Doc ID 6571846 NATEONAL secumw AGENCY CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE FORT GEORGE G MEADE MARYLAND 20755 Serial 26 September 1975 MEMORANDUM FOR THE SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE SECRETARY AND DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE SUBJECT Preliminary Statement of Robert J Tracy before the Senate Select Committee on 24 September 1975 As requested by Mr Fred Ware Court Reporter inclosed is the Preliminary Statement of Robert J Tracy before the Senate Select Committee on 24 September 19 5 to be delivered to Mr Barry Carter DAVID D LOWMAN Special Assistant to the Director for Congressional Reviews Incl a s - def-NEE 4 a and envuccf Doc ID 6571846 DIR Less Incl DIDIR ESS ESSIR ESE Mr Lowmz-m NCRDEF Less Inc C52 Mr Tracy 0 L221 Less Incl Serial 7 MM D Sap 75fkjb Doc ID 6571846 PhD- w 3 folk jut- r 3 2 Tr 1 2 24 a q L lustmum Mr Chairman have a preliminary statement I'd like to read HISTORY OF RHYMING DICTIONBRY The Rhyming Dictionary is an index to the biographic files and was begun in 1945 using punched cards to record names of per sonalities appearing in or likely to appear in SIGINT product From the file of punched cards printed lists were made by forward and reverse alphabetical sort of personal surnames In December 1958 a machine printout of the complete Rhyming Dictionary was microfilmed for subsequent reference and a new Dictionary was begun in 1959 First occurrences of personal names were first recorded on log sheets and later transferred in batches to magnetic tapes for computer manipulation and listing as required e g forward and reverse alphabetical sorts of surnames By mid 1973 the collection of personal names had decreased dramatically as the responsibility of providing biographic file service was transferred in phases to CIA under implementation of Project over the years 1970 73 Thus since no new information was entering the files and index the useful applica tiOn and maintenance of the Rhyming Dictionary became increasingly inefficient and unnecessary It was terminated in December 1973 PEMHEEFE gr-FE i - '95 r f 1 Phi Egs i 5 1 - i rl 3' 1' 3 Lh f 15 EST - - %2mi L u5 L HOW was RHYMING DICTIONARY USED AND BY WHOM Created by International Information ivision C52 and prede- cessor organizatiOns the Rhyming Dictionary was an index to biographic files and served as a reference tool for researching names of personalities mentioned in communications This informa tion like all other data was collected and organized by C52 in order to respond quickly to the various types of requests generated by SIGINT production The Rhyming Dictionary was used as a master index to personali ties that appeared in Central Information Biographic Files which were maintained on over 150 countries and which contained the names of personalities that appeared in SIGINT plus those of personalities in collateral and Open sources most likely to appear in SIGINT The Dictionary covering the period 1959 1973 contained 1 667 396 names of which 73 141 were U S personalities In response to requests from translators and SIGINT reporters a Central Information analyst used the Rhyming Dictionary in its various sorts to either complete the name of a personality when it was misspelled or garbled or to determine his nationality which in turn would lead to the country file contain- ing information on the particular individual e g- his location official position or association with activities international travel conferences organizations negotiations conversations and speeches of international significance An example of another sort of the names in the dictionary was one which reversed the arr iw o' lr 5 lbI A L itlk AMI-nip 3- ma r'l 5 a Doc ID 6571846 our surnames wlisted them backwards--whioh proved useful in exploiting text containing names of personalities This research activity by the Central Information analyst directly supported SIGINT production by enabling the to identify or verify partially known elements of the text such as names of personalities recover possible verbatim texts or interpret code or cipher traffic from significant background information Superimposed on the requirement for accuracy in research is that of speed i e Central Information support must be rapid in order to assure that SIGINT is produced before losing its perishable intelligence value The Rhyming Dictionary assisted measurably in speedin91$rdm2Central Information support to the oryptanalyst a - min-use 1 1 1 1 i l JR-m-Eu i Linn thl - e Doc DISCUSSIONS 0F PROJECT My understanding is that in 1967 68 an internal NBA study was undertaken to evaluate the intelligence information support files of the Central Information Center in order to determine the most feasible and effective system to support SIGINT processing The study recommended that immediate steps be taken by CIC to establish closer working relationships with the CIA Office of Central Reference with a View to eliminating NSA's biographic information services and rely on CIA biOgraphic file support via secure telephone communication This was in line with an overall intelligence community effort to reduce duplication in biographic files Accordingly arrangements were made between NBA and CIA in the second quarter 1968 to conduct a Biographic Support Feasibility Test This test was held from July through October 1968 and there 1 after it was recommended that the information resources of the Information Services Group Central Reference Service CIA be used to answer NBA requests for biographic information In April 1969 it was formally agreed between NSA and CIA to implement this recommendation by collocating Central Information personnel with Implementation was to be phased as training of Central Information C5 personnel permitted and several C5 people were immediately detailed to to learn about CRS resources and prepare for transfer of biographio responsibilities to CIA nm t a II I r e-Eq i Fl' LIE LE - i'u - - - at 3 Doc ID 6571846 Accordingly biograpbic information support provided by NSA was gradually phased out and transferred to CIA In August 1970 biographic support concerning Latin America and South America was absorbed by Answering NSA requests for Western EurOpe biographio support was assumed by CIA in November l970 In February 1971 began biographio support services for Africa excluding North Africa plus the Free World countries of India Pakistan Ceylon Japan Indonesia Malaysia and the Philippines By May 1971 CIA had taken over Eastern Europe biographic support One year later in June 1972 NSA's needs for biographic support on Turkey Greece and Cyprus were being provided by CIA In another year June 1973 biographic support to NBA on countries of the Middle East and North Africa was also being performed by CIA Finally in October 1973 assumed responsibility for pro viding NSA with biograpbic support to the of China Vietnam Cambodia Laos Korea Burma and Thailand E0 3 3b 3 PL 86 36 50 USC 3605 fir-WesDoc 6571846 I l- I- 0 'ae onen'rs Tia-5W p Em Laz k L1 is mm STATEMENT OF U S FILES By December 1973 these files had become inactive because their utility in answering questions had gradually diminished as Project was implemented in phases Additionally he- ltween early 1973 and October 1973 my Division was physically relocated three times into successively smaller work Spaces result ing in a loss of 3 200 sq ft In turn this loss dictated destruc tion of large quanitities 3 000 cu ft of information materials no lOnger considered necessary to our SIGINT support mission Furthermore my key researchers were collocated in an area where the files could not be accommodated This area contained Open source resource materials such as Who's Who commercial directories and other open source aids that are used to identify U S personalities With the Division's final move and space constriction of October 1974 I consulted with Mr Robert J Welday Chief C5 concerning the possible disposition of these files At the same time I informed him that when biographic information files covering the period of approximately 1940-1958 were reviewed during 1971 for final disposition neither the NSA SIGINT producers the NSA Historian nor CIA and DIA expressed any further requirement for such files Therefore Mr Welday approved the disposal of the U S bio graphic files because 1 they had ceased to be useful 2 no other element had previously registered any interest in their retention and 3 reduced work space would accommodate only the most necessary_resource materials __iwr as scooters L v 2 L ar E p 5 EVJ- ta-inn - -2 ulnv puma rm 5 I ll- 7- an 15                     National Security Archive    Suite 701  Gelman Library  The George Washington University    2130 H Street  NW  Washington  D C  20037    Phone  202 994‐7000  Fax  202 994‐7005  nsarchiv@gwu edu