NSA Claims It Can’t Watch an Important Tape It Recorded in the 1980s

There are 2 reels of aged portion buried successful the National Security Agency’s archives that incorporate a landmark portion of machine subject history. There’s a occupation though, the NSA doesn’t person a instrumentality that tin play backmost the tapes.

The tapes are a signaling of a lecture from machine subject fable Admiral Grace Hopper. Hopper was a U.S. Navy serviceman and computer pioneer who helped make FLOW-MATIC, the archetypal programming connection that utilized English keywords alternatively of numbers. She aboriginal helped make COBOL, a business-oriented machine connection that inactive undergirds galore machine systems.

In 1982, she gave a lecture astatine the NSA office astatine Fort Meade. The NSA recorded the lecture and stored it away. “The insights contained wrong her 1982 lecture, divided into 2 parts—TVC 930A and TVC 930B, with durations of 48 minutes and 15 seconds, and 40 minutes and 39 seconds, respectively—are not conscionable humanities footnotes but are apt to connection invaluable perspectives connected the improvement of exertion and its societal impact,” researcher Michael Ravintzky said successful an article astir Hopper’s lecture connected MuckRock, a nonprofit that helps radical record Freedom of Information Act Requests (FOIAs).

Ravnitzky filed a FOIA for the tapes connected October 12, 2021. Three years aboriginal the NSA said determination were “no responsive documents.” Ravitzky told the NSA helium knew the bureau had the files. The NSA’s ain “Television Center Catalog,” a papers turned escaped by a FOIA successful 2009, listed the tapes among the contents. He pressed them for an explanation.

The NSA’s excuse? It didn’t person thing to play the tapes back, couldn’t perceive to them, and truthful couldn’t wide them for release. “When the hunt was conducted, our bureau reached retired to the enactment that would person the portion you requested if it inactive exists. We were informed that though determination are immoderate older video tapes that are perchance responsive, they are connected a format that NSA nary longer has the quality to presumption oregon digitize,” the NSA FOIA bureau said successful a follow-up. “Without being capable to presumption the tapes, NSA has nary mode to verify their responsiveness. NSA is not required to find oregon get caller exertion (outdated oregon current) successful bid to process a request.”

Ravnitzky asked the NSA for pictures of the tapes and they complied. The pictures revealed the tapes were recorded connected an AMPEX 1-inch Video Tape Recorder. There were 3 antithetic standardized types of AMPEX machines, but it wouldn’t beryllium intolerable to find a instrumentality that could play backmost the tapes. A cursory hunt connected eBay revealed dozens of machines that mightiness acceptable the bill.

It mightiness not travel to that. After MuckRock published an nonfiction radical stepped guardant and offered to help. Michael Morisy, the laminitis and CEO of MuckRock, told Gizmodo that respective groups had reached retired with “various hardware setups they thought could bash the trick.”

“Been trying to link folks,” helium said. “But not definite if thing factual has oregon volition travel of it yet.”

The NSA is holding connected to an important portion of machine history, thing historians and the nationalist volition beryllium funny to hear. Tape, similar everything else, degrades implicit time. If we privation to sphere this lecture and perceive the contented of Admiral Hopper, present is the clip to act.

“This situation transcends the confines of NSA’s operational scope,” Ravitzky said connected MuckRock. “It is our shared work to safeguard specified pivotal elements of our nation’s history, ensuring they stay wrong scope of aboriginal generations. While the stewardship of these recordings whitethorn widen beyond the NSA’s emblematic purview, they are undeniably a portion of America’s nationalist heritage.”