OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION (Revised):

ESPIONAGE, CRYPTOLOGY, PSYOPS
An exploration of the cultural context of spies, codes and psychological operations from the perspectives of anthropology, complexity and multiple agency, towards understanding how the tradecrafts of intelligence and disinformation shaped, and continue to shape us and our information technologies.  We work with historic and contemporary, previously classified and open sources, case studies and multimedia, including hands-on practice with propaganda leaflets, cryptographic machines and cryptanalysis, to explain the roles of networks of trust, secrecy and deception in cultural coevolution.  No prerequisites.  Instructor: Gessler.

SYNOPSIS:

This course explores the culture and technology of the intelligence community from the combined perspectives of anthropology, computation, cognition and complexity.  It examines the secret “black world” networks of trust, secrecy and deception as macrocosms of processes that take place in all cultures at all levels of organization.  From anthropology, we view culture as an integrated whole, comprised of individuals with both similar and different thoughts, alliances and behaviors interacting with one another, their physical technologies and their natural environments.  We explore the origins and continued development of computation which owes much of its advancement to the competition among the intelligence agencies of adversarial nations.  We focus on distributed cultural cognition, which situates thought not only in an individual’s head, but also in the body, and in the material and physical (technological) world as well as in the social and natural environment.  Our view is that all cultures and all human endeavors are complex phenomena which can only be partially understood by single-cause linear explanations.  Our approach is explicitly multi-agent (we avoid aggregate cultural descriptions) and is explicitly multi-causal (we seek coevolutionary parallel descriptions).  As part of the growing philosophies and epistemologies of computation and evolution, we examine how the interaction of individuals operating under local rules leads hierarchically to emergent global patterns of behavior, and how those entailed global behaviors feed back into individuals. Our course meets in Perkins Library, Link Classroom #6, fully equipped with multimedia and 25 high-end PCs.  Our classroom is a setting for research.  Activities will include surfing the web for relevant documents from government archives and private collections and investigating relevant incidents in the news.  We will interact with simulations for emulating cryptographic devices and software for facilitating cryptography and cryptanalysis.  We will work hands-on with a collection of cryptographic machines and propaganda leaflets from World War II and the Gulf War.  Students will gain experience in monitoring and describing various encrypted shortwave radio communications in real time. This course is designed to provide some of the models of complex human interaction which we will implement as “artificial culture” in a companion course in computer simulation entitled “Artificial Life, Culture and Evolution” (ISIS-072).

Participants must keep copies of everything that they turn in.  None of it will be returned.  Selected research findings will form the basis of a growing body of material which we will collaboratively develop for future versions of this and related courses.  In addition to lecture, discussion and laboratory formats, the course also serves as a research seminar focused on the generation of new knowledge.

GRADING:

Grading is based upon demonstrated engagement and involvement with the course, its philosophy, subject matter and activities, as evidenced by attendance, participation, assignments, challenges, tests, quizzes and a course project.  Since there are NO prerequisites, consideration will be given to improvement.  Excellence in certain facets of the course may outweigh weaknesses in others.  The course cumulatively integrates theory with practice, building upon material presented weekly.  Consequently, the course project and later work will carry significantly greater weight in grading.  There is NO final exam,

The following grading scheme is subject to change based upon the above and other considerations:
Attendance & Participation          30%
Assignments & Challenges            30%
Tests & Quizzes                          10%
Course Project                            30%
TOTAL                                      100%   

COSTS:

Participants will be expected to purchase their own writable optical disks (12 CD-ROMs) and one USB memory stick, and to cover the costs of printing (including color) the materials they turn in.

ACTIVITIES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM:

Some hands-on activities will be held in our ALiCE laboratory in Bay 12 of the Smith Tobacco Warehouse on East Campus.  Participants will also be expected to spend some late nights and early mornings operating a shortwave receiver situated in Bay 11 the Smith Tobacco Warehouse on East Campus.  We will be monitoring the air for encrypted “numbers stations” and similar transmissions and making recordings for analysis.  It is not expected that we will be able to decrypt any of them but we will analyze their days and times for traffic flow, their formats, sources of transmission and other characteristics as well as contributing this information to international cataloging efforts.

