m 'ifVlDm b tB slBl JlBV'if SmlB Lr DUlV $ DUl $ W $ lD $ f W Ul 1 lIJlD IBm Ul Jl1l J wm m U lE UlEoomlEm 0 0 EQ 1 4 c I 20 YEARS OF TRANSPOSITION o o k PROCESSINGi COMMUNICATIONS 1 o 7 THE VOYNICH MANUSCRIPT THIRD THEORY Doris Mi11er oo o oo o 10 TYPEWRITER RANDOM A NEW LOOK o o 12 A FIX FOR THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM John B Thomas J ro o 13 ABDUL AND HIS 40 TANKS o Frederic o Mas on Jr 17 LINGUISTS -- WE NEED AN EXPERTS YELLOW PAGES o o 1 I 19 LETTER TO THE EDITOR oo ooo o o o o 20 I 1 P L 86-36 o el_ifi d Ill BIR JSh SIISSS JSh SSSl I Ilia iI Bxempt lIm SBS BQ 1I 511 lIt 18 II Qulaellil '811 JIl8 iliellti811 hI tile f l ilillllt8 HIS B6etJMEN e6N lUNS e6BEW6ltB Mlt EItIAL Slaaailed Ill BIRHSl SIIQSS HSlJ SShllll8 8 Hxem raom 88S He 118S2 eateR Bat_if tJpon Notiftcatiou b the 8 iimalv Declassified and Approved for Release by NSA on '10-'1 '1- 20'1 2 pursuant to E O '135 26 vl DR Case # 54778 DOCID 4009723 TOP SECRET Published Monthly by PI Techniques and Standards for the Personnel of Operations AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 1975 YOLo II Nos 8 and 9 PUBLISHER WILLIAM LUTWINIAK BOARD OF EDITORS Editor in Chief Arthur J Salemme 56425 Cryptanalys is 1 Language Emery W Tetrault 52365 Special Research Yera R Filby 7119s Traffic Analysis Frederic O Mason Jr 41425 Production Manager I1c3571sJ 1 4998S For individual sUbscriptions send name and organizational designator to CRYPTOLOG PI 'FOP SECRET P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 TOt' SRCRR UMBRA Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Fage TOP SECRET UMBRA EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 --- -----_ _-----_ _- - OOCIO EOr -4 c P L 86-36 _ _- 4009723 'fOP SBCRB'f UMBR Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Page 2 OP SRCRRCf Ul lBRA DOCID 4009723 EO 1 4 c P L 86 ' 36 --- TOP SBCRBT UMBRA Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 3 'fOP SBCRB'f UMBRA DOCID 4009723 TOP SECRET U IBRA Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 4 'fOP SECRE'f UMBRA EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 4009723 'fOP SRCRR'f U IBRA Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 5 'fOP SHCRH'f UMBRA DOCID 4009723 'fOP SECRE'f UMBRA Have you ever seen puzzles in which the same series of letters slides or glides through all the words in the solution As in the following SAM P L E 1 2 3 4 S in the puzzle below roll the letters CRY through n page 12 roll PTO through And finally on age 20 try your luck at LOG-rolling 5 A M P L E A H I 5 A I S E S 5 A y T U s 5 A H C A B A 5 A 1 C R y 2 C R y C R y C R Y C R Y C R y C R 3 4 s 6 Letters used III I I II II II I I I III I I I AAA B C EE HH II L M P SSS T U 7 Y Letters used Definitions 1 2 3 4 5 Y AA Specimen Hebrew prophet Short literary compositions Fabric made of cultivated silk Percussion instrument made of a hollow gourd enclosed in a net of threaded beads for use in a Cuban band DDD NNNNN EEEEEE 0000 PP F GG III LLLL R SSS TTTT U X Definitions This type of puzzle is variously called slide-o-g ram glide-o-gram step-o-gram etc But the CRYPTOLOG editor thinKs that the letters do not slide glide or step at all Instead they roll through the words So 1 2 3 4 5 NSA publication Salts or esters of CH 2CHCOOH Encoded or enciphered Discovering A crystal foreign to the rock in which it occurs 6 possible trade name for a bread to be served at smorgasbord 2 words 7 In hot pursuit 3 words Puzzles on this page and pages 12 and 20 are UNCLASSIFIED Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 6 'fOP SECRE'I' UMBRA P L 86-36 ED 1 4 c DOCID 400912 -36 PRoCEssINCr-----TO-P8_ECR_ETU---- MB OMMUNICATIONS Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Page 7 TOP SBCRBT UMBRA EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 'fOP SECRE'f UMBRA Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Page 8 TOP SECItET tJMBItA EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 'I'DI' ECRE'I' U IBRA Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Page 9 'fOP SECRET UM8IM EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 UNCLASSIFIED When a newspaper editor needs a fiLLer he can always fall back on the Loch Ness Monster or the Abominable Snowman For the editor of a cryptologic magazine the obvious device is another blurb on the subject here discussed So 'evidently thought a former editor among whose effects the following paragraphs were found Is the Voynich manuscript real No Is it a hoax No What is it then A makebelieve--an elaborate fantasy produced purely for the satisfaction of the maker That was my reaction the first time I looked at it closely but faced with all the profound theories about it I lacked the courage to say so However a recent rereading of Elizabeth Friedman's article in the Washington Post August 5 1962 and of Brigadier Tiltman's paper in the NSA Technical Journal Summer 1967 plus