, and elsewhere (see chapter 12).

⁵ The director of national intelligence, a cabinet-level position, is a sort of spy czar whose role is to coordinate all sixteen agencies and departments that make up the intelligence community (IC). The DNI is the principal adviser to the president and the National Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. The DNI also oversees and directs the implementation of the National Intelligence Program; oversees the coordination of relationships with foreign intelligence services; and establishes requirements and priorities for collection, analysis, production, and dissemination of national intelligence. In reality, the power of the DNI has depended less on the definition given in the legislation than on the titleholder’s relationship to the president and to the heads of the various intelligence agencies.

⁶ Created in 2003 from the Office of Homeland Security within the White House, which was set up after 9/11. The new cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security is supposed to integrate governmental efforts and agencies involved in airport, transportation and border security, and immigration and customs-related law enforcement. The intelligence component of DHS is one of sixteen members of the intelligence community, although it does not collect intelligence itself. With 88,000 employees, more than half of them private contractors, DHS includes the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Secret Service. Some of these subordinate elements are engaged in intelligence collection.

¹ This designation protects unclassified information from being distributed publicly. It allows limiting its circulation to official circles, such as law enforcement, which can also carry the label Unclassified Law-Enforcement Sensitive, or LES. Examples are Department of Homeland Security threat assessments.

² Information operations (IO) are those operations primarily engaged in influencing foreign perceptions and decision making. During armed conflict, they also include efforts made to achieve physical and psychological results in support of military operations. Military IO capabilities include psychological operations (PSYOP), military deception (MILDEC), and operations security (OPSEC), which are measures to protect the security of U.S. operations and information and further their goals.

³ Special Technical Operations (STO) involve “nonkinetic” (for example, nonexplosive) modes of warfare, from classic electronic warfare to the latest cyberwarfare and directed energy techniques. Though STO is often used in military documents to refer to space-related activities, the emergence of a wide variety of nonkinetic weapons has expanded beyond that domain.

⁴ NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is a U.S.-Canadian military organization charged with warning of attacks against the United States from missiles, aircraft, or spacecraft, and with control of airspace over North America. The commander is responsible to both the U.S. president and the Canadian prime minister. The NORAD and Northern Command Center is the central collection and coordination facility for a worldwide system of sensors designed to provide the commander and the leadership of Canada and the United States with an accurate picture of any aerospace or maritime threat.

⁵ “Force Protection Condition” is the Defense Department’s terrorist threat warning system. Condition bravo is a “somewhat predictable terrorist threat level; security measures by agency personnel may affect the activities of local law enforcement and the general public.”

⁶ The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, renamed from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) in 2003, supports the Defense Department with mapping and geospatial imagery, intelligence and analysis. It is one of the sixteen members of the intelligence community and is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland (but moving to a new headquarters in Springfield, Virginia). Geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) consists of imagery, imagery intelligence, and geospatial (mapping, charting, and geodesy) information of the physical features of Earth and underground. Prior to 9/11, the U.S. Geologic Survey was responsible for producing imagery and geospatial data for the United States.

⁷ Established in 1961 but only declassified in 1992, the NRO is one of the sixteen intelligence agencies of the federal government. It is in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining the nation’s intelligence satellites.

⁸ Established in 2009 and located in Fort Meade, Maryland, Cyber Command is headed by the director of the National Security Agency, but as a four-star command, it is an independent entity, with independent roles and responsibilities. It centralizes command of U.S. government cyberspace operations (offensive and defensive), organizes existing cyber resources of the U.S. government and intelligence community, and synchronizes the defense of U.S. military networks.

¹ Serialized intelligence reports are distinguished from both raw intelligence reports and special intelligence reports. Raw intelligence is immediately reported by the collector and serves as the basis for serialized reporting (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) by subject or geographic location. Special intelligence reports are those reports—like National Intelligence Estimates or individual subject reports—that are produced on request or as needed. Both serialized and special reports are considered finished intelligence (and are often referred to as FINTEL).

