 SDF personnel received training at U.S. NSA cipher school The Japanese Self-Defense Forces have admitted that they have sent their personnel to the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) cipher school, an intelligence organization designed to study "security maintenance of communication". The dispatching of SDF personnel to such a school reveals the fact that military relations between the U.S. and Japan have gone as far as to require top secrecy, a retired SDF official told Akahata which made the inquiry based on the Free Access to Information Law. Documents obtained are copies of the 2001 and 2002 versions of Joint Staff Council reports on enforcements of operational plans, reports on annual JSC activities presented to the Defense Agency director general. In each of the two years, five personnel of the JCS J3 (Operations) and the Ground, Maritime, and Air SDF Staff Offices were sent for training at the NSA, Motorola, U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM), U.S. Pacific Air Force (PACAF), Pacific Fleet (PACFLT), Naval Computer and Telecommunication Area Maser Station-Pacific (NCTAMS-PAC), DISA-PAC, DISA-HQ. The terms of training were November 29-December 12, 2001, and November 30-December 15, 2002. The classes dealt with security of communication to educate specialists on U.S. intelligence. The Defense Agency has released information that the training for SDF personnel at the NSA school started in 1993. (end) |