BOOKS:
Required Books: Narratives from those working in the black world: (available from the bookstore - check ABEBooks and other sources for the best prices)

1. Olive, Ronald J. CAPTURING JONATHAN POLLARD - How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice. Naval Institute Press (2009). Available from Naval Institute Press for $18.95.
2. Carmichael, Scott W. TRUE BELIEVER - Inside the Investigation and Capture of Ana Montes, Cuba's Master Spy. Naval Institute Press (2009). Available from Naval Institute Press for $17.95.
3. McIntosh, Elizabeth P. SISTERHOOD OF SPIES - The Women of the OSS. Naval Institute Press (2009). Available from Naval Institute Press for $18.95.
4. Wilson, Valerie Plame. FAIR GAME - My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House. Simon & Schuster (2007).

Suggested Books: On the sciences of cryptology and illusion: (available from the bookstore - check ABEBooks and other sources for the best prices)

1. Bauer, F.L. ECRYPTED SECRETS - Methods and Maxims of Cryptology. Springer (1997).
2. Macknik, Stephen & Susana Martinez-Cionde. SLEIGHTS OF MIND - What the Neuroscience of Magic reveals about our everyday deceptions. Henry Holt (2010).

Other readings are included on the "Course Documents" page in BLACKBOARD.

COURSE RESOURCES:

Insofar as possible, we will make all readings available online.  Much material is already hosted on the Web by government and private sources and new ones are appearing every day.  We will upload current content regularly.  We will try to make rare and out-of-print material available as well.  Clearly, there is much more material available for this course than we can cover in a single term, so we will include only a few sampled from sources like the following books, URLs, museums, audio-visual material and collections:

ANTHROPOLOGY, COMPLEXITY & COGNITION:

Bertalanffy, Ludwig von.  ROBOTS, MEN AND MINDS – PSYCHOLOGY IN THE MODERN WORLD.  George Braziller (1967).
Coombs, Leslie.  FIGHTING COCKPITS 1914-2000.  MBI (1999).
D’Andrade, Roy.  THE DEVELOOPMENT OF COGNITIVE ANTHROPOLOGY.  Cambridge (1995).
Forrester, Jay.  “Counterintuitive Behavior of Social Systems.”  In SIMULATION, February 1971, pp. 61-76.
Harris, Marvin.  THE NATURE OF CULTURAL THINGS.  Random House (1964).
Harris, Marvin.  Theories of Culture in Postmodern Times.  Altamira Press, Sage (1999).
Huer, Richards J., Jr.  Psychology of Intelligence Analysis.  Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency (1999).
Hutchins, Edwin.  COGNITION IN THE WILD.  MIT Press (1995).
Johnson, Rob.  Analytical Culture in the U.S. Intelligence Community: An Ethnographic Study.Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency (2005).
Kuznar, Lawrence.  RECLAIMING A SCIENTIFIC ANTHROPOLOGY.  Altamira (1997).
Minsky, Marvin.  SOCIETY OF MIND.  Simon & Schuster (1986).
Price, David H.  Threatening Anthropology: McCarthyism and the FBI’s Surveillance of Activist Anthropologists.  Duke (2004).
Tooby, John and Leda Cosmides.  “The Psychological Foundations of Culture.”  In THE ADAPTED MIND, Oxford (1992).

COMPUTATION:

Copeland, Jack et al.  COLOSSUS – THE SECRETS OF BLETCHLEY PARK’S CODEBREAKING COMPUTERS.  Oxford (2006).
Fleck, Glen (editor).  A COMPUTER PERSPECTIVE – BY THE OFFICE OF CHARLES & RAY EAMES.  Harvard University Press (1973).
Rojas, Raúl and Ulf Hashagen.  THE FIRST COMPUTERS – HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURES.  MIT Press (2000).
Teuscher, Christof (editor).  ALAN TURING: LIFE AND LEGACY OF A GREAT THINKER.  Springer (2004).

