{"id":254,"date":"2006-05-15T23:14:05","date_gmt":"2006-05-15T23:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=254"},"modified":"2006-05-15T23:14:05","modified_gmt":"2006-05-15T23:14:05","slug":"project-shamrock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irdial.com\/blogdial\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"Project SHAMROCK"},"content":{"rendered":"

Project SHAMROCK<\/strong>, considered to be the sister project for Project MINARET<\/a>, was an espionage exercise that involved the accumulation of all telegraphic data entering into or exiting from the United States<\/a>. The Armed Forces Security Agency<\/a> (AFSA)<\/a> and its successor NSA<\/a> were given direct access to daily microfilm<\/a> copies of all incoming, outgoing, and transiting telegraphs via the Western Union<\/a> and its associates RCA<\/a> and ITT<\/a>. Operation Shamrock lasted well into the 1960s when computerized operations (HARVEST<\/a>) made it possible to search for keywords rather than read through all communications.<\/p>\n

Project SHAMROCK became so successful that in 1966 the NSA and CIA<\/a> set up a front company in Lower Manhattan<\/a> (where the offices of the telegraph companies were located) under the codename LPMEDLEY. At the height of Project SHAMROCK, 150,000 messages a month were printed and analyzed by NSA agents. In May 1975 however, congressional critics began to investigate and expose the program. As a result, NSA director Lew Allen<\/a> terminated it. The testimony of both the representatives from the cable companies and of director Allen at the hearings prompted Senate Intelligence Committee<\/a> chairman Sen. Frank Church<\/a> to conclude that Project SHAMROCK was \u201cprobably the largest government interception program affecting Americans ever undertaken.”<\/em><\/p>\n

One result of these investigations was the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act<\/a> (FISA) which limited the powers of the NSA and put in place a process of warrants and judicial review.
\n“Operation Shamrock” was also the name of a plan to bring chidren to Ireland<\/a> from post World War II<\/a> Germany<\/a><\/p>\n