some phenomena I have seen in the meantime have emboldened me to give the world the benefi t of my thoughts Some of the pertinent facts brought out in the above two sources are The exact number of symbols is uncertain because of what may be variant forms and also because some apparently single symbols may in fact be two Spacing appears to be random and punctuation completely absent Paragraphs nearly always begin with one of two favorite symbols which also occur frequently in the top lines of paragraphs where there is some extra space The number of different words is quite limited and the same vocabulary appears in all sections whether the content judged by the illustrations is botanical biological or astronomical The words average four and a half symbols each with very few of only one or two symbols or of over seven There are no erasures or corrections Some of the commonest words occur several times running but there are no repetitions of whole phrases such as would be expected in any scientific text Brigadier Tiltman concludes that this is no natural language Languages simply do not behave in this way On the other hand it is equally impossible for cryptologic reasons that it can be the result either of simple substitution or of transposition He draws no conclusions as to the nature of the text but in this story I will be the truth-telling child who says rashly and cheerfully The text is nonsense This theory has always been disparaged on the assumption that no one would go to such lengths to produce a book without meaning Who would have the time and the patience What would be the point Well first the book presumably had some meaning for the originator but this meaning may be in the pictures rather than in the text As for time-- All through history many people have had more time than they knew what to do with prisoners invalids unmarried aunts in well-to-do families Empty hours stretched on into empty years frightening years and a long long project would be somethirig to cherish Suppose an imaginative woman chose to take up drawing instead of needlework or suppose that a prisoner of state had a flair for art and suppose that either of these being illiterate not unlikely at that time but quite capable of imitating writing decided to pass the time by creating a splendid book A model book so to speak It makes as much sense as dollhouses or boats in bottles and you can make it lifesize Or suppose that a country gentleman of means and learning has suffered an illness that leaves him slightly balmy He spends his days in the field communing with the flowers or in his study painting impressions of them Look at those plants They are lurid even menacing like Van Gogh's sunflowers they are larger than life with an animal shagginess and strength about them and look as if they might well have dictated the whole project themselves He spends his evenings communing with the stars and depicting them Neither his planets nor his plants bear much resemblance to reality but he is living an intense inner life He decides to make a book The writing skill remains in his fingers but his brain no longer remembers the connection between the signs and the sounds So he develops an alphabet of his own of signs he enjoys making and fills up the book with what amounts to psycholcgical random groups of these At his death his family quietly lays the book away and when it discovered years later no one any longer knows its history Creative but frustrated people adopt strange means of self-expression In Watts California stands a group of towers--the tallest a hundred feet high--built by a poor tilesetter out of steel rods mesh and mortar and covered with Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 10 UNCLASSIFIED DOCID 4009723 UNCLASSIFIED mosaics made of bits of tiles dishes bottles and seashells It took him 33 years working without aplan without assistance without sC lffolding--climbing as he built with a windowwasher's belt Then he gave the land to a neighbor and moved away Why did he work so long on a useless fantasy I had in mind to do something big he said and I did The Gift of Tongues Glossolalia issued by the Scepter Company purports to be the voice of a man speaking in tongues It takes the hearer only a few minutes to become convinced that the man is inventing the sounds do not pour out spontaneously but hal tingly and lamely with an embarrassing amount of repetition Is the speaker a fraud Not necessarily he may naively suppose that this ability to invent In the Smithsonian Institution stands the is actually the fabled gift of tongues and that Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Mil- even though he has to search for the sounds lenium General Assembly a room-sized composi- the Power that permits him to find them also tion of chairs tables pedestals cardboard knows their meaning cutouts old jelly glasses used light bulbs In any case why