BBC News Monday, 8 May 2006, 13:48 GMT 14:48 UK

Hayden named as Bush CIA choice

Gen Hayden is currently deputy director of national intelligence

US President George W Bush has nominated Air Force General Michael Hayden as the new head of the CIA.

Mr Bush described Mr Hayden, a former head of the National Security Agency, as "the right man to lead the CIA at a critical moment".

Democrat and Republican legislators have expressed concern at having a military man head a civilian agency.

Porter Goss resigned from as CIA chief on Friday, and his successor must face Senate confirmation hearings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4750357.stm

This Email was sent to DIRNSA (an unmentionable word at one time) on Saturday, 30th March 2002, since previous Emails to President George W Bush about this subject brought no results.  At that time the Director, NSA (National Securtiy Agency aka No Such Agency) was USAF Lt General Michael V Hayden.  You will find a full description of the kind of surveillance technology in this Email to which I was and still am being subjected which constituted a serious breach of security over which I had no control.  This information was made available indiscriminately to members of the general public including those who were seriously disturbed as described.   The single,  most serious breach of security has derived from the psychologically deficient former US Marine Lt Harry Bird showing off this surveillance technology to all and sundry in this environment for over five years since February 2001. 

Michael Hayden's appointment to become the CIA's Director means for me based upon my direct personal experience for over five years that this kind of intelligence gathering by means of this surveillance technology is being brought to the CIA which I believe was originated at the NSA.  It reflects the technological merger of Sigint with Humint for intelligence gathering purposes.  However, the extraordinay abuse of power to which I have been subjected by those who have little concern for security means that its use in the future by employing local criminals will do far more damage to intelligence efforts than the information which it can uniquely and superbly obtain as a result of the nature of this technology. 

The fact that this activity against me was not stopped and has continued for over four years since I sent this Email to DIRNSA indicates to me a lack of concern for security.   This is consistent with the omnipotence which  those using it feel.   They don't care who knows about it since they feel that they have absolute control and dominance thanks to its use.  They rule by fear over others who are afraid that it might be used against them so they do not rock the boat and comply with whatever is required of them.  That's why Lt Harry Bird behaves with complete impunity and disregard for any standards whatsoever.  He says every so often "He can't prove anything." 

Until this intelligence gathering surveillance technology and its capacity as a weapon are recognised as existing and are being currently used worldwide in an abusive manner for the corrupt self interest of those using it, no meaningful decision about who will manage what and in what way can be accomplished for the US intelligence community that will ensure its use for legitimate and genuine security threats.   I hope that the US Congress will seek to get full  information about the US intelligence community's use of this surveillance technology before Michael Hayden is turned loose as the CIA's Director.   The great threat is its massive use domestically against the US population for political purposes of repressions as has been happening to me for years.  This most likely is being carried out currently on a significant basis unknown to the US public, but as these changes at the top take place, it becomes more apparent where the source of US intelligence derives including the direction for its technology consolidation. 

The Gate to Trabzon Air Station 1964 Looking East Toward the Soviet Union  Enlarge

The entrance to Trabzon Air Station on Boztepi a hill about 1,000 feet above Trabzon, Turkey on the Black Sea. This view looks to Transcaucasia in the east with the Caucasus mountains beneath the cloudline in the distance. This was the Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgia USSR from here and to the north in the east.

This was a USAF Security Service base some 90 miles from the Soviet Union's border to the east at the high point of the Cold War in 1964.

I arrived here at the beginning of November 1963. President Kennedy was assassinated three weeks after I arrived. Unknown to the world he had agreed a year earlier during the Cuban Missile Crisis to pull the US missiles out of Turkey if Kruschev pulled the Soviet Union's missiles out of Cuba.

British, Irish and French technicians from Marconi, Hawker Siddley and other companies were working under a NATO contract retraining Turkish missilemen into radar located about 45 miles east in Rize, Turkey which was just 45 miles from Hopa at the border of the Soviet Union. We were good friends and shared many weekends together either in Rize or Trabzon in what was otherwise a remote corner of the world.

The Antenna Field on the Front Edge of Boztepi Overlooking Trabzon, Turkey 1964 Enlarge

The view of the front edge of the antenna field at the USAF Security Service's intercept site on the top of Boztepi in Trabzon, Turkey 1964 with the Black Sea out of sight to the left.

This intercept site just 90 miles from the Soviet Union's border to the east (the direction of the photograph) was under the operational control of the National Security Agency (NSA) like all USAF Security Service bases throughout the world. This photograph was taken from a window in the flat of the Peace Corps volunteers who taught English in the local Turkish schools. These volunteers were among the first to have applied when John F Kennedy started the Peace Corps. Turkish cities in the region were eager to get Peace Corps volunteers as occurred in 1964 in Rize to the east and Giresun to the west. One of them conducted Turkish classes on the base for us when I first arrived.

There is an excellent commentary about Trabzon and intercept sites in Turkey in James Bamford's The Puzzle Palace, Penguin Books, 1982, on page 209 and pps 232 - 238. This describes the activity and the tragic loss of an unarmed EC130 on 2nd September 1958 shot down by Soviet MIGs because it strayed slightly north into Soviet airspace. It's flight plan had taken it over Trabzon flying east to Van on the Iranian border and was returning on the same path when it went over the Soviet border into Soviet Armenia crashing 34 miles northwest of the Soviet Armenian capital Yerevan. There as a memorial at Fort Meade, Maryland, the home of the NSA, for this and other aircraft and those who lost their lives in this very hot war for some who have become known as Silent Warriors.  I noted from news reports that an RB-57 was lost over the Black Sea a year or so after I left Trabzon at the end of October 1964.

