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NSA Publication Indices Declassified
Schneier is reporting that a 3 year old freedom of information act request has finally come to fruition showing us indices from the NSA Technical Journal, Cryptographic Quarterly, Crytologic Spectrum, and Cryptologic Almanac. From the article: "The request took more than three years for them to process and declassify -- sadly, not atypical -- and during the process they asked if he would accept the indexes in lieu of the tables of contents pages: specifically, the cumulative indices that included all the previous material in the earlier indices. He agreed, and got them last month. Consider these bibliographic tools as stepping stones. If you want an article, send a FOIA request for it. Send a FOIA request for a dozen. There's a lot of stuff here that would help elucidate the early history of the agency and some interesting cryptographic topics."
It's kind of disgusting that it takes so long for documents to be declassified and released to the public, but I understand that there is always the imminent threat to national security and these things can't be rushed. I understand why many of these documents simply *cannot* be released to the public, but this indexing is truly whetting me appetite for what I cannot have! I would love to read almost any of the articuals in the NSA Technical Journal, and some articles such as 'BS: Dealing with Beaurocracies' sound quite entertaining. Come on, can you really say that What Every Cryptologist Should Know About Pearl Harbor doesn't make you want to storm the NSA headquarters and grab a few copies?
Sigh, such is life... still, this declassification is the first step to a full release of these documents.
- dshaw
Now you can look up the documents you can't get a copy of because they're still classified.
How we know is more important than what we know.
To find out what the article is on about, you must file a Form 9923479821789123 (Freedom of information request) to the Government and wait upto 3 years for delivery of said document.
Please note however that the document will be placed on public display in the basement of the town hall at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.
liqbase
Freedom isn't free. It costs folks like you and me. C'mon man, pitch in your buck-oh-five.
2^4 * 3 * 20929
A huge part of the effectiveness of FOIA legislation is in knowing what there actually is to ask for in the first place. I can just imagine the flood of new requests they're going to be receiving over the next couple of weeks.
- "The Arithmetic of a Generation Principle for an Electronic Key Generator"
- "CATNIP: Computer Analysis - Target Networks Intercept Probability"
- "Chatter Patterns: A Last Resort"
- "COMINT Satellites - A Space Problem"
- "Computers and Advanced Weapons Systems"
- "Coupon Collecting and Cryptology"
- "Cranks, Nuts, and Screwballs"
- "A Cryptologic Fairy Tale"
- "Don't Be Too Smart"
- "Earliest Applications of the Computer at NSA"
- "Emergency Destruction of Documents"
- "Extraterrestrial Intelligence"
- "The Fallacy of the One-Time-Pad Excuse"
- "GEE WHIZZER"
- "The Gweeks Had a Gwoup for It"
- "How to Visualize a Matrix"
- "Key to the Extraterrestrial Messages"
- "A Mechanical Treatment of Fibonacci Sequences"
- "Q.E.D.- 2 Hours, 41 Minutes"
- "SlGINT Implications of Military Oceanography"
- "Some Problems and Techniques in Bookbreaking"
- "Upgrading Selected US Codes and Ciphers with a Cover and Deception Capability"
- "Weather: Its Role in Communications Intelligence"
- "Worldwide Language Problems at NSA"
* Build a waterboarding setup using common household items!
* Exclusive interview with ECHELON! The Journal: Boxers or Briefs? ECHELON: Beep...beep...
* The top ten things not even the President knows!
* Keith Alexander's Beauty Tips!
* More inside!
I'm not TS cleared but just for argument's sake, how does one about getting a subscription to a classified journal? Do they mail it to you? Is it in one of the black pastic bags like my "gentleman's" magazine? Is it an electronic system? Internet? Are the little cards that fall out classified too? Etc etc.
no, just government information.
You see, a transparent government is the key to a successful democracy. Someone realized that they need to do everything in their power to make the government at least appear to be transparent or they wouldn't be able to keep the proles down.
After re-reading this comment, I have to say that it was intended to be a joke... but it appears to go beyond the "funny cuz it's true" realm and into the "yer not funny anymore" realm... /sigh
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
Or you could just join the agency and get access to the full articles. I'm sure they would love to have access to some of the brightest new minds out there.
