NAMEBASE. Public Information Research. P.O. Box 5199, Arlington,
VA 22205. (703-241-5437).
NAMEBASE. Public Information Research. P.O. Box 5199, Arlington,
VA 22205. (703-241-5437).
Peake, Reader's Guide, says that the data in NAMEBASE is in the form of the names of individuals and organizations with contacts with American intelligence agencies. Sources are over 300 books and several hundred periodicals. Only later entries have been annotated. Indexing is by "author, subject name, or agency, date and page number." NAMEBASE can provide "fast answers to several questions about people, countries, and publications having something to do with intelligence." The database began life under name of SpyBASE. This is a "read-only database; the user cannot add to or change what is found there. It is possible ... to print the results of any search to a printer or computer disk."
Jeffreys-Jones notes that the producer of this database, Public Information Research (PIR), is "an open-government institution." The database is "available in both Apple Macintosh and IBM/PC formats.... By 1 January 1993, it contained 67,000 names of individuals and groups ... and 140,000 citations culled from about 500 sources.... PIR ... will mail or fax photocopied material on request." See Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, "Manual Indices and Digital Pathways: Developments in United States Intelligence Bibliography," Intelligence and National Security 9, no. 3 (Jul. 1994): 555-559.
See also Robert L. Youngblood, "Electronic Databases and Research on the Central Intelligence Agency in Asia," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 26, no. 3 (Jul.-Sep. 1994): 61-65, which reviews CIABASE and NAMEBASE.
[RefMats/Digital]
Nance, William H. "Quality ELINT." Studies in Intelligence 12, no. 2 (Spring 1968): 7-19.
"Precision measurement of the operating parameters of uncooperating radars."
[GenPostwar/Issues/S&T/To90s]
[Naquin, Doug.] "Remarks by Doug Naquin, Director, Open Source Center, CIRA Luncheon, 3 October 2007." CIRA Newsletter 32, no. 4 (Winter 2007): 3-9.
Naquin discusses the current state of open source collection and exploitation. He notes that the old FBIS is the starting point for the new Open Source Center, but emphasizes that matters have progressed well beyond the roles of the past.
For a report on and some reaction to Naquin's speech, see Thomas Claburn, "CIA Monitors YouTube For Intelligence," InformationWeek, 6 Feb. 2008. [http://www.informationweek.com]
[DNI/OSC]
Nash, Douglas E. "Civil Affairs in the Gulf War: Administration of
an Occupied Town." Special Warfare 7 (Oct. 1994): 18-27. [Gibish]
[MI/DesertStorm]
Nash, Jay Robert. Citizen Hoover: A Critical Study of the Life and Times of J. Edgar Hoover and His FBI. Chicago: Nelson-Hall, 1972. [Petersen]
[FBI/To90s]
Nash, Jay Robert. Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Deeds and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today. New York: Evans, 1997.
Clark comment: With a glossary of acronyms and terms, a filmography, a bibliography and an index, this large-format, soft-cover book is 624 pages long, which on the face of it might make its $24.95 price tag seem a decent deal. Perhaps, but I am sorry I anted up that amount. There is way too much misinformation contained between this book's covers to make it a useful reference work. Glaring examples of a lack of serious research on the part of the author begin with his "Introduction" and continue throughout the narrative. In addition, Nash gives the reader no assistance in determining where he has gone wrong because none of the entries have bibliographic citations.
