CALENDAR

Human Complex Systems 19
Espionage, Cryptology
& Psychological Operations
(Spies, Secrets & Deception)
gessler@ucla.edu
Winter 2006

Required:

• 10 Hours of classroom time.
• (you can miss two classes, max).
• 20 Hours of other time.

Movies to see:

• Syriana
• Munich

DVD and VHS Resources: Abbreviated Titles and Times.
Available at the Instructional Media Laboratory.
Total viewing time 457 minutes (less than 8 hours).

Post your comments for each on our "Discussion Board:"
(Insights, revelations, concerns, relationship to current events, provocations.)

Contemporary Issues (Cold War and War on Terror):

• The Recruit: Access Bonus: Spy School - Inside the CIA Training Program (16m).
• Top Secret: Inside the World's Most Secret Agencies: National Security Agency (50m)
• Spies, Lies & Treason: Bonus Audio: Chris Andrew, MI5 - The KGB & the USA - Coldwar Secrets (45m).

Historical Issues (World War II):

• Breaking the Codes: The Rise of Enigma, 1916. (71m)
• Breaking Codes: The Triumph of the Codebreakers, 1940. (74m)
• Spies: Codebreaking: Ultra Spies File. (22m)
• Spies: Codebreaking: Magician & the Samurai File. (24m)
• Decoding Nazi Secrets. (120m)
• U-571: Bonus Materials: 2nd Screen: Inside the Enigma. (8m)
• U-571: Bonus Materials: 2nd Screen: Britain Captures the U-110. (9m)
• U-571: Bonus Materials: 2nd Screen: A Submariner's WWII Experience. (9m)
• U-571: Bonus Materials: 2nd Screen: Capturing the U-505. (9m)

January 11 - INTRODUCTION
Information, Misinformation and Disinformation.

CD: The Conet Project: Number Stations
An introduction to cryptology: cryptography, steganography, cryptanalysis.
Transposition and substitution ciphers: cleartext/plaintext - cryptotext/ciphertext
From the Collection: The American M-94 Cipher Device and the M-125-3MN Fialka.

Some propaganda leaflets: a portfolio...
Espionage: Films to see: Syriana and Munich.

DVD: "Spy School: Inside the CIA Training Program" with Chase Brandon, CIA. An "access bonus" feature on the DVD The Recruit.

Discussion Board Challenge #1:
Read Richard Johnson's, "Principles of Operation and Historical Precedence" chapter from his Seeds of Victory - Psychological Warfare and Propaganda, Shiffer Publishing, Atglen, PA (1997). Then peruse Lee Richards' illustrated database on Psywar.org which catalogs over 160 examples of aerial propaganda dropped in Iraq. Discuss some of the leaflets. What are the messages designed to do? Are they culturally appropriate or effective?

We Screen: The Recruit: Access Bonus: Spy School - Inside the CIA Training Program. (16m)

January 18

Participation is based upon Discussion Board Challenges, classroom presentations and class discussions. You may not miss more than two classes. Cryptology software.

DVD: Breaking the Codes: The Rise of Enigma. (Are there precedents in history for the NSA's current operations?)

Discussion Board Challenge #2:
Find a substantial article on the Internet dealing with the news of NSA spying on Americans and include a link to it. Read David Kahn's, "Big Ear or Big Brother" (1976) and Stephen Schlesinger's, "Codebreaking... and the Birth of the United Nations" (1995). How are the events under discussion related to one another (precedents, pros & cons, methods, issues, etc.)?

The Second Hour (Optional): Build your own Website using DreamWeaver and CuteFTP! This is a wonderful presentation tool, useful in this class and in others...

January 25

Cell Phones: Testimony from Iraq and Afghanistan...

3 Days of the Condor: 1975 - Our Interests in the Middle East:

• 3 Days of the Condor: Chapter 14, "Oil Fields..." (4m)
• 3 Days of the Condor: Chapter 16, "Telling Stories..." (4m)

Discussion, and items in the NEWS on CNN:
Official Secret: George Bush's comments on bombing Al Jazeera...
Russia: British Used Fake Rock to Spy...
Bush Officials Ratchet Up Defense of Domenstic Spying...

CNN - Bush to Visit Super-Secret Spies.
We Screen: Top Secret: Inside the World's Most Secret Agencies: National Security Agency. (50m)

February 1

From Dave... Is there such a thing as an ethical spy? .
New York Times
Chicago Tribune
On the legality of spying on Americans:
FISA: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (1978)
USA Act : Uniting and Strengthening of America Act (2001)
US vs. Bin-Laden (2000)

Wikipedia: Van Eck Phreaking.

Alphabetic Substitution Ciphers:
Mono Alphabetic and Keys. Letter Frequency.
Poly Alphabetic and Keys.
The Vernan Cipher, One-Time-Pad, (One-Time-Tape). Random One-Time-Keys.
Cryptology Collection.
Cryptology Simulations.

February 8

Raleigh International Spy Conference
Gonzales defends Bush's NSA Spy Program
Fake European propaganda movie hits Austria and Bologna
Dissimulation and Simulation

Chris Andrew: "Five Controversial but Secure Propositions."

1. That some KGB operations in the US were far better than most Americans ever thought.
2. Also that they were significantly worse than the American intelligence community feared.
3. That KGB operations in the United States were more dangerous than anyone thought.
4. That the KGB was at its most dangerous when it was performing badly, rathar than it was when it was performing well.
5. That the KGB made a modest but significant contribution both to ending the Cold War and to bringing down the Soviet system.

