9 December 2013

Decensoring NSA-CIA SCS Slides

SCS is the NSA-CIA's Special Collection Service.

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 11:55:43 -0800 (PST)
From: xxxxx[at]efn.org
To: cryptome <cryptome[at]earthlink.net>
Subject: Decensoring SCS slides

I have spent a bit of time uncovering the redactions of 2 SCS slides. I am listing only the redactions here, the rest are on the slides.

The 2002 list is easier, it's main weakness is the use of alphabetization, and imperfect white-outs. However, it is also not particularly fruitful, I was only able to recover a handful.

Amman, Jordan

Cairo, Egypt

Jakarta, Indonesia

Karachi, Pakistan (?)

Manama, Bahrain (?)

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (?)

Taipei, Taiwan

In addition to these, I know the first letter of a few more cities.

A -- 3 cities (sort before Amman)

B -- 3 cities (sort between Bangkok and Bogata)

P -- 2 cities (sort between Paris and Port-au-Prince)

I know the approximate alphabetic placement of a few additional

Between Athens and Bangkok -- 2 cities

Between Budapest and Caracas -- 1 city (perhaps Cairo, Egypt)

Between Caracas and Frankfurt -- 3 cities

Between Havana and Istanbul -- 2 cities

Between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur -- 5 cities, one of which is probably Karachi, Pakistan

Between Kuala Lumpur and Lagos -- 1 city

Between Lagos and Madrid -- 1 city

Between Monrovia and New Delhi -- 3 cities

Between Prague and Rangoon -- 1 city

Between Rome and San Jose -- 1 city

The 2012 list is a deal more difficult, but still quite do-able, and fruitful, the weakness in it is that there are red dots demarking approximate locations of SCS sites. In a few I was not able to determine the city, due to the dots being too obscured. APPROXIMATE cities are given. There are a few cities that I will withhold, owing to the recentness of the data, and the sensitivity of the location. Among these are major metropolitan areas in Saudi Arabia and locations apparently in the middle of nowhere (which are probably important). However, I will say with certainty that no, Mecca is NOT on this list. I will also note that Benghazi is NOT listed as an SCS site in 2012. However there were CNE (Computer Network Exploitations) all over Egypt and Libya.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Kandahar, Afghanistan

Algiers, Algeria

Santa Rosa, Argentina (the dot is far from Buenos Aires)

Baku, Azerbaijan

Naypyidaw, Burma (Myanmar)

Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, Myanmar)

Beijing, China

Chengdu, China

Hong Kong, China

Shanghai, China

Cairo, Egypt

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Tbilisi, Georgia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Tripoli, Libya

Skopje, Macedonia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abuja, Nigeria

Hyderabad, Pakistan

Karachi, Pakistan

Lahore, Pakistan

Lisbon, Portugal

Doha, Qatar

Moscow, Russia

Smolensk, Russia

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Belgrade, Serbia

Manila, Spain

Khartoum, Sudan

Taipei, Taiwan

Mbeya, Tanzania

Tunis, Tunesia

Istanbul, Turkey

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Dubai, UAE

Kiev, Ukraine

Sana'a, Yemen

The 2010 list came pre-de-redacted. It is worthy of a few notes, it was indeed helpful in the decensoring project, but the 2012 list is different from the 2010 list, which in turn is different form the 2002 list. Sites are opened and closed based on productivity.