Interview of Tuesday, 16 March 2021 of Jason Fagone, author-journalist, on Elizebeth Friedman, "The Woman Who Smashed Codes."
Interviewer: Deborah Bonanni, former Chief of Staff, NSA; AFIO Board. Host: James Hughes, AFIO President, a former CIA Operations Officer.
TOPIC: Jason Fagone and Deborah Bonanni discuss the relatively unknown cryptographer Elizebeth Friedman, her beginnings and remarkable achievements in codebreaking -- including in foreign languages she did not know -- her alliance and marriage to NSA "founder" William Friedman; her work at Riverbank Labs; Rum running; and many other hidden aspects of an outstanding (at times astonishing) "in the shadows" life assisting the nation.
The interview runs 37 minutes and includes several Q&As.
For more information about Elizebeth Friedman, the book, and Jason Fagone's other writing projects, or to read his newsletter, visit jfagone.substack.com.
BIOS:
JASON FAGONE is a journalist and author of several books, including the one featured in this interview: The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine Who Outwitted America's Enemies, published in 2017. He is a journalist at the San Francisco Chronicle and an author with Dey Street Books. Previously, he covered technology, sports, and culture for the Huffington Post Highline and other places. In 2014-15 he was a Knight-Wallace Fellow in journalism at the University of Michigan, and now lives in San Francisco with his wife and daughter.
DEBORAH A. BONANNI served in a number of executive leadership positions at NSA, including Chief of Staff; Associate Director of Human Resources Services; Associate Director of Education and Training; Commandant of the National Cryptologic School; and Associate General Counsel for Information Security. She is currently Executive Vice President and Counsel for FedData, LLC and is also a Director of KEYW, Inc. Ms. Bonanni graduated Summa Cum Laude from Hood College with a BA in History and Political Science and received her Juris Doctorate from the Columbus School of Law, Catholic University.
JAMES R. HUGHES currently serves as the 17th President of AFIO. His service began January 2015. He had a career of US Government service spanning 37 years in numerous foreign countries with a particular focus in the Middle East. He started in U.S. Military Intelligence in the late 1960s and then joined the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He served overseas as a Chief of Station several times, and at CIA Headquarters in a number of senior management positions, including as Chief of the Near East and South Asia Division, in the Directorate of Operations [today’s National Clandestine Service]. He was also named the Associate Deputy Director of Operations (ADDO) at the National Security Agency, 1998-99. Following his retirement from the government in 2005, he joined EDS in Herndon, Virginia, as the Client Industry Executive for the U.S. Intelligence Community. After the HP acquisition of EDS, he continued to serve in a similar capacity until his retirement in 2012. His parents were missionaries in Turkey in the 1950s, where Jim spent his formative years. He is fluent in Arabic.