² Established by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, the NCTC’s mission is to integrate and analyze all intelligence on terrorism and counterterrorism and to design strategic counterterrorism plans. Located in McLean, Virginia, the NCTC is a subordinate organization of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. It maintains the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB), an authoritative list fed by two primary sources: international terrorist information from NCTC and domestic terrorist information from the FBI.

³ The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), a combat support agency of the Department of Defense, is the leading provider of foreign military intelligence and one of the largest components of the intelligence community. Established in 1961, and headquartered at Bolling AFB in southeast Washington, DIA primarily conducts intelligence analysis through a network of air, ground, naval, missile, and space-related intelligence centers. It has a small human intelligence (HUMINT) section as well.

⁴ None of this included new organizations created in Afghanistan and Iraq, or organizations at the state and local level, or the numerous local federal offices that Top Secret America added to small-town America.

⁵ Under the direction of the FBI, a Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) brings together federal, military, state, and local law enforcement entities to investigate, analyze, and develop sources on terrorism within the United States. From 35 on 9/11—the first was established in New York City in 1980—the number of JTTFs grew to 106 by 2011. The largest, in New York, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles, include hundreds of employees and liaison officers from intelligence, law enforcement, military, and civilian agencies; the smallest are no larger than a dozen or so people.

⁶ The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), established in 1921, is an independent budget and accounting agency that works for Congress. GAO investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars, and the head of GAO is the comptroller general of the United States.

⁷ The Goldwater-Nichols Defense Department Reorganization Act, passed in 1986, was meant to eliminate the destructive rivalries between the military services and to force them to work better together. It elevated the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the role of principal military adviser to the president, with the chiefs of all services acting as advisers to the chairman. To force better cooperation in wartime, it put one four-star commander in charge of all military forces and operations within a specific geographic region—the Central Command, for example. All the service chiefs opposed the act at the time of its creation. Many experts have repeatedly called for a Goldwater-Nichols II to reorganize, and force better cooperation between, all national security agencies. The DNI is a pale version of the chairman’s role under the act.

¹ The National Guard, the oldest component of the armed forces, traces its history back to the earliest English colonies. Responsible for their own defense from Indian attack and foreign invaders, the colonists organized their able-bodied male citizens into militias. These militias later helped to win the Revolutionary War, and the Constitution recognized them as a separate entity from the federal armed forces, giving the states the power to appoint officers and raise and train their own forces. In World War I, the Guard was called into federal service to fight overseas for the first time, and since then its ranks have been outnumbered by permanent standing federal forces. Since 9/11, multiple headquarters in each state have been consolidated into a Joint Force Headquarters (JFHQ), streamlining command and control more in line with federal forces. States have also signed various compacts allowing militias to be used across state lines, and the federal government has gained more control over the Guard, which has developed a larger Washington headquarters and greater political influence.

² U.S. Space Command (SPACECOM), established in 1984 and shut down in 1992, was previously one of the unified joint commands with functional rather than geographic responsibilities—military operations, weapons, exercises, plans, and strategy related to space. Headquartered at Peterson AFB, its commander was “triple-hatted,” serving also as commander in chief, North American Air Defense Command, and commander, Air Force Space Command.

³ The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), established in September 1961, was originally a classified joint agency of the DoD and the CIA. Its existence and its mission—satellite reconnaissance—were officially declassified in September 1992. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, the NRO designs, builds, and, with the air force, operates the nation’s reconnaissance satellites, which collect imagery, geospatial intelligence, source data, and signals intelligence data for the intelligence community, of which it is a member. Most of its satellites are built and maintained by private corporations.

⁴ The CIP for Finance (CIPFIN) database is an element of the Defense Critical Infrastructure Program (CIP), which identifies and assesses the security of physical assets and cyberassets and infrastructures in the public and private sectors that are essential to national security. Using this database, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) monitors the security and health of the financial services sector and infrastructure required to sustain the military.