assume a message where pieces of mirror--all covered with gold and silver foil and assembled into an astonishing there is no evidence of one Visually the pages are a joy and if the text turns out to and magnificent structure It was built over be written glossolalia or abstract art why a period of 14 years by a Washington laborer not in a garage he rented for the purpose and was discovered only after his death Its purpose or I had in mind to do something big says meaning is unknown the author and I did But you may say they at least produced something tangible--a work of art So did the maker of the Voynich manuscript--a fascinating Yes we do have a copy of this famous work of art and the text may serve the same manuscript in the Crypt Library Room purpose as the mosaics on the towers or the 3WO 6 and you may like to go and see foil-covered bulbs on the Throne --it is part it But there are a lot of other things of the general effect in there more worthwhile -- in fact we've It is possible of course that the writer also harbored a secret hope A record called been trying for some time to get an article on the library Any volunteers Photograph by Charles Phillips courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 11 UNCLASSIFIED DOCID 4009723 8BCRE'f P L T E R TYPEWR RANDOM L 0 0 K 86-36 A KEEP ON ROLLING NEW ----------- ----- I l P T a 2 p T a p T a p T a p T a p T a p T 3 4 5 6 The right hand-left hand test for possible 'typewriter random generation of key is an old standby We might apply another test involving movement to the right or to the left on the keyboard Under the two tests quite different interpretations would arise concerning the following group Text Right hand-left hand Directional 86960 RRRRR LRLR One theory would be that the right hand only was used in typing the group since numbers 6 through 0 are normally typed with the right hand Another possibility is that a twofingered hunt-and-peck typist used his two fingers alternately 7 a Letters used A NNN CC EEEEE GGG 00 P RR S H 1111111 LLL M TTTTT UU V W Y Definitions 1 Of or relating to the Greco-Egyptian rulers of Egypt from 323 B C to 30 B C 2 Those those live in the residential section of a city 3 Walking or proceeding quietly or cautiously 4 Popular monthly 5 Incapable of performing something 4 words 6 The highest degree or extent 2 words 7 Utter 3 words UNCLASSIFIED The equiprobable measure does not apply when the directional test is used e g there are millions of ways to produce RLRLRLRLR but only one case gives RRRRRRRRR Random probabilities have been computed for trinomes tetranomes and pentanomes The probabilities labeled with are for text in which groups with doublets the hits category have been retained The without probabilities apply when groups with doublets are not counted TRINOMES With Without LL LR RL RR Hits 12 285 285 12 19 148 352 352 148 TETRANOMES With Without LLL LLR LRL LRR RLL RLR RRL RRR Hits 021 087 1695 087 087 1695 087 021 271 029 119 233 119 119 233 119 029 PENTANOMES With Without LLLL LLLR LLRL LLRR LRLL LRLR LRRL LRRR RLLL RLLR RLRL RLRR RRLL RRLR RRRL RRRR Hits 00252 01638 04938 02892 04938 10317 06192 01638 01638 06192 10317 04938 02892 04938 01638 00252 3439 0038 0250 0753 0441 0753 1572 0944 0250 0250 0944 1572 0753 0441 0753 0250 0038 SECRET IIvcce Cell FI 8ElH I 'I b Aug-Sept 7GBP CRYPTOLOG Page 12 8BCRE'f t 4I'JLE 'IIA C8MIN'f' CIIMHlEbS 81lbY EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 SISCRB'F AFIX FOR THE LANGUAGE PROBLEM JOHN B THOMAS JR Special Assistant Language A9 An old hand pr oposes a management tool that might be of help to deal with a per ennial bucket of W01'71lS P - - _ Mille a ticle --- - __ Doris Lai ge and the COMINT Production Process NSA Technical Jow' nal Summer 1974 falls nacefullv intol I f I category of What oft was thought but ne'er so well express'd It is for good reason that that article won the First Prize in the Crypto-Linguistic Association's 1975 Essay Contest I would like to expand this subject in the same general vein by supplying a kind of postscript dealing with some specific points about voice language work and the role of the military examining the paradox If these ideas were indeed oft thought why hasn't more been done about them We need all the help we can gEij Q Jcffltmial identification J ailid a y-c tIher possible selection processes need to be exploi ted suggesting a methodology and management to the fullest to put the best possible interposture by which the working linguist's cept the richest of all the ore before the and the working linguist-manager's transcriber wisdom and observations can be converted Does everyone fully realize that until the from a still small voice into a real magical machine transcriber appears the help for higher management voice language processor is the valve through Looking first to the voice problem I would which the whole production stream must