Spycraft - Melton [48]
SECTION III
IN THE PASSING LANE
CHAPTER 7
Moving Through the Gap
Adversity is a good teacher.
—Russian proverb
The U-2 spy planes and Corona satellites that produced spectacular new intelligence from their successful first missions overshadowed the slow evolution of technology used by human spies in the early 1960s. TSD chief Sid Gottlieb, who replaced Russell in 1966, remained unwavering in this belief that technology would become an integral role in agent operations. During Russell’s four years in the division, the two officers had become lifelong friends and shared the view that the KGB’s massive security apparatus was vulnerable to U.S. technology. In the predigital, analog environment of the mid-1960s, this confidence in technology was not routinely accepted in the DDP.
Gottlieb continued to rely on George Saxe to bridge the gap between the operations and technology. As case officers began to use the increasing store of TSD equipment available, new problems arose. One recurring dilemma was communications between case officers and engineers. The cultural divide between the pragmatic engineers of TSD and the “liberal arts types” in the DDP was one not only of background, but of language.
Technology brought with it a vocabulary that was not always clear to the outsider. The potential for confusion was compounded by the already colorful espionage vernacular. This was illustrated when a case officer asked TDS to fabricate a “phone tap.” What he wanted was a device that logged the numbers dialed for outgoing calls to identify the contacts of a target. Hearing the words “phone tap,” TSD built a system that covertly taped the target’s conversations but did not collect the numbers dialed.
Gottlieb understood the necessity for operational compartmentation, but technical requirements had to be precisely translated if TSD was to build the right gear. Misuse of words, misunderstanding of technical concepts, lack of clearly defined operational requirements, and excessive application of compartmentation all contributed to operational failures. George’s job was to make sure that SR’s operational needs were well defined and clearly communicated to the engineers of TSD.
One significant step that Gottlieb took to bridge this gap was to invite George, as a representative of the SR Division, to TSD’s annual retreat. Convened at a covert testing and training facility on an island off the East Coast, the event was a chance for senior scientists, engineers, and craftsmen to let their hair down. A seemingly small thing in retrospect, George’s presence caused a stir at the time. “They’d sit in an auditorium in a group and say things like, ‘What I don’t like is that this group over there is not providing me the kind of support I need to do my job’ or ‘We have a new idea with a contractor, and we need fifty thousand bucks, but can’t get the money,’” recalled George. “So when I showed up, guys were pointing at me and saying, ‘Who let him in? An operations guy listening to us talk about our problems? ’ Gottlieb told them, ‘We need to have more trust with operational elements that we support. If he goes back and tells his people we have some problems, what else is new?’ That was an effort by a very smart director of TSD to break down the wall and get a better flow of information. I can’t overemphasize how revolutionary that was to people in TSD.”
The assignment of two senior DDP officers, Everett C. ’Neal and Quentin Johnson, as Gottlieb’s deputies, also served to build bridges between