Thread by @LCueilleur

The early BND machine records program
#thread

At the beginning of 1960s, the #BND submerged in a flood of data. With the help of the #CIA, the BND wanted to make the technical leap. The main objective: The automation of #sigint, #humint and #osint data handling 1/6

A CIA report (1965) states: ‚CADITE (BND) has an archaic index card and file system which involves some 1,5 million index cards which lead to dossiers filed in country sections and subfiled by intelligence service. There is no document control‘ 2/6

‚It is clear from the revelations during this session that CATIDE'S capability for name  tracing and information support in protection of its own operational security, and it's response to name trace request from other services, is poor,‘ the CIA report says 3/6

The first computer should be delivered by #IBM. A meeting with IBM experts in #Pullach was planned for this. But BND president Reinhard Gehlen (UTILITY) resisted. The CIA called him a ‚gadgeteer with no understanding of the problem‘ 4/6

A working group under Chief of BND Security - Ebrulf Zuber - (ACKERMANN) was established. The 'Automatic Data Processing Group‘ consisted of academics with different specializations - alias KREUZBURG, SEYBOLD and DURBER. But the CIA was skeptical ... 5/6

What almost nobody knows. The BND was the first federal agency in West Germany to be equipped with a computer. And this ‚government computer‘ was in Pullach - 6/6 (Source: CIA Archive) #coldwarhistory