Deceit of an Ally, Part 1
B R U C E B R I L L
This is the first in a three-part series by former NSA agent Bruce Brill based on his recently released book, Deceit of An Ally: NSA’s Secret Jew Room & 1973 Yom Kippur Treachery.
Former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Mideast analyst Bruce Brill knew days in advance that Syria and Egypt planned to invade Israel on Yom Kippur (6 October) in 1973. Yet General Eli Zeira, Israel’s Director of Military Intelligence, many years later, confided in Brill that Zeira’s American intel partners had assured him that the Arabs would not attack Israel. From the moment Brill heard this disturbing revelation, he began a mission to unravel the deception that resulted in the unnecessary deaths of over 2,600 Israelis. The vital intelligence Brill obtained was purposely corrupted in restricted, unmonitored rooms within the NSA. Brill discovered these rooms while working within the inner sancta of the agency.
Israeli soldiers on deployment during the Yom Kippur War, 6 to 25 October 1973.
The interrogator said, “You’re having a problem with that one.”
I was.
I don’t know what exactly the needles on the lie detector had revealed to the interrogator, but the machine had clearly caught me in a lie. I was an American soldier working as a Middle East intelligence analyst at the National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade, Maryland, and I was being interrogated by an NSA security officer.
The question I was asked was, “Can you foresee any circumstance in which you would pass classified information to a foreign national?”
I answered, “No”.
I did not say this because I was lying and consciously intended to pass classified information to a foreign national – definitely not.
But here I was, nonetheless, caught in a lie!
The question asked of me was a general one. Had it been more specific, such as, “Would you ever pass classified intelligence to an enemy of the United States?” and I answered, “No”, the machine would surely not have caught me in a lie, because I never would! However, if the question were, “Would you ever pass classified intelligence that was being suppressed by sinister departments within the Agency to an American ally where, if you didn’t, this ally would suffer serious injury?” and I answered, “No”, I would be lying, and the machine would no doubt catch me in the lie.
Clearly, in my mind I had heard the second question.
This was less than a year after the Yom Kippur War had broken out on October 6, 1973. Less than a year since I had monitored real-time battlefield communications by Israeli and Arab forces at the beginning of the Arab surprise attack on the first day of the war. Less than a year since I had realized the Israelis on the front line had been totally surprised. Less than a year after I had realized that NSA’s critical intelligence had somehow been kept from the Israelis. Less than a year since I had asked myself, “My God, how could this be?” Less than a year since I had learned that Israel had lost over 2,600 soldiers and had realized this loss was unnecessary. Less than a year since a sudden passion for Israel had taken possession of me and I had become a Zionist.
Could I have prevented the loss of those 2,600 lives? That possibility was why I had been caught “lying” to the lie detector operator.
The following story is both a personal memoir and an historical analysis. It explains why I was in that interrogation room. It relates how the truth behind that lie defined my life, its trials and trails. It penetrates the intricate web of intrigue that made Israel fall prey to a deception that cost the lives of 2,600 soldiers in October 1973, and it examines its ramifications for today.
But, let’s begin at the beginning.
Lead-up to Enlistment in the US Army
When I was in college, from 1965 to 1969, I had a “2S” student deferment, and right after college, I had a teaching deferment, “2A” – a strong deferment. I had begun my second year teaching math in a junior high school on Long Island when the Selective Service decided to institute a draft lottery. It was the only lottery I’ve ever won. My birthday, November 7, drew number 51. I would be called up, no doubt. My new status was “1A”, also known as “ripe for the picking”. Being a patriotic American, I didn’t consider dodging the draft. My dad had served during WWII and now it was my turn to wear the uniform of the U.S. Army.
At the recruiting office, among other pre-enlistment aptitude tests I was required to take, I aced the ALAT, the Army Language Aptitude Test, and was offered the language of my choice and an assignment with USASA, the United States Army Security Agency. After eight weeks of Basic Training at Fort Dix, New Jersey, it was off to Monterey, California for a 47-week Arabic language course.
Bruce Brill at the Defense Language Institute West Coast (DLIWC), a.k.a. “Dillywick”.
