National Security Agency

As recently as the late 1960s, the very existence of the National Security Agency — the Fort Meade-based defense organization that gathers intelligence from foreign countries — was such a closely held secret that insiders jokingly called the place "No Such Agency. " So when a New York newspaper reporter named David Kahn stood ready to illuminate it in a big new book in 1967, the government was less than pleased. "According to my editor [at Macmillan Publishers]

An editorial in today's Perspective section misstates the timetable for a study of U.S. intelligence agencies by a commission headed by former Defense Secretary Harold Brown. The panel is to conclude its review in the spring.The Sun regrets the error.THE NATIONAL SECURITY Agency, the code-breaking and electronic spying organization headquartered at Fort Meade, has many nicknames. Some claim the initials NSA stand for "No Such Agency" -- because it was long so secret even its existence was officially denied.

After posing for photos, Chinese diplomats led guests through their new, $13 million embassy in Canberra, Australia, a dramatic pagoda-style building with a swimming pool, tennis courts, greenhouse and sweeping lake views.But the grand opening in August 1990 would have been ruined had the diplomats known everything about their elegant chancery.Thirty U.S. agents had worked for months to lace the concrete and drywall of every office with fiber-optic listening devices, their fine, glass threads undetectable in security sweeps.

If there are nearly 20,000 cyber security jobs are available in the state of Maryland, why hasn't it been shouted from the roof tops ("Cyber help wanted," Feb. 27)? Most employment news we hear now is fairly dismal. With this many high-paying positions needing to be filled, the school system must take more notice. Baltimore's Digital Harbor High School, a marvelous place dedicated to technology and located right in Federal Hill, is one place to start. Recruiters from the National Security Agency, U.S. Cyber Command and other government and private agencies should stop by and encourage students to enroll in computer security programs and pursue degrees in the field.

A division of the National Security Agency won a U.S. Senate Productivity Award last week, the first given to a group within the intelligence community.The division, the Installation and Logistics Organization, is the NSA's support group responsible for construction, maintenance, mail, recycling and distribution of excess computers to local schools.The award is given to promote productivity and quality control in the public sector and the benefit of that to state and local communities, an NSA spokeswoman said.

On Friday, January 14, 2005 ALBERT JOHN LORSONG, 80, of Williamsport, PA, formerly fo Highland, MD. He was retired from the National Security Agency, Ft. Meade, MD. He is survived by wife of 56 years Nancy P. Byerly, three children and four grandsons. Arrangements by Crouse Funeral Home, Williamsport, PA.

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze huge amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project - not because it failed to work but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden White House expansion of the agency's surveillance powers, according to several intelligence officials. The agency opted instead to adopt only one component of the program, which produced a far less capable and rigorous program.

Annette Williams, a homemaker and former National Security Agency clerk, died of kidney failure Jan. 22 at Catonsville Commons Nursing Home. The Cherry Hill resident was 45. Born in Baltimore and raised on West Lexington Street, she graduated from Southwestern High School in 1977. She worked briefly as a clerk at the National Security Agency at Fort Meade in the 1970s. Family members said she enjoyed attending family gatherings and listening to 1970s pop songs. "She couldn't sing, but she loved to sing," said her sister, Denise Ware of Catonsville.

State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration By James RisenRisen and Eric Lichtblau won a Pulitzer Prize this year for a series of articles in The New York Times exposing the National Security Agency's electronic evesdropping program. That operation is one of a number of examples offered in Risen's assessment of George W. Bush's extraordinary steps in recent years to reach beyond accepted limits of presidential power. Risen views the CIA's recent performance as a catastrophe.

Three members of a Maryland family — a father and two of his children — were federally indicted this week on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud for allegedly overbilling the National Security Agency by nearly $1.5 million. William Turley, 70, of Annapolis; Donald Turley, 53, of Owings Mills; and Christina Turley Knott, 50, of Edgewater are all charged with the conspiracy, which carries a maximum 20-year prison term. The scheme involved inflating the hours their employees worked for the NSA, according to the indictment.