[118639] in Cypherpunks
IP: NSA Recognizes Media Status - Will Do Hubbell FOIA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Robert Hettinga)
Mon Oct 4 16:29:21 1999
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Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 13:58:54 -0400
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Reply-To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
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Date: Mon, 4 Oct 1999 05:33:37 -0400 (EDT)
To: ignition-point@precision-d.com
From: softwar@us.net (CharlesSmith)
Subject: IP: NSA Recognizes Media Status - Will Do Hubbell FOIA
Sender: owner-ignition-point@precision-d.com
Reply-To: softwar@us.net (CharlesSmith)
On September 23, 1999 the National Security Agency (NSA)
determined that this reporter "should be considered a 'media'
requestor." The NSA determination came after years of legal
battles, a long series of (paid) published articles, radio and
TV show appearances and threats of Court action.
"Based upon this information regarding your publication record,"
wrote NSA attorney Barbara McNamara. "You have demonstrated
that you qualify as a representative of the news media, and as
such, will be charged only for duplication in excess of 100
pages."
The NSA recognition follows similar official letters recognizing
this reporter from the CIA, the Defense Dept., the Dept. of
Justice, the FAA and the Commerce Dept. The NSA letter that
finally recognizes this reporter as "media" also noted that the
most recent Freedom of Information Request will be served.
More importantly, that request is on former Attorney General
WEBSTER HUBBELL.
Few people know that Clinton associate, and convicted felon,
Webster Hubbell participated in a TOP SECRET project intended to
bug every phone in America called "CLIPPER". Documents obtained
by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show that Attorney
General Janet Reno tasked Webster Hubbell to run the project.
According to a March 1993 Justice Dept. memo from Stephen
Colgate, Assistant Attorney General for Administration, to
Webster Hubbell, "FBI, NSA and NSC want to push legislation
which would require all government agencies and eventually
everyone in the U.S. to use a new public-key based cryptography
method."
The method that Colgate wrote about was embodied in the CLIPPER
chip, a special device developed by the NSA that would allow the
Federal government to tap any phone, fax or computer so
equipped.
Colgate's memo to Hubbell was for a meeting with Vice President
Al Gore. Gore chaired the meeting with Hubbell, Reno, Commerce
Secretary Ron Brown, and Leon Panetta in March 1993. Since
1993, Vice President Gore has issued several statements in
support of the wire tap project:
"We want to assure users of key escrow encryption products
that they will not be the subject of unauthorized
surveillance. As we have done with the CLIPPER chip, future
key escrow systems must contain safeguards to provide for key
disclosure only under legal authorization."
Al Gore
http://www.softwar.net/al2000.html
Gore's promise that "safeguards" were in place to provide only
legal access to the CLIPPER back-door was actually yet another
tall tale from the Vice President. According to NASA engineer
Benita Cooper, the CLIPPER project was filled with illegal holes
and security risks.
"Devices using the EES (CAPSTONE and CLIPPER), which
implement the classified SKIPJACK algorithm, must be
programmed. The chip programmer is a device provided by the
National Security Agency (NSA). There is no assurance,
without scrutiny, that all keying material introduced during
the chip programming is not already available to the NSA.
Thus, not only do the key escrow agents have a decryption
capability, the NSA also retains this capability. Moreover,
compromise of the NSA keys, such as in the Walker case,
could compromise the entire EES system."
Benita A. Cooper - NASA Associate Administrator for
Management Systems and Facilities
http://www.softwar.net/nist.html
===============================================================
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755-6
23 September 1999
Serial: J9663A-99
Mr. Charles R. Smith
7707 Whirlaway Drive
Midlothian, VA 23112
Dear Mr. Smith:
This replies to your letter dated 5 April 1999 appealing the
National Security Agency's decision to place you in the
"commercial" fee category rather than the "media" category to
process your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for
various records related to project Clipper from 1993 to the
present. I have reviewed your original request dated 25 February
1999, the Deputy Director of Policy's 30 March 1999 letter
informing you of your placement in the "commercial" fee
category, and your letter of appeal. As a result of this review,
I have concluded that you should be considered a "media"
requester.
A FOIA requester has the burden of demonstrating that he is
entitled to be treated as a "media" requester. Your 25 February
1999 request, as well as your past requests to this agency, did
not provide the necessary documentation to support the "media"
category you sought. The only documentation you provided to this
agency in the past as evidence of prior publication were general
historical perspectives on the importance of codes which were
derived from publicly available material. They did not relate to
the information you sought in your requests, and did not
demonstrate any particular expertise with the subject of the
requested information. In addition, the articles were printed by
and for government publications which are not entities that are
"organized and operated to publish...news to the public."
Because you did not prove your qualifications, you were not
placed in the "media" category.
In your appeal letter, you indicate that we placed you in the
"commercial" fee category based on the fact that newsletters
were available for subscription or cost from your internet
website. That was not the case. The information available to us
at the time of your initial requests in 1997 indicated that
SOFTWAR specialized in offensive and defensive information
warfare techniques. It appeared that your primary interest in
obtaining the information was for commercial gain by enhancing
the sales of your products and services, rather than to inform
the public about government activities.
In your most recent appeal letter, you provided samples of
articles written since 1997, as well as evidence of your
freelance status with "The Washington Times." We also located
additional articles authored by you from late 1997 to the
present. Based upon this information regarding your publication
record, you have demonstrated that you qualify as a
representative of the news media, and as such, will be charged
only for duplication in excess of 100 pages.
Your 25 February 1999 FOIA request will be returned to the
Office of Policy to be processed in the order in which it was
received. If you have any questions, please contact the FOIA
Office between 0700 and 1530 EST on (301) 688-6527.
Sincerely,
BARBARA A. MCNAMARA
Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act
Appeals Authority
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Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
