On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo was boarded by the North Koreans. The ship was confiscated and crew members were held hostage. Some wondered how a U.S. intelligence ship could be captured by a North Korean sub-chaser and three torpedo boats. The answer, unfortunately, is that we had another administration that sent people into hostile territory with totally inadequate security.
The Pueblo did have guns and ammunition, but the ammunition was stored below deck, the machine guns were unmanned and they were wrapped in cold weather tarpaulins.
The rules of engagement were:
(…) Defensive armament (machine guns) should be stowed or covered in such manner so that it does not cause unusual interest by surveyed units. It should be used only in the event of a threat to survival (…)
The American people were never told the truth about the USS Pueblo. The loss of this ship was a devastating blow to our national security. I was working for the NSA at the time, and I heard people say that this would set our intelligence efforts back 50 years. The most dangerous secret held by any intelligence community is to reveal what we know about the other side. I personally doubt that Commander Lloyd Bucher knew the true value of that ship. Access to intelligence is granted on a need-to-know basis, and it’s likely a majority of the crew on that ship did not know. That would be consistent with my own experience, where the pilot of the aircraft flying us over enemy territory was not cleared to know anything about our activities in the back of the plane. If he did know, he probably would have risked losing the entire crew before surrendering that ship. Fortunately, in the case of the USS Pueblo, we did get these people back.
There are some people who do know the truth about the USS Pueblo. The following link provides a hint:
http://www.usspueblo.org/Aftermath/NSA_Museum.html
For those who want to know the whole story, following is a link to an official NSA report on the event that was only released in 2010:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/32745614/National-Security-Agency-The-capture-of-the-USS-Pueblo-and-its-Effect-on-SIGINT-operations
The conclusion in this report is jaw dropping:
..the compromise, at least to the North Koreans, of information concerning the cryptologic community collection, processing and reporting operations and techniques on a world-wide basis is without precedent in the U.S. cryptologic history.
This is really the first time I have ever discussed what I knew about the Pueblo incident, because this was so highly classified. I am only writing this limited amount now because the full NSA report has been released.
The assault on our Consulate in Libya has the potential to be almost as damaging. The Obama administration already compromised National Security in its rush to exploit the death of Osama bin Laden. If they had just kept this quiet for even a few days they might have rolled up al Qaeda operatives all over the world. Just think about it. They captured Osama bin Laden’s computers and his documents intact. It was a priceless opportunity to harvest this information before al Qaeda even knew we had it. Instead, the President of the United States couldn’t wait to rush to the nearest microphone and spike the football.
But if the following article is accurate, that may pale in comparison to the damage done by our failure to provide adequate security for the Consulate in Benghazi. Although the death of a U.S. Ambassador is a real tragedy, we lost a lot more than that.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9563831/US-consulate-attack-in-Benghazi-disrupted-major-intelligence-operation.html
We don’t know what documents were compromised. We don’t know what cryptologic devices and codes were compromised. There are already reports that the terrorists got lists containing our “friends” all over Libya. Odds are many of those friends are now desperately trying to stay alive. One will note that they have basically evacuated our Embassy in Tripoli. Part of the reason may be that our entire intelligence operation in Libya was compromised.
In some ways, the Obama administration was extremely lucky. There was a second attack, an apparent ambush, probably designed to capture critical personnel. According to this report 30 “individuals” were rushed out of Libya and spread to hidden locations all over Europe. It sure looks like we came very close to losing another group of highly trained intelligence operatives, like we did during the Pueblo incident. Yet it does not appear as though the administration even bothered to secure the Consulate after the event. A CNN reporter casually walked through the debris and found the Ambassador’s personal diary. It doesn’t get any worse than that.
This is far worse than Watergate. In Watergate the White House was covering up an idiotic attempt to spy on the DNC. Perhaps the real question is why did anyone care? Is there anyone naïve enough to think that both political parties aren’t spying on each other? I mean Democrats got caught monitoring Newt Gingrich’s cell phone and Clinton allegedly let the NSA eavesdrop on Strom Thurmond. But this isn’t about politics, it is about national security. It is about an ongoing effort to stop al Qaeda. This effort may have been seriously compromised by the gross negligence of this administration.
There is zero chance we will learn the full truth about this disaster before the election. We didn’t learn the full truth about the Pueblo for 42 years. But one would hope that somehow enough of the story will reach sufficient people to eliminate the risk of re-electing Barack Obama.
TDM