ESPIONAGE – HUMAN INTELLIGENCE (HUMINT):

Allen, Thomas B.  Declassified: 50 Top-Secret Documents that Changed History.  National Geographic (2008).
Carmichael, Scott W.  True Believer: Inside the investigation and capture of Ana Montes, Cuba’s Master Spy.  Naval Institute Press (2009).
Gertz, Bill.  Enemies: How America’s Foes Steal our Vital Secrets – and How We Let it Happen.  Three Rivers (2006).
Goldman, Jan.  ETHICS OF SPYING – A READER FOR THEINTELLIGENCE PROFESSIONAL.  Scarecrow Press (2006).
Hamilton, Tim.  Identification Friend or Foe: Being the Story of Aircraft Recognition.  MHSO, London (1994).
MacIntyre, Ben.  Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal.  Three Rivers Press (2007).
McIntosh, Elizabeth.  SISTERHOOD OF SPIES – THE WOMEN OF THE OSS.  Naval Institute Press (1998).
McNamara, Joel.  Secrets of Computer Espionage: Tactics and Countermeasures.  Wiley (2003).
Olive, Ronald J.  Capturing Jonathan Pollard: How One of the Most Notorious Spies in American History Was Brought to Justice.  Naval Institute Press (2006).
Scott, James.  The Attack on the Liberty: The Untold Story of Israel’s Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship.  Simon & Schuster (2009).
Wallace, Robert and H. Keith Melton.  Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs from Communism to Al-Qaeda.  Dutton (2008).
Weiser, Benjamin.  A SECRET LIFE – THE POLISH OFFICER, HIS COVERT MISSION, AND THE PRICE HE PAID TO SAVE HIS COUNTRY.  Public Affairs (2004).

CRYPTOLOGY - SIGNALS INTELLIGENCE (SIGINT):

Anon, editor.  Cuban Missile Crisis Release: Volume Two.  (Original documents).  National Security Agency (1998).
Bauer, F.L.  Decrypted Secrets: Methods and Maxims of Cryptology.  Springer (1997).
Benson, Robert Lewis and Michael Warner, editors.  Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response 1939-1957.  National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency (1996).
deBrosse, Jim and Colin Burke.  THE SECRET IN BUILDING 26 – THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICA’S ULTRA WAR AGAINST THE U-BOAT ENIGMA CODES.  Random House (2004).
Burns, Thomas L.  The Quest for Cryptologic Centralization and the Establishment of the NSA: 1940-1952.  United States Cryptologis History, Series V, The Early Postwar Period, 1945-1952, Volume VI.  Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency (2005).
Cole, Eric.  HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT – STEGANOGRAPHY AND THE ART OF COVERT COMMUNICATION.  John Wiley (2003).
Cryptologia: A Journal Devoted to All Aspects of Cryptology.  Various issues and publishers (1977-present).
Gaddy, David W.  Essential matters: A History of the Cryptographic Branch of thePeople’s Army of Viet-Nam, 1945-1975.  Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency (1994).
Gaddy, David, editor.  The Friedman Legacy: A Tribute to William and Elizebety Friedman.  Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency (2006).
Hanyok, Robert J.  Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945.  United States Cryptologis History, Series IV, Volume 9.  Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency (2005).
Heath, Laura.  AN ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEMIC SECURITY WEAKNESSES OF THE U.S. NAVY FLEET BROADCASTING SYSTEM, 1967-1974, AS EXPLOITED BY CWO JOHN WALKER.  Master of Military Art & Science Thesis, Georgia Institute of Technology (2005).
Hinsley F.H. and Alan Stripp.  Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park.  Oxford University Press (1993).
Kahn, David.  THE CODE-BREAKERS – THE COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF SECRET COMMUNICATION FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE INTERNET.  Scribner (1996).
Kippenhahn, Rudolf.  Code Breaking: A History and Exploration.  Overlook Press (1999).
Mehl, Donald.  TOP SECRET COMMUNICATIONS OF WORLD WAR II – UNBREAKABLE ENCRYPTION FOR SECRET HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCES.  Self-published (2002).
Schlesinger, Stephen.  “Cryoptanalysis for Peacetime: Codebreaking and the Birth of the United Nations,” in CRYPTOLOGIA, Volume XIX, Number 3, pp. 161-179. 
Schneier, Bruce.  Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C.  John Wiley & Sons (1996).
Williams, Jeannette and Yolande Dickerson.  The Invisible Cryptologists: African-Americans, WWII to 1956.  United States Cryptologis History, Series V, The Early Postwar Period, 1945-1952, Volume 5.  Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency (2001).

