By James Eppard
Special to the Gazette

Wednesday, March 31, 1999

Even in the early days of the information age, a top-secret agency like the CIA had to jump through myriad hoops and justify their "need to know" before another secret agency would share its guarded details.

Then, in 1994, the nation's 13 most secretive organizations broke ground on their own information superhighway. Only it's not a highway at all; it's more like a super-mysterious cyber-beltway with no on-ramps, where only spies and G-men with security clearances can drive bytes of data back and forth between 50,000 operatives at 100 different sites.

Fredrick Thomas Martin, a former National Security Agency official living in Columbia, writes about this revolution in his new book, "Top Secret Intranet," which he will discuss Tuesday at Borders Gaithersburg.

In the book, Martin describes how the ultra-insulated network called Intelink helped forge a more "agile" U.S. intelligence system. He also explains how private enterprise could learn a few tricks from the secrecy pros, tricks that could help them beef up their own information firewalls.

"I believe that a lot of outside companies will be interested in what the intelligence community is doing to protect its information," says Martin, now a consultant for Virginia-based High Performance Technologies.

The 380-page opus is not a cloak and dagger novel. It is more of a modern history book geared toward privacy-minded companies and folks who already know a thing or two about the intelligence community. Chapter 10, for instance, is titled "Achieving a More Agile Intelligence Enterprise."

Still, the book's subject matter piques enough curiosity to warrant a layman's browse. Who doesn't wonder, even worry, about how U.S. agencies trade data across time and space without concern that something might fall into the wrong hands?

In short, says Martin, it can't happen. Even the most zealous hacker would come up empty in trying to recreate the movie "War Games" by penetrating Intelink.

"It's physically impossible for somebody to break into that," Martin says. The network, described in the book as the world's largest and most secure, is on dedicated Defense Department networks with no connection -- an "air barrier" if you will -- to the ubiquitous Internet. Users also must have top-secret security clearance. And, on top of that, the network is chock full of encryption algorithms that would make a techie's head swim.

The fact alone that Martin wrote a book about the spy community's favored method of sharing secret tidbits will undoubtedly raise a few eyebrows. It certainly did when he proposed the book to his superiors at NSA.

"There is always a reluctance to share data," Martin says.

In trying to start Intelink, agencies weren't thrilled at the notion of getting connected, particularly on a network open to thousands. The "need to know" rules were relaxed a bit to make way for the network, says Martin, but the issue is often revisited.

The typically rigid guidelines on disclosure explain why it took Martin two years just to line up permission from the various agencies to pen his book. It went through a heavy review process by colleagues, during which they edited out touchy subjects. What emerged is an insider's description of a highly secret network that changed the way the U.S. gathers and shares secrets.

"In business parlance, the intelligence community is facing a need to operate with a 'shorter cycle time,'" CIA Deputy Director for Science and Technology Dr. Ruth A. David writes in the book's prologue. The network, she writes, "with its collaborative work processes and shared information access, offers exactly what the intelligence community needs."

In it's third printing from Prentice Hall Publishers, the book even includes a CD-ROM that replicates the Intelink experience -- from it's off-the-shelf Netscape browser to a sampling of unclassified intelligence data.

Although his book does shed some light on how government agencies communicate, Martin, who left the NSA in 1997 after a 38-year career, is hardly an advocate of total openness.

"There's a big part of me that subscribes to the school of thought that says, 'Don't say anything,'" he says. "If you're looking for secrets, I don't reveal any secrets."

If you have Internet access, you can preview a chapter of "Top Secret Intranet: The Story of Intelink, How U.S. Intelligence Built the World's Largest Most Secure Network," at http://www.topsecretnet.com

Fredrick Thomas Martin will be at Borders Books, 534 North Frederick Ave., in Gaithersburg on Tuesday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free. Call 301-921-0990.