Zarf

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: ZARF

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
3 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

ZARF is a data collection 'control system' (system that monitors and manages) for electronic intelligence from satellites. The ZARF system seems to have begun around 1960 with the launch of the first reconnaissance satellites during the Cold War. A PDF document available online indicates that the ZARF code name was eliminated in 1999.

The word zarf is an Arabic word for a holder, usually made of metal, into which fits a small handle-less coffee cup, used mostly in Turkey. I wasn't sure how to fit this in with the Cold War reconnaissance satellite imagery of the NSA's ZARF until I discovered that there's a Russian cousin to the zarf called the podstakannik, which is a metal holder used to serve hot tea in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other post-Soviet states. Podstakanniks seem to often be commemorative, depicting architecture, famous people, famous dates in history, etc. I modeled my zarf on a Russian podstakannik commemorating the launch of Sputnik, the first ever satellite sent into orbit by Russia in 1957. Russia's Sputnik triggered the Space Race between the U.S. and Russia, a larger part of the Cold War.

Yellowstone

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: YELLOWSTONE

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
3 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

The only information I could find online about the NSA's Yellowstone is that it's "an analytical database," but there's a lot of information about Yellowstone National Park, so I went with that.

The word Yellowstone is an Anglicization of the Minnetaree Indians' expression for the Yellowstone River, and in 1872 it became the name of Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world. Yellowstone National Park is known for its geothermal features (it's situated atop the largest supervolcano in North America) and its wildlife, including Grizzly bears, wolves, and free-ranging herds of bison and elk. The Yellowstone Park bison herd is the oldest and largest public bison herd in the United States.

Something I've been thinking about as I've worked on this series of Secret NSA Codewords is how often our culture is shaped by our military decisions and needs. The entire Secret Surveillance State that we now live in is a direct reaction (many would say over-reaction) to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and it turns out that the story of the American Bison is also tied up with a military decision. At one time, an estimated 30 million or more bison dominated most of the central and western portion of North America, where they had lived continuously since prehistoric times, but by 1889 there were only just over 1,000 bison left. Although native Americans hunted bison, and once they acquired horses in the 1600s they could hunt them more efficiently, they generally didn't hunt to excess. It was the U.S. Army that actually reduced the herds in the late 1800s, when they launched a campaign to eliminate bison as a way to control the Indian tribes that depended on the bison for food. In one of the many ironies that characterizes American history, the U.S. Army brought a few dozen bison to Yellowstone Park to 'protect' them, and it is from that tiny herd that the 2,500- to 5,000-head herd at Yellowstone descended.

As I was searching the internet for information about Yellowstone, I also discovered that the supervolcano is a topic on several conspiracy-style web sites. It seems that there have been some small earthquakes in the region lately, and some conspiracy theorists wonder if either the government or a terrorist organization is trying to trigger a volcanic eruption. A video of bison supposedly fleeing Yellowstone went viral this past spring with ominous suggestions that the animals could feel the impending eruption and were moving to safer ground. The video was later debunked, but you here it is for your viewing pleasure.

Xkeyscore

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: XKEYSCORE

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
3 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

XKEYSCORE is a computer system used by the NSA to search and analyze internet data from many sources worldwide. The existence of the program was first revealed by Edward Snowden who, along with journalist Glenn Greenwald, presents XKeyscore as a system that enables almost unlimited surveillance of anyone anywhere in the world. Although other experts don't believe that the system is as robust as Greenwald and Snowden claim, according to a Greenwald article in The Guardian, XKeyscore is a sort of custom search engine that allows analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals. The data can be sorted by typing in a name, email address, or IP address, or extracted through queries, such as "My target speaks German but is in Pakistan -- how can I find him?"

One of the limitations of XKeyscore is storage. The database only has the capacity to store the massive volume of the data it collects for a few days, so essentially the XKeyscore system is best used for "real time" tracking of targets. In that short time frame, however, it seems to provide a very accurate digital fingerprint of any designated target in the world.

Waterwitch

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: WATERWITCH

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
2 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

WATERWITCH is a hand held device used for homing in on target cell phones, providing a specific and precise location. You can see a photograph of the device here if you're interested. This device would be used in the field in order to precisely locate a target, probably in order to kill or capture the target.

Often when I'm working on these codewords I consult Google just to see what comes up. It turns out that 'water witching' is a term for the ancient practice of dowsing, a type of divination in which a hand held Y-shaped twig or rod, called a dowsing rod or a witching rod, is used to locate ground water or other valuables. In fact, according to Wikipedia, dowsing was used to track criminals and heretics in 17th century France.

It's also worth noting that assassination or murder is sometimes referred to by the euphemism 'wetwork,' in an allusion to spilled blood.

Victorydance

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: VICTORYDANCE

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
7 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

According to Glenn Greenwald's blog The Intercept, the NSA has played an increasingly central role in drone killings over the past five years, and the Obama administration has increasingly focused these strikes on Yemen. VICTORYDANCE was a Joint NSA-CIA operation to map the WiFi signals of nearly every major town in Yemen. The information was collected specifically for use in locating targets for drone attacks. Basically, the NSA equips drones with devices which mimic cell phone towers so that a targeted person's cell phone locks into the drone receiver and becomes the drone's real-time guide.

On Dec. 12, 2013 in Radda in southern Yemen, four Hellfire missiles were fired at a wedding procession of 11 vehicles, killing at least 12 people and wounding at least 15 others, one of whom was said to be the bride. U.S. officials say that only members of al-Qaida were killed in the strike.

My victory dancer is modeled on a photograph of a young Yemeni man dancing the bara'a, or dagger dance, which is performed at traditional weddings in Yemen. Only men perform the bara'a dance, and they brandish a dagger called a janbiya. You can watch a short video of the bara'a dance here.

