Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf even complained about it during 1991 s Persian Gulf war when he said intelligence reports on Iraq s military were taking too long to reach his hands. Completed in 1996, Intelink has become an invaluable tool for the 13 intelligence community agencies that use it to disseminate and share their secret information. Intelink consists of highly classified data that users access at the click of a button. Data that once took hours to reach Washington now cross the globe in a second. Just like logging onto America Online or the World Wide Web, intelligence analysts and military personnel log on to Intelink s home page, where they see a map of the world and can click, say, Bosnia to access intelligence reports, video clips, satellite photos, databases and status reports.
Users can chat online with other spies or exchange e-mail on a topic.
How the NSA Changed The story behind that transformation is detailed in a new book by a former top NSA official a book noted as much for the fact that it was published at all as for its content. When Tom Martin started working for NSA in 1960, he signed a letter promising never to write a book about his super-secret employer. In a sign of changing times in the intelligence community, Martin unveils previously classified details about how NSA spies on the world. And he does so with NSA s approval. How U.S. Intelligence Built Intelink the world s largest, most secure network is also a fascinating glimpse at the slow and sometimes reluctant thawing of an obsessively secretive agency that once denied its own existence.