Simulations - Collections
Poly Alphabetic Ciphers and Keys revisited: Jefferson Wheel.
The Vernan Cipher:
Random One-Time-Keys (One-Time-Pad or One-Time-Tape): Hagelin CX-52.
Pseudo-Random keys: Reihenschieber, Hagelin M-209.
Key Management.
Steganography.

February 15

"Ethics & Intelligence 2006," the "official" site. Thanks to Allison.
Note on a new book: "The Ethics of Spying" by Jan Goldman.

Commentary on Gillo Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers:" The Battle ofr Algiers: A Case Study with Richard A. Clarke and Michael A. Sheehan, moderated by Christopher E. Isham. Special feature on Special Edition DVD.

The October 2005 "drawings" and their republication in Egypt. Iran invites cartoons on the US, Israel and the Holocaust.

The Challenge: MUNICH:

• Read Neal Ascherson's essay in the Guardian on Gillo Pontecorvo's "Battle of Algiers" and Steve Spielberg's "Munich."
• Read the "Potential Working Groups" topics at "Ethics & Intelligence 2006."
• Go see the film Munich! It is playing at the Crest theater in Westwood and many other locations.
• Pick one of the topics and discuss it with reference to the movie and the Guardian essay.
• Turn in your essay and the movie theatre ticket stub next week!

February 22

• Declassification in reverse: secret document reclassification program.
• Great Britain admits to allowing CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights.
• General counsel of the US Navy, Alberto Mora's report.
• US covert propagandizing in Iraq still continues.

MUNICH: Analyses of mindsets of espionage, propaganda, insurgency and counterinsurgency. The characters.

• Understanding does not entail committment:
• THE ART OF WAR. 3:18 "Know your enemy and know yourself..."
• Ethics: The evaluation of one's actions based on their anticipated effects in maximizing the values placed upon a conflicting set of goals. (c.f. Working Groups on Ethics.)

A decryption exercise: 1907 Post Card. (Scroll down to the bottom.)

March 1

Script for Munich (courtesy of Gracelyn)

Some Interesting Surveillance Methods: Optical Emission Security:
Frequently Asked Questions

Conference Paper
Optical Tempest

A MonoAlphabetic Substitution Cipher: "The Postcard:"
Your strategies and solutions?
A decompiler's solution: Fred Brandes: Worksheet 1 - Worksheet 2 - Key
My solution: The Card - The Transcription - The Solution.

A PolyAlphabetic Substitution Cipher: "The Bliss Cipher."
The alphabet changes with each word.

A Pseudo-Random Key PolyAlphabetic Substituion Cipher: "The Reihenschieber."
The alphabet changes with each letter.
A short group of "settings" generates the key, mimicing the Vernam cipher.

Code Tables: The "British Artillery Code" and "Slidex."

READINGS:
Jan Goldman's, ETHICS OF SPYING - A READER FOR THE INTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL (2006):
Appendix A: "Principles, Creeds, Codes and Values."
"Guarding against Politicization - A Message to Analysts," by Robert M. Gates.

1. Can we systematize ethical considerations by charting differing values placed on differing goals?
2. What about "us" and "them?" How do we account for "other" peoples' ways of thinking, the foreign perceptions, beliefs, values and goals of "other" cultures?
3. How can we discover the "truth?" This is a question of utmost importance to all the social sciences as well as to any informed citizen.
4. What if we are kept from seeing "the big picture" by "need to know" information management? How can we make "ethical" decisions when we don't fully understand what's going on? This is also a question of great relevance to the social sciences: the difference between "local" and "global" knowledge.

CRITIQUE: Based on the Goldman readings, see if you can address at least question #1: Chart the values and goals of the various US Intelligence organizations. Also include those articulated by the characters in Munich. Write down your ideas and be prepared to discuss them in class and turn them in next week.

March 6

Movie View

Online amateurs crach Nazi codes...

Discussion of the ethics of spying:

1. What are the ethical VALUES that each department holds central to its charter?
2. What is the relative IMPORTANCE they place on each of those values?
3. How do they MEASURE (determine) whether a VALUE is being met?

How would you organize a one-unit course such as this? What would you expect? What would you like to do, see, hear?

READINGS:
Jack Davis, "Improving Intelligence Analysis at the CIA" (2005).
Rob Johnston, "Analytical Culture in the US Intelligence Community - Findings" (1999).

CRITIQUE: Based on the Davis and Johnston readings, see if you can address questions #2, 3 & 4: What are the "big" problems that confront our knowledge of our own culture and the cultures of "others?" How do we identify the "truth?" How do we go about upgrading our "local" knowledge to a "global" knowledge of the world? Write down your ideas and be prepared to discuss them in class and turn them in next week.

March 13

Winston Churchill:

• "In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."
• "It is a fine thing to be hones, but it s also very important to be right."

Discussion on gaining reliable intelligence - how do we discover truth?
Local versus Global knowledge and selective attention...
Visual awareness: Daniel J. Simons' Visual Cognition Lab.

The Fialka is running...

Coffee and cookies.

A pitch for the Human Complex Systems Program.

Many thanks for many interesting Wednesdays...
Good luck with your exams!