¹ The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) contains the immediate offices of the secretary and deputy secretary of defense, both civilians appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate; the undersecretaries of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics; personnel and readiness; comptroller/chief financial officer; intelligence; and policy. Additional independent offices exist for special staff (legislative affairs; public affairs; intelligence oversight, etc.). The role of the secretary of defense has significantly changed since the position was established in 1947. Originally, the secretary had only general authority, shared with the civilian secretaries of the military departments. Subsequent legislation strengthened the secretary of defense’s authority. Today, the secretary is the principal assistant to the president for all matters relating to the Department of Defense.

² The Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA), located in Elkridge, Maryland, is the primary training organization specializing in advanced counterintelligence. Established in 2000, it is a part of the Defense Intelligence Agency. JCITA provides training to over ten thousand military and defense agency personnel around the world through in-residence, mobile training, and distance learning. Topics include discreet counterintelligence (CI) surveillance, CI investigations, CI operations, force protection, and CI analysis, as well as various technology-oriented and country-specific counterintelligence subjects.

³ The Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals (DOHA), a component of the Defense Legal Services Agency of the Defense Department, provides legal adjudication and claims decisions in personnel security clearance cases for contractor personnel doing classified work, as well as for the Defense Department and twenty other federal agencies and departments.

⁴ The Federal Investigative Services Division (FISD), an element of the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), carries out background investigations used by government agencies to determine individuals’ suitability for employment and security clearances. In 2005, the Defense Security Service transferred the DoD personnel security investigative function (and about 1,600 personnel) to FISD. Most of the major agencies of the intelligence community outside DoD (for example, the CIA, the NRO, and the FBI) are responsible for their own security investigations and clearance programs.

⁵ Iron Mountain Inc. is a publicly traded S&P 500 company that provides information management, storage, and protection services to more than 140,000 government and private organizations in 39 countries. Iron Mountain’s infrastructure includes more than 10 data centers and 1,000 facilities, including Iron Mountain in Boyers. The government also stores patents and other valuable items inside the former limestone mine.

¹ Gates stepped down as defense secretary in June 2011.

² Panetta became defense secretary in June 2011.

¹ Anyone who’s ever watched a Vietnam War–era movie can picture a soldier on the ground with a radio calling in air support. These days, he’s called the joint terminal attack controller, or JTAC (pronounced “jay-tack”). Once a ground commander requests “air support,” the JTAC controls the aircraft. He—not the CAOC, not the pilot—has the authority to decide if the aircraft will deliver its weapons and where. And so it was in the case of Gold 6; and the JTAC on the ground was cleared to request further attacks if needed.

¹ The CIA Special Activities Division (SAD) is the paramilitary element of the agency and part of the National Clandestine Service, which collects intelligence and conducts covert operations. SAD members have the skills and equipment necessary to carry out military operations, but the group is called paramilitary because military operations are not allowed to be conducted covertly. After 9/11, the SAD was first on the ground in Afghanistan, and since then it has been responsible for capturing many terrorist leaders.

² SEAL Team 6 is the “sea-air-land” special mission and counterterrorism unit assigned to JSOC, sometimes known as the Navy Special Warfare Development Group (DevGru), and located in Dam Neck, Virginia. On missions, they come together in task forces (TFs) combining operations, intelligence, logistics, etc.

³ The 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment—nicknamed the Night Stalkers, and headquartered at Fort Campbell, Kentucky—are assigned to Army Special Operations Command. With one-of-a kind helicopters and specially trained pilots and crew, the 160th is called upon for armed helicopter support to white special operations commands and to JSOC. They are supplemented by Air Force Special Operations Command aircraft that also support longer-range infiltration and exfiltration missions, gunship support, and combat search and rescue.

⁴ The Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment, with battalions at three U.S. locations—Fort Benning, Georgia; Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia; and Fort Lewis, Washington—is 2,500 strong. They are the premier airfield seizure and raid unit in the army and are used to support JSOC and general purpose forces in ambush, reconnaissance, airborne and air assaults, and perimeter.

