James Clapper's Office Declassifies Another Set Of Fully-Redacted Pages

from the also-jabs-public-in-eyes-with-godawful-scans dept

The ODNI continues to comply with court orders from FOIA lawsuits but its compliance is in letter only. Declassifying documents the way the ODNI does isn't helping further the debate on privacy vs. security or making the government's arguments for surveillance dragnets any more clear.

Two more documents were released late Friday, with one of them being more about what it doesn't include than what it does and the other potentially leading to irreversible eye damage.

First up, the FBI's report on the maintenance and use of [REDACTED] databases. About the only thing surviving the redaction knife is a few footnotes which indicate this document has something to do with the pen register/trap and trace bastardization that turned a targeted surveillance technique with a low legal barrier to entry into a broad, untargeted dragnet with a low legal barrier to entry. (PDF link.)

But this is how most of the "declassified" report looks.


Right-margin barely large enough to contain the exemptions.


The unexpected use of black in a sea of white redactions.


All of the above is in addition to several pages that were withheld in their entirety, without even being given the chance to be redacted into uselessness.

What remains is mainly footnotes. One supplies a description of PR/TT surveillance pulled directly from the US code. One references CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act). One footnote points out that the FBI is not allowed to "affirmatively search" content gathered incidentally by this program, unless, of course, (truck-sized loophole ahead) it needs to "prevent harm to national security."

In total, the document is of zero value to anyone anywhere. No information was freed, nor will it be -- not if intelligence officials have the final say for redactions. The redactions can be challenged, but that's in EPIC's hands.

The second document, a declaration in support of the PR/TT program by CIA director George Tenet, contains more readable info… but just barely. There's a lot of redactions in here as well but the main struggle is reading the remaining text which looks like it was rolled off a myopic, 75-year-old mimeograph. (PDF link.)

Most of Tenet's declaration revolves around threats the CIA was tracking, none of which are allowed past the censor, despite it being a decade later. The name Al-Qaeda appears every so often, and there's hints of a discussion revolving around surveillance tactics and government actions related to the 9/11 attacks, but most of this information is withheld as well.

Interestingly, Tenet notes that the CIA (and other agencies) have picked up signals that signal a "US strike" in the "next four months," possibly in conjunction with the 2004 elections. It also cautions that being too effective may be accelerating terrorists' attack plans, with detainments and other factors possibly causing terrorism leaders to believe their operations are compromised.

Tenet declares all the redacted surveillance programs to have been essential in disrupting terrorists' plans and/or possibly pushing attack timetables forward, noting that the PR/TT has been invaluable in lots of things that are completely redacted. In conclusion, please give the NSA/FBI PR/TT dragnet privileges.

So much for transparency. Even a discontinued surveillance program is subject to page after page of complete redaction, including documents discussing threats over a decade old whose attacks and plans were either thwarted or never came to fruition. The word "declassify" generally is taken to mean a release of information previously withheld, but in the ODNI's hands, all it means is the release of as little as possible.



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Filed Under: declassify, foia, james clapper, nsa, odni, surveillance


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:15pm

    What do you want?

    So they declassified empty pages. It is more that we had.Now we know that empty pages are not classified.

    If we could only get them to realize that stuff released by whomever (press or leaker or government official on deep background, no difference) is no longer classified, but general knowledge, we might make some progress.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:26pm

      Re: What do you want?

      "Now we know that empty pages are not classified."

      No I don't think we do. For all we actually know 'they' may have classified documents consisting entirely of blank pages that are each classified and deemed to dangerous to declassify until nnn years have passed where nnn is classified. We only know that we are allowed to see some blank pages which may or may not include redactions. For all we know all classified documents other than the blank content we are allowed to see could consist entirely or mainly of blank pages. That may not be likely but how could we prove differently? Even if we can deduce that there exist x-magnitude documents which contain non-blank content we have no idea how many blank documents exist (unless we extrapolate from electricity & water consumption at classified facilities, which of course is also classified).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:34pm

        Re: Re: What do you want?

        So what branch of the government* do you work for?**








        *One doesn't learn wonk-speak like that outside of PR firms, unless your government trained.

        ** Oh, and you might be entirely, or partially, or not at all correct.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Eldakka (profile), 24 Aug 2014 @ 9:29pm

      Re: What do you want?

