March 10, 2006

The Saddam Files: National Security and Enemy Documents

By J.R. Dunn
Two million captured documents from the files of Saddam Hussein's government remain mostly un—translated, their contents unavailable to the national conversation on Middle East policy. History has some lessons for us in the treatment of treasure troves of enemy files. We can — and must — do better. The Venona decrypts, the crown jewels of Cold War intelligence, were the product of a program carried out by the U.S. Army Signal Security Agency. Beginning in 1943, the agency's codebreaking force at Arlington Hall set to work on several hundred thousand Soviet cables intercepted from embassies and other sources. At first progress was hit and miss, but at last in 1946 a breakthrough was made by the legendary codebreaker Meredith Gardner. A widely—repeated story holds that the key element was a partially—burned codebook provided by the Finns. (Learning of the codebook's existence, FDR's strange secretary of state Edward Stettinius returned it to the Soviets...(Read Full Article)