PSYCHOLOGICAL OPERATIONS - PSYOPS:

Büchel, Christof and Giovanni Carmine.  PSYOP POST-9/11 LEAFLETS.  Win With Words (2005).
Cruickshank, Charles.  DECEPTION IN WORLD WAR II.  Oxford (1978).
Daniel, Donald and Katherine Herbig, editors.  STRATEGIC MILITARY DECEPTION.  Pergamon (1981).
Daugherty, William E. and Morris Janowitz.  A Psychological Warfare Casebook.  Tactics Division, Technical Memorandum ORO-T-360.  Published for Operations Research Office, Johns Hopkins Press (1925).
FALLING LEAF – THE JOURNAL OF THE PSYWAR SOCIETY.  Various issues and publishers (1958-present).

Fisher, David.  THE WAR MAGICIAN – HOW JASPER MASKELYNE AND HIS MAGIC GANG ALTERED THE COURSE OF WWII.  Coward, McCann (1983).
Friedman, Herbert.  POISON CORNFLAKES FOR BREAKFAST (The OSS Hitler postage stamp forgeries) http://www.psywarrior.com/Cornflakes2.html
Gerard, Philip.  SECRET SOLDIERS – THE STORY OF WORLD WAR ii’S HEROIC ARMY OF DECEPTION.  Dutton (2002).
Gerwehr, Scott and Russell Glenn.  THE ART OF DARKNESS – DECEPTION AND URBAN OPERATIONS.  Rand (2000).
Johnson, Richard D.  SEEDS OF VICTORY – PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE AND PROPAGANDA.  Schiffer Military/Aviation History (1997).
Melton, Keith and Robert Wallace.  THE OFFICLA C.I.A. MANUAL OF TRICKERY AND DECEPTION.  JOHN MULHOLLAND’S ‘SOME OPERATIONAL APPLICATIONS OF THE ART OF DECEPTION.”  William Morrow (2009).
Montagu, Ewen.  THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS.  Lippincott (1953).
Peterson, Brad A.  PAPER TIGERS II REVISED – THE PROPAGANDA OF THE VIETNAM WAR.  Private printing (1989).
PRE-TESTING PSYOPS LEAFLETS IN VIETNAM.  Pacific Technical Analysts, Control Data Corporation (1969).
Sun Tzu.  THE ART OF WAR.  Translated by Samuel Griffith.  Cambridge (1971).
Suzuki, Akira and Akira Yamamoto.  PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS OF THE PACIFIC WAR.  Privately printed, Japan (1977).
Szfranski, Colonel Richard.  “Neocortical Warfare? The Acme of Skill,” in MILITARY REVIEW, Novermber (1994), pp. 41-55.
Yoshimi, Shunya, Editor.  World War I Propaganda Posters from the Collection of the University of Tokyo Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies.  University of Tokyo Press (2006).

ON THE WEB:

Central Intelligence Agency.  https://www.cia.gov/
Defense Intelligence Agency.  http://www.dia.mil/
National Security Agency.  http://www.nsa.gov/
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.  https://www1.nga.mil/Pages/Default.aspx
RSA Conference 2009 Webcast: http://media.omediaweb.com/rsa2009/preview/webcast.htm?id=1_5 Cryptographers Panel, April 21, 2009:
.....Lieutenant General Keith M. Alexander, NSA, April 21, 2009. 
.....Melissa E. Hathaway, Homeland Security, April 22, 2009. 
.....James Bamford, author of “The Shadow Factory,” April 22, 2009.

Spy Numbers Stations on Shortwave Radio by Chris Smolinski's Black Cat Systems
ENIGMA2000 - European Numbers Information Gathering and Monitoring Association
The Conet Project - by Irdial~Disks

MUSEUMS:

THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM, Washington, D.C.
http://spymuseum.org/ 
“Our task is to judge their craft, not their politics – their skill, not their loyalty.  Our mission is to understand these daring professionals and their fallen comrades, to recognize their ingenuity and imagination.  Our goal is to see past their maze of mirrors and deception to understand their world of intrigue.”  (From the entry portal.)

