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(S//SI//REL) Conducting SIGINT Relationships Beneath the Political
Waterline
FROM: the Foreign Affairs Digest,
Unknown
Run Date: 11/07/2006
(S//SI//REL) Third Party SIGINT organizations sometimes prefer to keep quiet about their
SIGINT ties to NSA.
(S//SI//REL) The fall of Saigon in 1975 had impact far beyond Vietnamese borders. In Thailand,
the US operated a large SIGINT facility in Ramasan, but after a sudden change in administration
-- very much like the recent coup in Bangkok -- the Thai government developed drastically new
policies, and the US was told to withdraw all its military forces in Thailand by March 1976. This
included the closure of the US SIGINT base.
(S//SI//REL) At the same time, the US had been formulating a proposal to expand the Thai Third
Party relationship to include coverage of Southeast Asian communist communications, but that
plan was put in abeyance while both sides assessed the impact of the new Thai government
policies. In the end, both sides opted to continue to expand the relationship, with the Thai side
desiring to keep its newly expanded role out of the political limelight. Even to this day, the Thai
are sensitive about exposing the SIGINT relationship to their political masters for fear of a
politically driven reaction.
(S//SI//REL) Conducting SIGINT relationships beneath the political waterline has become a way
of doing business for many partnerships.
"(U//FOUO) SIDtoday articles may not be republished or reposted outside NSANet
without the consent of S0121 (DL sid_comms)."
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DERIVED FROM: NSA/CSSM 1-52, DATED 08 JAN 2007 DECLASSIFY ON: 20320108