“…the Iraq reporting cell within NSA’s [National Security Agency’s] National Security Operations Center (NSOC) was disbanded on May 2 [2003], the day after President Bush declared ‘Mission Accomplished’ on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. NSA’s SIGINT [signals intelligence] collection assets that had formerly been committed to Iraq were shifted to intercepting the military and diplomatic communications of Iran and Syria. SIGINT coverage of those countries’ military and internal security radio traffic turned up nothing to suggest that either Iran or Syria intended anything nefarious. SIGINT also monitored Turkish traffic because of the U.S. concern that Turkey might intervene militarily in northern Iraq to prevent the formation of an independent Kurdish state, anathema to the Turkish government.”
– Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Page 265