NSA/CSS Declassification Program

Presentation to the

Public Interest Declassification Board

Mr. Louis Giles

Associate Director, Policy and Records

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

Organization

C or por ate P olicy I nfor m ation P olicy

T echnology Secur ity, E xpor t & E ncr yption P olicy F r eedom of I nfor m ation & P r ivacy A ct

D eclassifi cation Ser vices R ecor ds C enter & A r chives

O ffi ce of P olicy and R ecor ds

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

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

Declassification Reasons

• Executive Order 12958, as amended

• Operational necessity

• Historical relevancy

• Legal mandates

• Executive Branch direction

• Discretionary projects

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

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

3 M

35 M 7 M

1 M

Declassified - Notreleased

Exempted

Referred

Declassified -released

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

Interagency Cooperation

• Support to Declassification Initiatives External Referral Working Group Automation Working Group Classification Management Working Group NARA’s Interagency Referral Center Presidential Libraries Records Remote Archive Capture Program Document Declassification Support System (DDSS)

• Equity Recognition Training Conferences and agency-to-agency

Challenges

• Release to the public

• Funding

• Referral processing (quantity, location and process is still unknown)

• Lack of community-wide referral standards

• Special media processing

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