NSA/CSS Declassification Program

1
NSA/CSS Declassification Program

• Presentation to the
• Public Interest Declassification Board
• Mr. Louis Giles
• Associate Director, Policy and Records

2
Missions and Responsibilities

• Development and promulgation of policy
• Senior Classification/Declassification Authority
• Initial Denial Authority for FOIA/PA and
  declassification access requests
• NSA/CSS Federal Records Officer
• Senior Privacy Official

3
Organization
4
Declassification Services

• Review of records subject to automatic
  declassification
• Mandatory Declassification Reviews
• State Dept. Foreign Relations of the United
  States Series reviews
• Discretionary projects
• Pre-publication review of unclassified NSA/CSS
  information intended for public dissemination

5
Classification Policy

• 22 Original Classification Authorities
• All decisions coordinated with Office of Policy
  and Records to ensure corporate approach,
  consistency and coordination with other
  government agencies
• Unique position with Australia, Canada, New
  Zealand and the United Kingdom

6
Declassification Reasons

• Executive Order 12958, as amended
• Operational necessity
• Historical relevancy
• Legal mandates
• Executive Branch direction
• Discretionary projects

7
Files Series Exemptions

• Cryptanalysis
• SIGINT Product Cryptologic Technical Records
• Traffic Analysis
• Electronic Intelligence (ELINT)
• Foreign Relationships/Partnerships
• Nuclear Command and Control
• Space and Weapons Control
• Cryptologic Key Management
• Counterintelligence
• Tempest

8
E.O. 12958, as amended, 25 Year Review

• 46 million pages subject to automatic
  declassification review completed
• 4.5 million pages file series exempt
• Pass/Fail as of March 2001

9
Review Process

• Reviews conducted at NSA HQs
• Pass/Fail
• Document level review
• Review for declassification only not reviewed
  for public release
• Quality Control two level review by government
  and contractor personnel
• Documents and decisions stored in Automated
  Document Management System

10
Interagency Cooperation

• Support to Declassification Initiatives
• External Referral Working Group
• Automation Working Group
• Classification Management Working Group
• NARAs Interagency Referral Center
• Presidential Libraries Records Remote Archive
  Capture Program
• Document Declassification Support System (DDSS)
• Equity Recognition Training
• Conferences and agency-to-agency

11
Challenges

• Release to the public
• Funding
• Referral processing (quantity, location and
  process is still unknown)
• Lack of community-wide referral standards
• Special media processing

12
Accomplishments

• Completion of 25-year review
• Gulf of Tonkin Incident
• U.S.S. Liberty Incident
• Nazi/Japanese War Crimes
• Vietnam POW/MIA Records
• Rockefeller Library Papers
• Venona
• Cuban Missile Crisis
• JFK Assassination Records