11 January 2005
This is an excerpt from a 17-page declassified ex-parte in camera NSA declaration in the case of William H. Payne v. National Security Agency, and was published today on the web site of William Payne and Arthur Morales.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/bpayne37/index.htm
NSA released the document to Payne on January 4, 2005.
Payne and Morales are former employees of the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuqueque, NM. Payne is a scientist whose research at Sandia included cryptological technologies, some of which was performed for the National Security Agency. Payne and Morales sued the NSA in 1997 for access to information which will reverse their unwarranted dismissal from Sandia.
[Page 1.]
TOP SECRET UMBRA
EX PARTE IN CAMERA
CLASSIFIED DECLARATION OF GARY W. WINCH
GARY W. WINCH hereby declares and states:
1. (U) I am the Director of Policy for the National Security Agency (NSA).
...
[Page 2.]
TOP SECRET UMBRA
I have prepared this declaration to explain, in more detail than is possible in a public declaration, why the withheld information -- the fact of the existence or non-existence of Iranian or Libyan messages and translations between January 1, 1980 and June 10, 1996 -- must be withheld pursuant to exemptions one and three of the FOIA. ...
[Page 17.]
TOP SECRET UMBRA
27. (S) Finally, this declaration should be protected in
the same manner as the highest level of information contained herein, TOP
SECRET CODEWORD, GAMMA, ORCON, US/UK ONLY. Thus, with the exception of the
judge in this case, no classified information contained herein or extracted
from the classified portions can be disclosed except to individuals who have
been granted security clearances for access to TOP SECRET Sensitive Compartmented
Information (SCI) by NSA or the Department of Justice, have been authorized
to the special access compartment, GAMMA, and have a need to know the
information. In addition, the declaration and any classified notes or extracts
made from the declaration must be stored in a SCI facility (SCIF). NSA can
store the declaration at its Headquarters and can make it available to the
Court on request or, alternatively, the declaration can be stored in a SCIF
maintained by the Department of Energy in Albuquerque and made available
to the Court on request. The procedures followed at the initial presentation
of the declaration to the Court will be followed at all subsequent presentations.
28. (U) I declare under penalty of perjury that the facts set forth above are true and correcti to the best of my knowledge and belief. Executed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1746.
[Signed]GARY W. WINCH
Executed this 26th day of June 1998.
GAMMA ORCON US/UK ONLY
TOP SECRET UMBRA