Washington, DC, January 23, 2014 –
Forty-six years ago today - well before Edward Snowden was born - the National Security Agency suffered what may still rank as the most significant
compromise ever of its code secrets when the American spy ship USS Pueblo was captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea
on January 23, 1968. The U.S. Navy signals intelligence ship was on a mission to intercept radio and electronic transmissions, and apparently sailing in
international waters, when North Korean naval units opened fire, then boarded the vessel and took its crew hostage for almost a year, sparking a major
international crisis.
Beyond the dramatic political ramifications of the seizure and hostage-taking for the Lyndon Johnson administration and U.S. world standing, the incident
resulted in the capture of a dozen top secret encryption devices, maintenance manuals, and other code materials. Because it involved actual encryption
equipment rather than just papers and briefing materials, the Pueblo affair may have produced a much greater loss than the recent disclosures of
former NSA contract employee Edward Snowden.