Nash misses the whole thrust of the work of the British and American cryptologists who broke the German Enigma and Japanese Purple systems. He argues that "none" of these efforts "would have been productive had it not been for the spies in the field who first secured the enemy codebooks and enciphering machines.... Polish and French underground resistance fighters obtained copies of the German Enigma machine and sent these to London where they were copied at Bletchley [Park]. The 'unbreakable' codes and ciphers Enigma produced were subsequently broken, but only because the codebreakers had the actual German machines.... [B]y the time America entered the war..., it was able to break the Japanese Purple Machine, which had been duplicated from the German Enigma Machine." (p. 9)
The author misses an important chronological point in discussing the Berlin Tunnel -- that is, the length of time the Soviets allowed the operation to continue after they learned of its existence. Nash states that when George Blake learned of the tunnel, "[h]e informed the Communists who promptly sealed off the eastern end." (Emphasis added) (p. 93)
Nash seems too willing to accept the worst from Sir Roger Hollis' detractors, stating that "a host of ... more than coincidental events ... point[] to him as the Soviet agent who got away." (p. 268) The National Security Agency gets scarcely more than a page of discussion, and almost half of that is devoted to the James William Hall, III, spy case. Additionally, only the code-and-cipher-breaking function is mentioned, completely ignoring NSA's central role in U.S. communications security. (pp. 371-372)
The author also has a tendency to insert unproven and, perhaps, unprovable throwaway lines into his narrative. An example is this statement that appears as an irrelevant aside about Lafayette Baker in Nash's item on Allan Pinkerton: "...Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was most likely involved in Lincoln's assassination." (p. 391)
Polmar and Allen's Spy Book (New York: Random House, 1997) came out the same year as Nash's work; the former is significantly the better intelligence encyclopedia.
Kruh, Cryptologia 22.3: expresses a differing opinion: "Illustrated with scores of photographs and drawings, this hefty volume should provide many weeks of interesting reading."
[RefMats/Encyclopedias][c]
Nash, Philip. The Other Missiles of October: Eisenhower, Kennedy, and the Jupiters, 1957-1963. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Clark comment: There is negligible intelligence content in this work, but the author's study of the Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey and Italy and their eventual withdrawal in exchange for the removal of the Soviet SS4s from Cuba is a piece of the Missile Crisis puzzle that is usually treated almost as a footnote.
As Rosenberg, History 26.3, notes, this is "an excellent and very well written account" based on research that "is thorough and up to date."
[GenPostwar/60s/MissileCrisis]
Nashel, Jonathan. Edward Lansdale's Cold War. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2005.
Pellegrin, H-War, H-Net Reviews, Dec. 2006 [http://www.h-net.org], calls this work "a compelling analysis of the life, adventures, and legend" of Edward Lansdale. This "is not a biography in the traditional sense.... Rather, the author uses Lansdale's career to explain American activities during the Cold War and emphasizes those events where Lansdale had a significant effect on such activities."
[CIA/50s & Biogs; Vietnam/Gen]
Nasheri, Hedieh. Economic Espionage and Industrial Spying. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
From publisher: The author "investigates the current state of industrial espionage, revealing the far-reaching effects of advances in computing and wireless communications.... Nasheri analyzes the historical and conceptual foundations of economic espionage, trade secret thefts, and industrial spying. She demonstrates how these activities impact society, and tracks the legislative and statutory efforts to control them."
[GenPostwar/Econ/Corp]
Nasif, Nicholas. "Tenet Given Assurances that No al-Qa'ida Cells Infiltrated Lebanon." Beirut al-Nahar in Arabic, 28 Nov. 2002.
[Excerpts from FBIS Translated Text] "A security official has recently returned from Washington after three days of meetings with CIA Director George Tenet and his assistants for terrorism and Middle Eastern affairs. The talks dealt with the security cooperation between Lebanon and the United States within the framework of the US-led international campaign on terror....
"As a result of the discussions, Tenet and his aides expressed satisfaction with stability in Lebanon and with the cooperation of the Lebanese security services with the CIA station in the American Embassy in Beirut. This is a constant and accurate cooperation in the fight against terrorism. The Lebanese authorities deal seriously with the information they receive from the CIA station, and they regularly supply the station with information within the anti-terror plan."
[OtherCountries/Lebanon; Terrorism/02]
Nasiri, Omar [pseud.]. Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al-Qaeda: A Spy's Story. New York: Perseus, 2006.
Peake, Studies 51.2 (2007), asks the central question here -- Is his story true? -- but does not offer anything conclusive. This book purports to be by a Moroccan terrorist who spent a number of years working for the DGSE (the French foreign intelligence service). He also claims to have trained in weapons and explosives in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.
[Terrorism/00s/Gen]
Nasr, Joseph. "Israel Extends Mossad Spymaster Dagan's Tenure." Reuters, 22 Jun. 2008. [http://www.reuters.com]
On 22 June 2008, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "extended the tenure" of Mossad head Meir Dagan "for a second time.... Meir Dagan, an army ex-general, took over Mossad in 2002."
[Israel/00s/08]
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