December 1996: NSA Refuses to Share Bin Laden Phone Surveillance with Other US Intelligence Agencies

In 2004, Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999 (see February 1996), will write about the NSA’s surveillance of bin Laden’s satellite phone. Bin Laden began using the phone about a month earlier (see November 1996-Late August 1998). According to Scheuer, a CIA officer working overseas with the NSA tells the CIA bin Laden unit that the NSA is monitoring bin Laden’s phone. The NSA refuses to share information gained from the phone and threatens legal action against the officer who revealed its existence to the CIA. This leads to a “desultory interagency discussion without resolution.” The CIA is then “forced to devise its own ability to exploit the [monitoring of bin Laden’s phone] and secure[s] about half of the available material.” [Atlantic Monthly, 12/2004] Apparently Scheuer says “half” because the CIA is only able to listen to one side of the conversations. [Wright, 2006, pp. 283] While the NSA knows the rest of the material, it apparently continues to refuse to share it with the CIA, FBI, or Richard Clarke in the White House. Scheuer will not explain why the NSA is unwilling to share this very valuable material. [Atlantic Monthly, 12/2004; Wright, 2006, pp. 283]