"The loss of an RB-57 over the Black Sea on 15 December 1965 resulted in a Government of Turkey ban on Airborne Reconnaissance Program flights from their country. The RB-57 was one of two aircraft in the Little Cloud project which were manned and maintained by the Pakistan Air Force at Peshawar." Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) History 1960. USAFSS evolved into the AIA.

We often quite unintentionally forgot about the fact that we were guests in Turkey because we were quite absorbed in our 24/7 work. James Bamford writes on page 234 "As was the standard practice, SIGINT personnel at Trabzon were continuously monitoring Soviet air traffic. It was with growing horror, therefore, that they listened as the MIG pilots began blasting away at their fellow spooks." No one wanted this to happen ever again. Those who lived in Trabzon were continuously reminded of our presence because they could always see this sight above their city. I was fortunate enough to get away frequently into the local communities.

A Russian Cannon Dated 1902 on the Front Edge of Boztepi Overlooking Trabzon, Turkey 1964 Enlarge

This Russian cannon with Cyrillic script and a date of 1902 was perched on the front edge of the Boztepi cliff overlooking Trabzon. These were mountain fighting troops who did not like the Russians one bit.

Trabzon was the last East/West trade route port on the Black Sea and dated from about the 5th Century BC. It had quite a history. The Alexis family who ruled the Byzantine Empire during its last 400 hundred years or so originated from Trabzon. There is a natural fortification wall which runs from the sea to the cliff. Aqueducts under it dated from the time of the rule of the Emperor Hadrian or so it was claimed. Attaturk had a summer house in Trabzon. It is a beautiful area of the world which I always thought would be developed into a resort retreat for those seeking peace, quiet and natural beauty. This was the end of the ancient world where Prometheus was tied to a rock in the Caucasus for having given fire, the symbol of understanding, to mankind, and where Jason sailed to retrieve the Golden Fleece.

Bob Hope made his annual Christmas tour that year to all the bases in Turkey. Well, all except one: Trabzon. It seems that the civilian runway (it was just a landing strip with nothing else) down by the Black Sea was too short for his Boeing 707. He couldn't land. Earlier just before I arrived, an RAF Canberra bomber had tried to land there and ran off the runway. It took them three days to get it out of the mud I was told. This aircraft had been flying calibration flights for the new radar in Rize. As a consolation prize, we got the film of the Bob Hope's Christmas tour that was broadcast on TV complete with Chrysler commercials. It seems that our sister base to the west on the Black Sea coast, Samsun, also had bad luck. They were fogged in, and Bob Hope couldn't land there. They showed Bob Hope and his troop leaning out an open door of the aircraft with a megaphone saying hello while circling a socked in Samsun. At least they flew there and tied to land.

Years later I learned that Bob Hope had had serious eye surgery for a detached retina (I believe) and left California against doctor's orders while still recovering to make this Christmas tour. He missed the beginning of the tour that started in Greece but joined it for Turkey. He was risking the loss of his eyesight to make that tour. Well, I did get to see one of his shows live in London in May 1985 at the Shaftesbury Theatre where it was performed and taped for television before Prince Phillip on behalf of one of his charities. This was Bob Hope's 82nd birthday show. Some 20 years after his Christmas tour of Turkey, I got to see him in person. It was terrific. Politics aside I've always liked Bob Hope. Michael Caine came out after the interval to tell the story about Bob Hope donating a couple weeks of his performances to an East End Boys Club just after the end of World War II. Michael Caine described how he was one of those boys in that club and had been selected to stand up in the audience at the end of the last show to thank Bob Hope for donating two weeks of his performances for them. That sounded just like this incredible guy who risked his eyesight to entertain the troops in Turkey during December 1963 as he did for decades!

"1969 - The Department of Defense decided to reduce forces in Turkey and realign the intelligence posture there. This realignment caused the subsequent closure of the USAFSS sites at Trabzon and Samsun and the establishment of a USAFSS squadron (6934th Security Squadron) at Sinop." Air Intelligence Agency (AIA) History 1960. USAFSS evolved into the AIA.

Forty-Two Years Later: What's Going On?

Back in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s no one had a clue about this massive, worldwide communications intelligence operation that was being carried out during the Cold War by the likes of NSA, GCHQ, CBNRC (Canada) and Australia along with their respective military services.  None of us ever said anything at all.   Nothing about this was generally known.  Since I could not say a word, people always jumped to the wrong conclusion espcially when the FBI came around keeping tabs on what I was doing.  I used to get comments from people but couldn't say a word.  I just knew what I had done and was happy to have been able to make a contribution to the Cold War in an area where it really counted and lives of some of us were at risk again about which no one had any idea.  

My reward has been to become a human guinea pig for totally invasive surveillance technology in the hands of extreme, right-wing nut cases who are so narrow and shallow that their only pleasure in life is sadistic torture and killing of innocent people.  This is what the US/UK intelligence community has become, and I've been privileged to have had first hand experience of it for many years now 24/7 once again.   The most serious indictment is the fact that this most sophisticated of surveillance technology can determine the truth reasonably quickly, but it is in the hands of the demented sadists who are carrying out R&D and medical experimentation to develop it as a weapon and means to imprison, torture and kill. 

No one has a clue today about this technology just as decades ago no one had a clue about the massive electronic intercept operation going on worldwide during the Cold War.  It's always nice to be at the forefront of technological development.  The difference now is that I do not have restrictions about what I describe is being done to me.   All of this will become general knowledge at some point.  The sooner the better. 

What do you think Michael Hayden will be doing as CIA Director if he gets confirmed by the US Congress?