      Now we know that empty pages are not classified.
      There were some pages that had only 1 line on them, the line entirely redacted, that due to sloppy redaction could be read by removing the black highlighting covering the text, revealing:

      This page intentionally left blank.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:32pm

    This was obviously the "least untruthful" declassification that ol' Clappertrap could cough up

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:33pm

    How is this guy still in his job after epic lies to everyone about everything. The man is a liar. He can't tell the truth on paper or in real life.

    He should be indicted for treason.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 9:29pm

      Re:

      Because if he were charged with treason, then he'd counter-charge them with treason as well.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      GEMont (profile), 23 Aug 2014 @ 12:15pm

      Re:

      Did it ever occur to you that Liar IS his job classification?

      After all, when you're pretending to be a government, you will obviously need a large number of silver tongued liars to keep the public believing that you really are a government.

      I suspect his real internal title is Assistant Liar In Chief, since Liar In Chief is obviously reserved for the position of POTUS.

      ---

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 7:46pm

    lmao

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Zeissmann (profile), 22 Aug 2014 @ 8:23pm

    Your add

    I wanted to make a picture saying "Your ad here" under "The banner reads as follows:", but the comment section doesn't allow images. Seriously, someone should do something about this.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 9:30pm

    What's the matter Clapper, got something to hide?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Aug 2014 @ 10:15pm

    why would a criminal organization like clappers suddenly start letting people know the crimes they are committing. Did anyone expect them to have a change of morality and start being honest about the illegal stuff they are doing

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Miko, 22 Aug 2014 @ 10:48pm

    I'm concerned that they might actually have left too much in. That one page has an "and" that didn't get redacted. Now that terrorists know there are at least two different things, WHO KNOWS WHAT HORRIBLE THINGS THEY MIGHT DO?????

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    SCRA 2015, 22 Aug 2014 @ 10:55pm

    Nice One and why would a criminal organization like clappers suddenly start letting people know the crimes they are committing.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2014 @ 7:46am

    At least he seems to have figured out how to not waste toner.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      GEMont (profile), 23 Aug 2014 @ 12:20pm

      Re:

      Waste it. Hell, they've been using so much that they ran out of black ink altogether!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2014 @ 2:01pm

        Re: Re:

        I can just imagine some of the internal documents....

        "Whoops, our budget for toner is done for the quarter. Time to write up some redacted documents -- after all, nobody but the most senior people here will ever know that the redactions cover up absolutely nothing...."

        ---2 years later---

        WTF? Why is this FOIA document fully redacted??!?!

        >

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    GEMont (profile), 23 Aug 2014 @ 12:07pm

    Time for change

    No criminal worth his salt is going to assist in the proving of his crimes. In the case of the NSA, you have a full "nest" of criminals hiding behind the legal barriers set up by the people who rewrote the laws so that they would protect only the guilty - themselves.

    It is simply natural for them to use the methods at their disposal to prevent the public from discerning their misdeeds. The amount they use those methods - redaction, exclusion of and destruction of incriminating documents, etc., shows the depth and breadth of their criminal activity, albeit while preventing realization of the details. However the details are truly unimportant once you realize the goal and the methods being used to reach that goal.

    For me, all of this merely points out the plain fact that government as we know it today, is completely obsolete and should be done away with altogether, perhaps replaced with something that actually answers to the people.

    When you have a government whose only concern is self preservation, you actually have an enemy inside the gates, and in truth, you have no government at all. This has been the situation for decades almost globally - at least in the case of the members of the Five Eyes.

    Since they have proven by their lack of participation in the running of the country, as it was designed to be run, and through their machinations to secure their own future, that the country can carry on quite well without a functioning government, they have in my opinion, signed their own resignation forms and should be dismissed with prejudice as soon as possible.

    Surely, we of the present, can create a far better form of national management than that which has been passed down to us from centuries ago, and which has proven itself to be both incompetent, corrupt and a burden to those it pretends to support.

    ---

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 23 Aug 2014 @ 2:23pm

      Re: Time for change

      Honestly, when Holder was talking about the amount of omission in the Ferguson, MO fiasco, I was hoping he would also realize the same in the NSA spying scandals. Obviously, I was wrong.
      "They, like so many in Ferguson, want answers. In my conversations with dozens of people in Ferguson yesterday, it was clear that this shooting incident has brought to the surface underlying tensions that have existed for many years. There is a history to these tensions, and that history simmers in more communities than just Ferguson."
      Perhaps he should also read the Declaration of Independence which outlaws writs of assistance...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        GEMont, 24 Aug 2014 @ 1:23pm

        Re: Re: Time for change

        So far all the news casts have shown nothing but rioting blacks and the commentary is purely "racial tension" talking points.