I considered it, not too long after 9/11. But I couldn't shake the concern that what talents I have would be employed against my own countrymen, leveraged in unproductive and possibly unconstitutional ways.
As it turned out, my concern was valid. But I still don't know if I really did the right thing by walking away.
Some titles are obviously encrypted, such as:
"Extraterrestrial Intelligence",
"Key to the Extraterrestrial Messages"
which, when decyphered are:
"IT lie alters electing Rex* in Terrae#",
"Relax, see eager tits stroke thy master"
* Rex = latin for King
# Terrae = latin for Earth
One is obviously describing the manipulation of the electoral process and the other describes the appropriate response.
To find out what the article is on about, you must file a Form 9923479821789123 (Freedom of information request) to the Government and wait upto 3 years for delivery of said document.
Actually, that form has been revised. Twice.
Revision history:
9923479821789123.b: Changes word "requires" in "Submission of this form requires a signature" to "necessitates", as is "Submission of this form necessitates a signature".
9923479821789123.c Changes word "a" to "your", as "Submission of this form necessitates a signature" to "Submission of this form necessitates your signature".
You'll need form 9923479821789123.c. Due to important wording changes, the older forms cannot be used. And don't confuse that with form 9923479821749123.c: "Freedom of information query", which is a whole 'nother ball of wax....
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
A FOIA request can be made for any agency record. This does not mean, however, that the Department of Justice will disclose all records sought. As noted above, there are statutory exemptions that authorize the withholding of information of a sensitive nature. When the Justice Department does withhold information from you, it ordinarily must specify which exemption of the FOIA permits the withholding. You should be aware that the FOIA does not require agencies to do research for you, to analyze data, to answer written questions, or to create records in order to respond to a request. Although, as discussed immediately below, certain information may be required from a FOIA requester, no special form is required by the Justice Department. Requests must be in writing, either handwritten or typed. While requests may be submitted by fax, most components of the Justice Department have not yet developed the capability to accept FOIA requests submitted through the World Wide Web. In order to protect your privacy as well as the privacy of others, whenever you request information about yourself you will be asked to provide either a notarized statement or a statement signed under penalty of perjury stating that you are the person that you say you are. You may fulfill this requirement by: (1) completing and signing Form DOJ-361 (2) having your signature on your request letter witnessed by a notary, (3) including the following statement immediately above the signature on your request letter: "I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on [date]." If you request information about yourself and do not follow one of these procedures, your request cannot be processed. This requirement helps to ensure that private information about you will not be disclosed to anyone else. Likewise, files relating to another person regarding a matter the disclosure of which would invade that person's privacy ordinarily will not be disclosed. For example, if you seek information that would show that someone else (including even your spouse or another member of your immediate family) has ever been the subject of a criminal investigation -- or even was mentioned in a criminal file -- you will be requested to provide either: (1) a statement by that other person, authorizing the release of the information to you, that has been signed by that person and either was witnessed by a notary or includes a declaration made under penalty of perjury (using the language quoted in the preceding paragraph), (2) evidence that the subject of your request is deceased -- such as a death certificate, a newspaper obituary, or some comparable proof of death. Without the subject's consent or proof of death, in almost all cases the Justice Department will respond to a request made for information concerning another person's possible involvement in a law enforcement matter by stating that it will "neither confirm nor deny" the existence of responsive records. Such law enforcement information about a living person is released without that person's consent only when no personal privacy interest would be invaded by disclosing the information, such as when the information is already public or required to be made public, or when there is such a strong public interest in the disclosure that it overrides the individual's privacy interest. In making your request you should be as specific as possible with regard to names, titles, dates, places, events, subjects, recipients, the component(s) likely to maintain that record, etc. In addition, if you want records about a court case, you should provide the title of the case, the court in which the case was filed, and the nature of the case. If known, you should include any file designations or descriptions for the records that you want. You do not have to give a requested record's name or title, but the more specific you are about the records or types of records that you want, the more likely it will be that the Justice Department will be able to locate those records. For example, if you have been int
We probably failed to conform to some groupthink standard. Ok, gotta get some karma back...
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Halliburton!
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Halliburton!
That should put me in good standing with the mods around here.
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