National Security Agency

The National Security Agency (NSA) was established by a secret memorandum, National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No. 9, signed by President Harry S. Truman on October 24, 1952. A separate and extremely secretive agency within the Department of Defense, headquartered at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, the NSA is a cryptologic organization, arguably the world's best at making and breaking codes and ciphers, as well as one of the leading centers of foreign-language analysis within the U.S. government. Neither the number of employees nor the agency's budget can be publicly disclosed, but some analysts estimate that its yearly budget is as high as $10 billion. NSA does not disclose sources or methods of intelligence and never comments on media speculations about actual or possible intelligence issues. Many Washingtonians jokingly claim that “NSA” stands for “No Such Agency.”

The NSA works closely with the Central Security Service (CSS), the umbrella organization for the codemaking and codebreaking units of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. The CSS was established by presidential directive in 1972, and the NSA director is also the chief of the CSS. NSA staff and CSS personnel work closely together in facilities around the world to maintain a smooth, integrated information flow to relevant policymakers.

The NSA's civilian and military employees include physicists, engineers, mathematicians, analysts, computer scientists, and linguists. They are charged with two sensitive activities within the U.S. intelligence community: signals intelligence (SIGINT), or gathering information that foreign adversaries prefer to remain confidential, and information assurance, or protecting U.S. information from interception or tampering. The SIGINT and information assurance missions combine to facilitate Network Warfare, a military function. The NSA uses bomber planes, sea vessels, submarines, and satellites to gather information, operating a global network of ground stations to intercept diplomatic, military, scientific, and commercial satellite communications.