Much of our time at DLIWC (“Defense Language Institute, West Coast”, a.k.a. “Dillywick”) was spent learning Arabic culture and how despicable those damn Israeli Jews are. When our course ended in the summer of 1972, we were not, by any means, fluent in Arabic. The assumption was that a freshman interpreter would learn enough of the basics at Dillywick to develop his proficiency through “OJT” – on-the-job training – at his permanent duty station.
After some weeks of security training at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, Texas, it was off to our permanent duty station, the National Security Agency, NSA, at Fort Meade, Maryland. My work assignment took less than half an hour to perform and my use of the Arabic language was minimal. My boring job dealt with flight coordinates, which involved translating mostly numbers. Another part of the routine was to keep abreast of intelligence summaries of the day. The toughest part of my typical workday was to look busy. So I devoured books and articles about the Israel-Arab conflict. The more I read, the more I began to realize that Israel wasn’t necessarily automatically the bad guy. Despite what we had been led to believe by our Arab DLI instructors, Israel had its side of the issues.
Brill’s Arabic Language Course diploma from DLIWC, June, 1972.
I also began studying the Hebrew language and came to know some of NSA’s “Hebees”, as the Hebrew linguists at the Agency were called. There was good spirit among the Hebees and I thought I’d like to be part of this good-spirited group. But such thoughts were premature: my Hebrew wasn’t up to snuff yet. Luckily, I heard that the head of the Hebrew division was looking for a roommate, and I jumped at the opportunity to room with the best Hebrew linguist on the block. He didn’t at all fit the stark look of the typical NSA worker at the time.
So my Hebrew was improving while my minimally-used Arabic was deteriorating: “If y’don’t use it, y’lose it.” While my work in G-6, the department that dealt with the Middle East, was generally very routine (read: boring), there were a few times during 1973 when we detected Arab (Egyptian and Syrian) army movements which looked like potential stagings for war. They seemed to fit what had become a joke, that these were more of Sadat’s pronouncements, already being made from the beginning of the 1970s, that “this will be the Year of Decision”. There were serious movements in January and in May. Yet these were short-lived and nothing came of them. However, in early October, we at the NSA knew, for a certainty, that Egypt and Syria were staging for a real invasion of Israel – and we knew this days in advance. We also knew that it would happen on Saturday, October 6th – Yom Kippur.
Because I could get the gist of both Arabic and Hebrew, I was given a special assignment on the first day of what would become known as “The Yom Kippur War”, in Israel and the West, and “The October War” or the “Ramadan War” in the Arab world. My job was to monitor live communications from the Middle East battlefronts and decide if there was military content.
My work days were now totally full and time off was just to get some sleep. No longer did I have to pretend to look busy! Specifically, my job was to scan the various frequencies on which I might pick up radio communications from the battlefronts in what appeared to be a full-fledged war between Israel and its enemies, Syria and Egypt. I would eavesdrop for a while, get the gist of each communication, and record any exchange that might have military content. The recordings I would make would be sorted through and sent to the appropriate department, Hebrew or Arabic, for transcription. These transcriptions would then be sent for translation. The translations would then be passed on to intelligence analysts who would analyze them and determine what specific content needed to be noted and sent on to the higher-ups. The higher-ups would weed through this material further, condense the intelligence, and pass their concentrated summaries and assessments on to the members of the National Security Council, the Pentagon, the U.S. Intelligence Board, and the White House.
That first day at the job was memorable. [The following text is redacted by decision of the Prepublication and Security Review Office of the U.S. Pentagon.] █ ███ ██████ █ ████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████████████ ████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ █ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████████████ ███████████████ ███ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ ██████
████ █████ ██ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████████████ ███████████████ ███ Thus, I had known this Yom Kippur “surprise” was about to take place – two days before it did. How could it be that the Israelis, who did need to know, didn’t? How could it be that we didn’t pass on what we – beyond a doubt – knew, to our allies in time (or at all)?
Stay tuned for part 2!
Bruce Brill is an independent journalist and former U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) Middle East analyst. He is author of the book Deceit of An Ally: NSA’s Secret Jew Room & 1973 Yom Kippur Treachery
Bruce Brill may be contacted at bruce.brill@gmail.com.
