Special Collection Service The Special Collection Service ( SCS ) is a highly classified joint U . S . Central Intelligence Agency - National Security Agency program charged with inserting eavesdropping equipment in difficult - to - reach places , such a foreign embassies , communications centers , and foreign government installations . Established in the late 1970s and headquartered in Beltsville , Maryland , the SCS has been described as the United States ' " " Mission Impossible " force " . The SCS has been involved in operations ranging from the Cold War to the Global War on Terrorism . Mission . The SCS is a U . S . black budget program that has been described as the United States ' " " Mission Impossible " force " , responsible for " close surveillance , burglary , wiretapping , breaking and entering " . It is headquartered in Beltsville , Maryland , next door to the U . S . Department of State ' s Beltsville Communications Annex , and is jointly staffed by the Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) and National Security Agency ( NSA ) . SCS operatives are based out of U . S . embassies and consulates overseas , and operatives often use Foreign Service or Diplomatic Telecommunications Service cover when deployed . Their mission is to intercept sensitive information on espionage , nuclear arms , terrorist networks , drug trafficking and other national - security - related issues . The SCS was established to overcome a problem in that the NSA typically intercepts communications " passively " from its various intercept facilities throughout the world , yet the increasing sophistication of foreign communications equipment renders passive interception futile and instead requires direct access to the communications equipment . The CIA , meanwhile , has access to agents specializing in clandestine operations and thus is more able to gain access to foreign communication equipment , yet lacks the NSA ' s expertise in communications eavesdropping . Hence , the SCS was born , combining the communications intelligence capabilities of the NSA with the covert action capabilities of the CIA in order to facilitate access to sophisticated foreign communications systems . The SCS employs exotic covert listening device technologies to bug foreign embassies , communications centers , computer facilities , fiber - optic networks , and government installations . The U . S . government has never officially acknowledged its existence , and little is known about the technologies and techniques it employes . The sole inside account of SCS comes from a Canadian , Mike Frost , whose 1994 book " Spyworld " ( ISBN 978 - 0385254946 ) revealed that the program was known to insiders at the time as " College Park " . As of 2008 , the SCS is reported to target for recruitment key foreign communications personnel such as database managers , systems administrators , and information technology specialists . History . Cold War . The SCS program was established in the late 1970s during the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union . Around this time , SCS operatives reportedly hid eavesdropping devices in pigeons perched on the windowsills of the Soviet Embassy in Washington , D . C . Expansion . As encryption technology increased in sophistication , by the end of the 20th century many coded signals proved unbreakable . Due to this problem , bugging techniques and technologies saw a revival : unable to easily intercept and decrypt foreign communications through passive means , the U . S . government needed to instead intercept the communications at their source , and thus the SCS program was expanded in the 1990s to fulfill this need . Infiltration . The SCS program was compromised by infamous Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) mole Robert Hanssen in the 1990s , which provided Moscow with sensitive information about highly sophisticated U . S . overseas bugging operations . However , the program was so secret that , after Hanssen ' s arrest , the FBI would only describe it in general terms , as a " program of enormous value , expense , and importance to the U . S . government " . Afghanistan . In 1999 , as the Clinton Administration sought to kill Osama bin Laden following the 1998 U . S . embassy bombings , SCS operatives covertly entered Afghanistan to place eavesdropping devices within range of Al - Qaeda ' s tactical radios . China . The SCS was rumored to have been involved in the 2001 operation that planted 27 satellite - controlled bugs in the Boeing 767 - 300ER that was to be used as Chinese President Jiang Zemin ' s official jet . The bugs were discovered , however , before they could be switched on . Iraq . Prior to the 2003 U . S . invasion of Iraq , SCS was described as the " prime mover " of electronic surveillance in the country . SCS operatives built numerous antennae , spaced throughout the Iraqi countryside , capable of intercepting Iraqi microwave communications . These communications would have been otherwise difficult to intercept , because they beamed hilltop to hilltop in a narrow band , with an angle too oblique and thus too dissipated to be intercepted by air or spacecraft . In 1998 , the U . S . government recruited an Australian operative under SCS and deployed him to Iraq . The operative reported concerns about what was transpiring in Iraq , in that there was " a very high volume of data , and that he was getting no feedback about whether it was good , bad , or useful " . He further reported that " this was a massive intelligence collection operation — one that was not in accordance with what UNSCOM was supposed to be doing " at the time . After the invasion , SCS operatives were employed in the hunt for Saddam Hussein , planting sophisticated eavesdropping equipment in target areas to intercept communications that were then analyzed by voice analysis experts . War on Terror . The SCS was heavily involved in eavesdropping to advance the Global War on Terrorism , setting up eavesdropping posts around Middle Eastern capitals and figures close to Osama bin Laden ' s terrorism network . When the United States zeroed in on Osama bin Laden ' s compound in Abbottabad , Pakistan , SCS operatives established a base in an apartment that the CIA had rented a mile away from the compound . They focused lasers on the compound windows and , by analyzing the vibrations , were able to count the number of people inside and outside , and also ascertained that there was one person whom never ventured outside the compound . Bin Laden was killed inside the compound during a raid by U . S . special forces on May 2 , 2011 . International criticism . During October 2013 reports by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lead to the unveiling of the SCS having systematically wiretapped Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel ' s private cell phone over a period of over 10 years , which among other activities to wiretap and systematically record large amounts of European and South Amercian leaders ' and citizens ' communication by the NSA led to a distinct diplomatic backlash at the United States government .