VENONA project

The VENONA project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between United States intelligence agencies and the United Kingdom's MI5 that involved the cryptanalysis of messages sent by several Soviet intelligence agencies. There were known to be at least 13 code words for this effort used by the US and UK. VENONA was the last code word for the project.

Public disclosure

Some of the earliest detailed public knowledge that Soviet code messages from WWII period had been broken came with the release of Robert Lamphere's book, The FBI-KGB War, in 1986. Lamphere had been the FBI liaison to the code-breaking activity, had considerable knowledge of the details of the "breakin," and was deeply involved in the counter-intelligence work that followed.

Related Topics:
Robert Lamphere - 1986 - Counter-intelligence

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In 1995, a bipartisan Commission on Government Secrecy, with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as chairman, was responsible for the release of Venona project materials (although many inside the NSA had also come to believe that the time had come to make it public, and argued internally for such a release).

Related Topics:
1995 - Bipartisan - Commission on Government Secrecy - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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Moynihan wrote "The Venona intercepts contained overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds." {{NamedRef|Secrecy15|2}}

Related Topics:
Proof - Names

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