⁵ The 24th Special Tactics Squadron (STS), located at Pope AFB, North Carolina, provides special operators who are experts in landing zones, tactical and close air support, targeting, and providing trauma care and air medevac for injured personnel. They are assigned to JSOC.

⁶ The Technical Operations Support Activity (TOSA) is an army-owned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) organization that supports special operations, JSOC, and other short-term intelligence collection efforts that demand close-in presence.

⁷ The British Special Air Service (SAS), the UK equivalent to the United States’ Delta Force (the Special Boat Service is the equivalent of SEAL Team 6), is the special mission and counterterrorism unit that operates closely with JSOC. Much of the JSOC organizational style of squadrons and flights is taken from the SAS.

⁸ Alfred Cumming wrote this succinctly in an April 6, 2011, Congressional Research Service report titled “Covert Action: Legislative Background and Possible Policy Questions.” As he explains, there is no legal definition of “clandestine” activity. A covert action is one in which the government’s participation is unacknowledged, while a clandestine activity, according to senior defense officials, is one that, although intended to be secret, can be publicly acknowledged if it is discovered or inadvertently revealed. Being able to publicly acknowledge a clandestine activity provides the military personnel with certain protections under the Geneva Conventions. Those who participate in covert actions, however, could jeopardize any rights they may have under the Geneva Conventions. Also, he wrote, “Some observers suggest that Congress needs to increase its oversight of military activities that some contend may not meet the definition of covert action, and may therefore be exempt from the degree of congressional oversight accorded to covert actions. Others contend that increased oversight would hamper the military’s effectiveness.”

⁹ Title 50 of the U.S. Code, War and National Defense, is that compilation of laws relating to national defense. It includes covert action, defined in statute as an action by the U.S. government to influence conditions abroad where the role of the United States is not acknowledged. A covert action first requires a written Presidential Finding, and Congress must be briefed, although not always beforehand.

¹⁰ Air Force Special Operations gunships, nicknamed Spectre and Spooky, have a combination of small (25 mm and 40 mm) Gatling guns and cannons and one large (105 mm) cannon. With a crew of fourteen, the AC-130 employs strike radars and eavesdropping equipment for target detection and identification. The aircraft, though heavily armored, operate primarily at night.

¹¹ The Air Force 18th Air Support Operations Group, headquartered at Pope AFB, North Carolina, is the headquarters for all combat controllers assigned to conventional military units. Combat controllers are responsible for liaison between air and ground units and for the provision of close air support and combat search and rescue. The 18th ASOG oversees a network of nineteen geographically dispersed units and supplies combat controllers for JSOC missions as well.

¹² An execute order (EXORD) is the specific order that directs a commander to initiate military operations, defines the time to initiate, and provides guidance for operational plans. The president or secretary of defense can authorize the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to issue an EXORD. Execution continues until the operation is terminated or the mission is accomplished or revised. Some military operations, particularly counterterrorism operations, are conducted under standing, or open-ended, EXORDs.

¹³ The NSA’s Real Time Regional Gateway is a network created during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to speed up the delivery of signal intercepts from collectors to users on the ground. Called an “interactive national repository,” RTRG allows users to see all signal intelligence that collectors are working on in real time. This includes ground collectors, Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and Liberty planes, SIGINT-equipped drones, and SIGINT satellites operated by the NRO. RTRG has provided a tenfold increase in the speed with which intercepts are provided to operators on the ground.

¹ In his speech that night, Obama began one joke with what would turn out to be the understatement of the year: “What a week. As some of you heard, the state of Hawaii released my official long-form birth certificate…”)

² The Defense Department immediately took it down once the company told them of its find in 2007.

³ They were the navy’s Cyber Warfare, Exploitation & Information Dominance (CWEID) Lab, the Coast Guard Maritime Intelligence Fusion Center Pacific (MIFC–PAC), Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command Afghanistan (CFSOCC–A), and an air force GEO-Spatial Intelligence Office (AFGO) inside the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.