It's Expensive to Be an Artist

The International Print Biennale in Newcastle, UK, opens on June 27 and I'm honored to have nine of my works being exhibited in the gallery at Northern Print.

As happy as I am to have my work included, I also have had to spend quite a bit of money to prepare and ship the work. This fact is known by artists who show their work -- it costs money to show. Yet the costs aren't visible and most people who aren't artists have no idea of the scope of these costs. In the interests of educating both art viewers and aspiring artists (who also are often unaware of the behind-the-scenes costs), may I present my reckoning of the to-date economics of having my work included in the International Print Biennale.

• Entry fee                $42.35
• Art Boards             261.38
• Mounting Paper      40.12
• Packaging               67.45
• Postage                  131.55
• TOTAL                  $542.85

This is to say nothing of the materials or labor involved in making the prints (the series took about 5 months) or the labor of mounting the prints on art boards (three days). As for potential sales to offset these costs, this is not something for which one should hold their breath.

Except for artists fortunate enough to land in the upper end of the market, being an artist is economically difficult if not impossible, and can occasionally feel like a foolish pursuit. I prepared my quarterly tax payment this morning, so I'm feeling foolish. But in a few minutes I'll walk over to my carving area and start working on my next Secret Codeword print, and I'll forget all about what a fool's errand I'm on.

Happy Monday!

Umbra

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: UMBRA

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
5 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

[NOTE: Sorry if this print hurts your eyes a little, but I wanted it that way.]

The NSA's UMBRA is "a retired compartment for the most sensitive COMINT material." In other words, it's a category of secrecy (compartment), now out of service, that allowed people with UMBRA clearance to have access to highly sensitive communications intelligence. Here's an interesting PDF, something about UFOs from the 1980s, that shows how the UMBRA designation would be used in a document.

This is the first retired codeword I've done, but I couldn't resist the power of this metaphor. An umbra is the blackest part of a shadow cast by an opaque object, especially the cone-shaped shadow cast by earth or the moon during an eclipse. This dark shadow is obviously an apt metaphor for the secrecy, the 'dark sites,' and the covert activities that U.S. national security agencies have engaged in at an ever accelerating pace since 9/11/01. But there's another shadow side to America's 21st century security state: it has grown so quickly and become so large and unwieldy that no one, including those inside the NSA, actually knows how much money we spend on it, how many people are employed within it, or which programs are doing what work and how much of that work is duplicated. As for oversight, it's a mess. Over 100 congressional committees claim at least some oversight on NSA activities.

Edward Snowden made such a loud splash with his stolen NSA documents that everyone now knows that the American security state exists. But a recent Frontline documentary called United States of Secrets reveals a depth and pervasiveness to the NSA’s domestic surveillance abuses that I personally found shocking. Long before Snowden, there were a number of government security experts inside the agency who were deeply disturbed by what the government was doing and who tried to do something about it. William Binney, Thomas Drake, Richard Loomis and Diane Roark are just some of the government employees who became whistleblowers after 9/11. The documentary is still available to watch online, plus interviews with the whistleblowers and other background materials if you're interested in digging deep. I think it's the most comprehensive look at the American Security State to date.

As I've worked on this Secret Codewords project, I've also referred to a book called Top Secret America by Dana Priest and William Arkin. Arkin began researching the rising security state immediately after 9/11 when he noticed a rash of new codewords in NSA budget documents. His reporting with Dana Priest appeared in a special report in the Washington Post back in 2009-2010. You can still access it here.

Tinman

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: TINMAN

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
4 layers of color, hand coloring, plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

Tinman is an NSA database related to air warning and surveillance. I haven't been able to find any other information about it so far, but I love The Wizard of Oz, so I jumped at the chance to make a woodcut of the Tin Man. I had trouble imagining the Tin Man being in charge of air warning and surveillance, but when I added a flying monkey it all made sense.

Sphinx

SECRET CODEWORDS OF THE NSA: SPHINX

woodblock print (mokuhanga)
6" x 6" (152.4 x 152.4 mm)
2 layers of color plus blind emboss on Kochi Kozo paper
edition: 20

SPHINX is a counterintelligence database of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which is a part of the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD themselves define counterintelligence as "information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage… sabotage, or assassinations conducted by or on behalf of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations, or foreign persons, or international terrorist activities." In the popular culture, we often think of double agents when we hear the word counterintelligence, and most spy stories are about this kind of intrigue.

For my woodblock sphinx, I chose to use the Greek version of this mythical creature. Unlike the Egyptian sphinx, which is typically shown as male and viewed as benevolent, the sphinx of the Greek tradition is female, often with wings, and is considered treacherous and merciless. She often presents a riddle to be solved (see Oedipus) and those who cannot answer the her riddle are killed and eaten.

For the NSA's sphinx, I used the head of Lady Liberty. She holds some very important riddles for us in this age of surveillance. As Edward Snowden said in his recent interview with NBC's Brian Williams, "I think it’s really disingenuous for the government to… exploit the national trauma that we all suffered together and worked so hard to come through to justify programs that have never been shown to keep us safe, but cost us liberties and freedoms that we don’t need to give up and our Constitution says we should not give up."

Help us with your riddle, Lady Liberty.

Oh, and here's a real gem of a video from the FBI about the dangers of being recruited into a life of spying. Her name is "Amanda." The video reminds me so much of the old movies about the dangers of homosexuals, or of smoking pot. It's 28 minutes, and I will admit that I didn't watch the whole thing, but just a few minutes will be all you need. (More on the FBI web site, which claims that the video is based on a real-life story.)