flow caution that we are on shifting ground in this Some realize it and apply the unfair pejorative area Miss Miller discusses things that speterm bottleneck to him But the term is pascialists almost unanimously feel should be done sive whereas the transcriber is active In She considers the problem to be one of enlight-fact only in the degree to which he is active ening and persuading management to put some is any intelligence possiple And a person carryforce behind the ideas she projects The voice ing out a key that is critical process deserves problem on the other hand I think finds even to be recognized with at least a positive-sounding specialists with more uncertainty about stanterm Key processor sounds awkward but it is dards and procedures This is no wonder certainly accurate The Voice Explosion is terrifYin I--------' ------ --------------------------------------- I I You zip voice tracks L b-a-c-k-a-n-d--f-o-r-t-h i-n f a-n-C-y-m-a lchine s and then you get more fancy machines to zip printed transcripts back and forth But no machine can prDduce a transcript Finally you bite the bullet and admit that the human transcriber remains Ithe heart of the busines iI Aug Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 13 SeCR T EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 lIANBJ E VIA e811Hl'f ellMHlEJ 5 Q lbX DOCID 4009723 St3CRB Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page l4 EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 SECR8T II lH 1LE VIA C8 o1IllT CHMIIlEb6 8JlbJPY P L 86 - 36 DOCID 4009723 SECRET Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 15 iCRiT MNDLE VIA EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 C OMll 1 c 111tI I4 L ONLY DOCID 4009723 SECftE'f eEERET IIJPYEee SA ON-LINE ACCESS TO OUTSIDE SOURCES OF INFORMATIO OCilC Ohio Collegc Library Center Columbus Ohio Book collections of 400 Libraries lin nework Location of terminal Room 2NL1l 4084s NYT An article on NSA's computer nework resources will appear in a future issue of CRYPTOLOG UNCLASSIFIED ' New York Times Data New York N Y Index to NYT and certain other publications Loc ation of terminal Room 2C05l 3358s Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 16 SECIU T IIA iB E 'iIA eeMm'f EltArmEbS ems EO 1 4 c --p C -86-36 DOCID 4009723 SECRECf EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 17 8 CKJi1T 1tJ 1 OLt VflIe eOmrff elb'dtlNELS em Y DOCIO I 4009723 Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 18 SECRE'f EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 Ititlt5Lf Ii 1ft eet'IIN'f elhltlfNELS 8JlbY DOCID 4009723 8BCREI' P L 86-36 LINGUISTS WE NEE D AN EXPERTS If1LOW PAGES l L I Time was when a translator had to be extra careful when dealing with the difference between request and demand or with the exact rendition into English to indicate just how miffed or mad or scared the original drafter of the message had been Life was simple then or so it seems now The subjeet matter in the messages was general liberal arts although the language of diplomacy was always much more precise than the language appearing in the daily press But U S interests are a bit more complex and technical now and so are the subjects that our message texts deal with Our generalpurpose dictionaries or even our specialized dictionaries are neither up to date nor up to it Simultaneous interpreters advise us to study in advance English-language reference aids dealing in general with the subject matter that is likely to be discussed in the foreign language But we NSA-ers can't always do this Not when a single translator might have to deal with s eei ies of Aug-Sept 7S CRYPTOLOG Page 19 SECRET IIANQ E Vllt E811IIff EIJA-IIliEhS 8 1 '' EO 1 4 c P L 86-36 DOCID 4009723 SI3CRB'f SPt KE Letter to the Editor To the Editor CRYPTOLOG Hurrah for CRYPTOLOG This little monthly technical publication offers all of us SIGINTers a much-needed informal forum for the exchange of ideas particularly for highly controversial subjects in need of clarification and resolution In this process of written debate we all have an opportunity to express an opposing viewpoint thereby bringing closer a consensus of understanding that we can all subscribe to The major ingredient required is that the proponent know something about the subject matter involved Unfortunately some of the writers state their views with conviction based upon limited background experience Such views can be dangerous because they are frequently misleading and sometimes utterly wrong The latter type of erroneous view requires an immediate rebuttal before it gains even minimal credence The anonymous letter in the June issue of CRYPTOLOG deriding my earlier letter in the May issue is just such a letter riddled with fallacies -- not just one but THREE at least It's fortunate for the author that he did not sign his name to such a gaffe 1 Nowhere in my letter is there a hint