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One of the key players during the Snowden affair was Director of National Intelligence James Clapper . He is responsible for coordinating all 16 American intelligence agencies, a role which is reflected by the number and the types of telephone equipment in his office. Clapper has six phones, more than for example the director of the NSA, or the Defense Secretary. Here we will take a close look at these telecommunication devices used by the US Director of National Intelligence. The office of Director of National Intelligence (DNI) was created in 2004, after the 9/11 Commission Report recommended a stronger and separate leadership for the US intelligence community. Before, it was the director of the CIA who acted as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) in order to coordinate the various intelligence agencies. Australian foreign affairs minister Kevin Rudd (right) meeting DNI James Clapper (left) (Photo: Australian Foreign Affairs Department - Click to enlarge) The telecommunications...

(Updated: September 29, 2014) After a range of articles about how NSA intercepts foreign communications, we now take a look at the equipment that NSA uses to secure their own telecommunications, more specific those of its director. We can do this because last December, the CBS program 60 Minutes offered some unprecedented insights into the NSA headquarters. Of course very limited, but still interesting for those with a sharp eye. Perhaps the most revealing was that for the first time ever it was shown how the office of the director of NSA looks like: The office of NSA director Alexander, December 2013 (click to enlarge) The office of the director is at a corner on the eighth floor of the OPS 2B building, which is the wider and lower one of the two black mirrored glass structures of the NSA headquarters at Fort George G. Meade . Contrary to what many people would probably expect, the director's office is far from high tech. We see a rather traditional interior with a classic woode...

Last month, on November 4, 2012, the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States celebrated it's 60th anniversary. The NSA is one of the world's largest intelligence agencies, responsible for gathering foreign signals intelligence and protecting domestic communications. For this diamond anniversary, NSA published a full color illustrated publication (available here in PDF) with an interesting overview of its history. In this booklet there are also nice pictures, some of them unseen until now: President George H.W. Bush using a secure Motorola STU-III telephone. Such a phone was placed everywhere where the president stayed during a travel, so he was able to always place secure calls. This purpose is also indicated by the plate below the phone. It's not clear what the white device is for. This black Motorola STU-III still served in this function, when president George W. Bush was calling during his stay at the elementary school on September 11, 2001. (Photo: NSA -...

Last week, David Petraeus resigned as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), after admitting he had an extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. This led to many news reports and also many pictures on the internet. Some of them give a nice look at the telecommunications equipment which general Petraeus used when, from July 2010 to July 2011, he was commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, Afghanistan: ISAF Commander Petraeus being interviewed by Paula Broadwell (Photo: paulabroadwell.com, date unknown) In this picture we see the following telecommunication devices: Video conferencing screens On Petraeus' desk we see two Centric 1700 MXP video teleconferencing screens, made by the Norwegian manufacturer Tandberg . In 2010 this company was bought by Cisco Systems, and so the 1700 MXP screens are often used by US military officials. They are equipped with a HD camera and have a widescreen LCD screen, which operates both a...