The President's Book of Secrets Page #4

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designed to influence foreign

political, military,

economic events.

Occasionally, I would actually

talk about espionage.

"Mr. President, we are now able

to do this.

We now have access to that."

(Peter Earnest) Those of us

who worked in the field, during

the Cold War, and I spent over

10 years in the field, were

aware that it was quite

possible, and in some cases

likely, that the intelligence

that we were collecting might

well be on the President's desk

the following morning and affect

the course of foreign affairs.

Narrator:
To combat potential

problems, the President has, in

his arsenal, a wide range of

secret intelligence weapons.

Among the most effective and

deadly of these in recent years

have been the drones.

These small remote-controlled

planes have been used

extensively during the wars in

Iraq and Afghanistan.

Drones have served both as

reconnaissance tools and,

because they can carry a

weapons payload, as killing

machines.

Bohn:
In fact, it can get

quite exotic.

Nowadays they can look at the

feed from a drone over

Afghanistan in real time.

The military can pipe that back

to the White House, and you can

sit there in the sit room, and

watch what the operator's

watching.

Man:
It just detonated.

Narrator:
But in addition to

secret weapon systems, wouldn't

The President's Book of Secrets

also include information about

top-secret agencies--

organizations that are so

clandestine that just

mentioning their names could

get a government worker

arrested?

(Trevor Paglen) We've all

heard of NASA.

Well, it turns out there's

another space agency as well

which is called the National

Reconnaissance Office.

Was started in the early

1960s, and the fact of its

existence wasn't made public

until 1992.

So, over 30 years, we had a

secret space agency whose very

existence was secret.

Narrator:
The National

Reconnaissance Office develops

and operates a series of spy

satellites that fly in low

earth orbit and use advanced

space and imaging technologies.

Paglen:
There's a class of

satellites descended from

something called keyholes

which are, essential,

photographic reconnaissance

satellites-- giant cameras

taking pictures of the ground.

There's another class of

optical reconnaissance!

Satellites called the Onyx

system.

And what that does is something

called synthetic aperture radar.

It shoots radar beams down to

the surface of the Earth and

collects them back to create

maps and images.

It allows you to see through

clouds.

It allows you to see into the

ground, and it allows you to

see at night.

And, indeed, military personnel

assigned to the Onyx program

wear patches that say, "We own

the night."

Alter:
Oftentimes, the

intelligence is very limited.

But there are other times when

they have what's called

actionable intelligence, which

means, intelligence of a quality

that it allows you to use a

predator drone to target a

member of the al-Qaeda

leadership.

President Obama has acted on

actionable intelligence

numerous times and actually,

ordered the killing of al-Qaeda

leaders.

Narrator:
The National

Reconnaissance Office also

operates massive eavesdropping

satellites that can actually

listen in to international

phone calls or intercept

computer communication.

Paglen:
These satellites

suck up all of the information

that is being routed through

communication satellites.

Zaid:
Years ago, when I was

representing Mohammad al Fayad,

dealing with Princess Diana's

death, NSA supposedly picked up

surveillance of the ambassador

to the United States from

Brazil's wife talking to

Princess Diana about certain

sexual dalliances that Princess

Diana was engaged in.

Now, the NSA was not secretly

monitoring Diana for the

purpose of trying to find out.

Apparently, they were monitoring

Brazil because of sensitive

negotiations that were going on

with U.S.-Brazil issues in the

rain forest.

The fact that information was

picked up by the NSA, that

information is some of the most

closely guarded secrets and

it's the method of communication

or signals intelligence that

really is at the heart of some

of the most key, fundamental

secrets the United States has.

Narrator:
But perhaps the

President's most valuable

intelligence tool isn't located

in space or across the

Potomac River.

Just one floor below the Oval

Office sits a room that is the

heart of the President's

intelligence operations.

Bohn:
Most people think of

the situation room as a meeting

room, but it's really the

President's intelligence center.

And it was started in 1961 by

John Kennedy to allow him to

know what the rest of the

government knew at the

same time.

Previous presidents had been

hostage to the State

Department, or Defense, or

Intelligence for information.

And he realized during the

Cuban missile crisis that he

couldn't really run the

government unless had a more

rapid arrival of information at

the White House.

Today, the President could not

do his job without the White

House situation room.

Narrator:
For decades, the

situation room consisted of two

or three rooms crammed with

people and equipment.

But in 2007, during the

administration of George W.

Bush, was expanded to 13

rooms, filled with the ultimate

in high-tech, top-secret and

super-secure communication

capabilities.

Patterson:
The largest of

those rooms has walls called

whisper walls, to disallow

ambient noise.

It has, at the end, a knowledge

wall, on which can be projected

pictures and satellite pictures,

surveillance pictures and

so forth.

Man:
Throughout the white

house situation room, we have a

number of phone tubes, or

call them "Superman tubes," with

the capability to have

unclassified telephones as well

as top secret telephones.

Bohn:
If the President

needs a private moment, or

anyone else, he steps into the

Director's office and they flip

the switch, and it instantly

fogs the glass, so it gives him

more privacy.

Narrator:
The situation room

also contains a secret and

secure video-conferencing

system that allows the

President to communicate

face-to-face with international

leaders, ambassadors, and

military commanders.

Perino:
Every Wednesday,

President Bush met by secure

video-teleconference,

Prime Minister Maliki, or

President Karzai of Afghanistan.

President Bush used to like to

say, "I don't want to talk

to him on the phone.

I want to look him in the eye."

And then he was able to do that

in the new situation room.

Narrator:
Today, the

situation room functions as the

President's global information

and response center.

It's manned by military aides

24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Bohn:
95% of the information

that goes to the President on

a daily basis is funneled

through the sit room.

When the oil spill in the Gulf

started, the sit room probably

became engaged immediately.

And reporting on that routinely.

Even though it's not in their

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