or intent to belittle the contribution or value of the cryptanalysts I have the highest respect for their specialized expertise but really they are not always needed in the exploitation of codes or charts LANGUAGE IN tHE NEWS j A- I tho words W au- lill l'Iz 'd to descend only to '-I 4un fect unlil it 'rossed a l3 j i f3tlOn pomt kn 'n as Hound Washln ton PO lt Starr WritC'r Hill Tl1cn it could dru to 1 The National Transponation PoOr 'ct 311 1 'ortinur i Jl'I' g Safety Board moved yesterday r i u I' 1 the 'LII V '- 'b to r pair one of the most poA rc ' lil' or lI ' 1 C'511 l' tentlally dangerous flaws in l n ' r tlOlls that wns re- I U S aviation-the possibility ' P from th wr0 'ki e I' that piJots and air traffic con- iw 1 th At ere - ' Dlt'P T troller might not understand hrierlY deb3ted thl' l1le ning' I each otber o o o I of those instructio' as Liley Tb misundf 'r t lndjng in looked _at their na 'igationnl i the TWA cra h was of th0 ellal ts o o o o I terms e1eared for appra ch DIlfC'l'l'ni pi ' wi l0 test t I o o o- thf' ron- fied at the hrRrlllg gan' cJjHf'l I trollrr at Dull ' told the ent int ' 'I'ret tior s of wh l plane You'r0 cleal' r lor cll'aren Lor approach meant I approach to runway 01' tlCO to them oooo f d j' W SIII GIll' PO f' 1III 'ant that tile p13110 I - - ri-irI ' Ju'yl 19 By Douglas B Feaver I I U I LAST CHANCE 1 L 0 G 2 L 0 G L 0 G L 0 G L 0 G L 0 G L 0 3 5 6 2 Mr Noname makes his worst error and most damning self-indictment of his technical knowledge by assuming that I 7 G Letters used ecce AA B NN 00000 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 DD EEE G HH III MM T UU YYY Z PPPP R SSS Definitions A dispute over words Express tersely or as to induce action or instill opinion or belief Inflammation especially of external parts of the body Freed from Obstructions Of or relating to soil science of or relating to child study Phrenology usually used disparagingly Guess 3 The bookbreaker ' 4 c _ I He does it by deductive reasoning hard painstaking work and the maximum use of his language skill and background knowledge of the target Time and space do not permit me to comment on Mr Noname' s statement about true SIGINT production I'll take a rain check for that one __ _ _ ------- eHCRET SP8IEE P L 86-36 In case you fell off somewhere the answers to all three puzzles will appear in next month's issue UNCLASSIFIED Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG 'Pac e 20 SECRBT SPOKE DOCID 4009723 UNCLASSIFIED Your contribution does not have to be typed we'll give preference to content over form every time Though especially in the case of a long piece the editorial eye will appreciate any effort you can make in that direction--garbles and strikeovers freely forgiven Bo you happen to have a news item a comment or a tip that is no more than a paragraph Or perhaps you have an article of several thousands words Long or short if it has something worthwhile to say we I 11 print it For your interest and guidance one page of typescript double-spaced makes about one column in CRYPTOLOG First-person articles or stories about your own experiences are welcome So long as they relate to our work See Busman' s Holiday in August 74 issue ff _ Want anonymity A thoughtful ' 'Piece on a subject of interest to many readers will be con sidered for anonymous publi cation if the writer requests it The writer must however identify himself to the editor in an accompanying note or by a personal call Needless to say personal or trivial complaints will not be considered l I Photographic illustrations can be reproduced at the same quality as those in the NSA Newsletter Something missing If you feel that your work or your interests are not being well represented in CRYPTOLOG it's probably because you and your friends He not contributing The editors earnestly Ivant to cover the whole territory but ' articles don't grow on trees y'know Somebody who knows the subject matter has to write them Need assistance You may have an idea or some notes or even a half-finished paper that you feel has possibilities but you don't quite know what to do with A call to the a propriate departmental editor will get you a story conference and possibly inspire you to finish it up and get it into print SMTWTFS Sensitive materials No We'll go all the way to Top Secret Codeword but we have to draw the line at compartmented or otherwise exclusive sources I I Our deadline is theoretically the middle 1920 of the month the 15th 26 2'7 2 0 of August for publication in October and so on but don't let that stop you if something good comes along on the 16th And anyhow this is a monthly publication if you miss this month's deadline you'll be just in time for next month's CRYPTOLOG See you 1 15-w-i - Aug-Sept 75 CRYPTOLOG Page 21 UNCLASSIFIED Pl-Aug 75 53-240-l 999% This document is from the holdings of The 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