NATIONAL CRYPTOLOGIC MUSEUM, Fort Meade, MD.
http://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic_heritage/museum/
”It shares the Nation's, as well as NSA's, cryptologic legacy and place in world history. Located adjacent to NSA Headquarters, Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland, the Museum houses a collection of thousands of artifacts that collectively serve to sustain the history of the cryptologic profession.”  (From their website.)

FILM, VIDEO, DVD:

Breach.  Universal Studios (2007).  Based upon the capture of Robert Hanssen.  See also the bonus features: “The Mole” as originally aired on Dateline 3/05/01 and interviews with former FBI operative Eric O’Neil.
Dayton Codebreakers.  Dayton Codebreaker Project (2005).  Documentary on the American project headed by Joe Desch,  to build the four-rotor cryptanalytic “Bombe” to decrypt German naval Enigma messages.
Enigma.  Manhattan Pictures international (2002).  A tale of love and espionage loosely based on the Bletchley Park project to decrypt German messages.  The reconstructions of the technology of the codebreakers’ challenges are worth seeing.  The main character, intellectually inspired by Alan Turing, is otherwise quite fictitious. 
Enigma Secret. Polart Video (2006).  A story based upon the lives of the Polish codebreakers, Marian Jejewski, Jerzy Rozycki and Henryk Zygalski who first broke the Enigma with their cryptanalytic computer, the “Bombe,” which they gave to the British and French before Poland fell.  This machine was later enhanced by Alan Turing at Bletchley Park.  The reconstructions of the technology are inaccurate but the film presents a unique Polish perspective on the social milieu in which they worked and the marginalization of their contribution to the war against the Axis.  In Polish with English subtitles.
THE LOSS OF LIBERTY.  The USS Liberty Incident from Howard Films (2002).
The Secret Wireless War.  Video Post (2006).  “Beyond Bletchley Park” and “Black Propaganda.”
U-571.  Universal Studios (2000).  A tense submarine adventure with a mission to capture a crippled German U-Boat, the U-571, and retrieve its Enigma machine and settings book.  The second screen of bonus materials offers the following documentary shorts:  Inside the Enigma by David Kahn.  Britain Captures the U-110 with Jonathan Mostow and David Balme.  A Submariner’s WWII Experience with Johnathan Mostow  and Vice Admiral Patric Hannifin.  Capturing the U-505, a newsreel from the U.S. Naval Archives.
SPIES – CODE BREAKING: FROM THE ULTRA SPIES FILE, FROM THE MAGICIAN AND THE SAMURAI FILE.  Columbia House (1993).
THE SPY FACTORY.  Examine the high-tech eavesdropping carried out by the National Security Agency.  NOVA, WGBH Boston (xxxx).  Aired Tuesday Apr 27 at 8:00 PM on WGBH 2/HD
TOP SECRET – INSIDE THE WORLD’S MOST SECRET AGENCIES: NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY, SCOTLAND YARD, MOSSAD.  Columbia House (1993).
World War II Mind of a Code Breaker.  The story of the British code breakers in Bletchley Park.  NOVA, WGBH Boston (2009).  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ITPAbYScIw

CRYPTOGRAPHIC MACHINE COLLECTION:

US M-94 Jefferson wheel type device.
US M-209 Hagelin pinwheel type device.
BC 543 Hagelin pinwheel type device.
CX-52 Hagelin pinwheel type device.
Swiss NEMA – “Neu Machine” Enigma type multirotor device.
Russian Fialka – Enigma type multirotor device.
Swedish Kryaap 101
Siemens Fernschreibschlüsselgerät M-190 mit T1

PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS COLLECTION:

(Some of this material may be offensive due to its racist, sexist, sexually explicit and other content.)
World War II: Sampling of American, British, Japanese and German leaflets.
1st Gulf War:  “Complete” collection of leaflets assembled by Richard D. Johnston.
2nd Gulf War:  Sampling of American leaflets. 

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