        When ever they mention the militarized cops, its to say that such gear "became necessary once police realized the extent of the riot and the type of weapons rioters were using against the police."

        Part of a good social engineering shock test, is the control of the media and the dissemination of false reporting to the general peasantry. As far as the Major Television Networks go, they got that part down pat.
        ---

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Austin (profile), 24 Aug 2014 @ 10:27am

      Re: Time for change

      Dismiss the government? Really? You want to treat them like an employee you're letting go, fine. What do you do to the ones who won't leave, which is probably going to be, oh I don't know, all of them? Shoot them?

      Don't get me wrong, I hate what they're doing to us, and these redaction are beyond laughable, etc, but some people (like you) really need to put more thought into this. When these people sign a letter of resignation you'll know it, because they won't redact the part that says "letter of resignation." Until then, whether they deserve to keep their jobs or not, they have them, and they're not letting them go.

      So please just stop it with the "citizens take back the government, by force if needed" horse crap. The system we have is good in theory, it's just broken in practice. Thankfully we have tools built into the system itself that allow us, the people, to fix it.

      And it starts on election day. You wanna fix the government? Then vote. Leave your apathy and hopelessness at home, get to the polls, and vote. THAT is how you solve this.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        GEMont (profile), 24 Aug 2014 @ 1:05pm

        Re: Re: Time for change

        Oh how I wish what you wrote was true.
        But, it is you that is dreaming, not I.

        Elections will, as always, get you only the newest brand of corporate clown, who will do to you precisely what Nixon, Bush, Reagan, Clinton and now Obama have done. Talk sweet and pick your pocket.

        You state that they will not resign willingly. Did you think then that they would leave a loophole that the people could use to fire them, such as an election? Get serious.

        Do you really believe they have NOT fixed the elections in such a fashion as to insure the outcome?

        Its the Vote Counters, not the Vote Casters, who (s)elect the winner.

        I cannot believe you can be old enough to have witnessed the 2 faked elections of GWBush and still not realize that elections are simply a placebo designed to make the public think they are participating in the creation of their government.

        Elections are now simply Selections, made by Corporate American for Corporate America.

        The Vote is merely the best way to blame the results on the American Public.

        Its funny in a way that you should mention "shoot them" as an alternative to dissolving their jobs, because in truth, that just might end up being what they do to YOU.

        Did you think they were militarizing the police across the USA in preparation for an alien invasion from Mars - a Hollywood REDs invasion by Russians or Chinese via helicopter.... Godzilla??

        But really, the give away in your missive above is this line:

        "You want to treat them like an employee you're letting go, fine. What do you do to the ones who won't leave, which is probably going to be, oh I don't know, all of them?"

        Did you forget that they ARE supposed to be employees of the American People? Even you now realize that they will no longer obey the laws that govern the conduct of "elected" officials and will simply refuse to go quietly into obscurity.

        Even you know that there is no legal procedure available to the American Public to rid itself of bad government.

        Down deep you already know that an election is as futile as pissing into the wind, but your still too afraid to admit the awful truth.

        Your government no longer works for you.

        It is now a corporate entity designed to milk the American People of their tax money and use it keep them in chains until they are no longer needed, and then they will be disposed of like old broken machinery.

        Vote all you want. It will change absolutely nothing, save the name of your oppressors' figurehead.

        ---

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    zip, 24 Aug 2014 @ 10:56am

    FOIAs -& the City of London's non-disclosure disclosure

    It seems the City of London Police have an innovative cop-out whenever it comes to (British) FOIA requests -- if they estimate that it might take them more than 18 hours to find anything -- they simply ignore the whole request in its entirety and don't lift a finger to try to comply with even the smallest part of it.

    http://torrentfreak.com/police-finding-pirate-bay-documents-expensive-140824/

    It's a chip off the standard old bureaucrat-speak, a series of word-games which basically boils down to this: "We don't have all the precise details, therefore we can't give you any response -- not even the simplest yes/no/maybe-type answer or the vaguest estimate."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Richard, 24 Aug 2014 @ 11:25am

    New think and old words

    Why "redacted"? Why not "censored".
    These guys are great at finding new ways to describe hideous behavior.

    Redacted means censored. Sounds bad when you say it is censored. redacted sounds like a thoughtful way to protect us from baddies.

    Extrordinary rendition is kidnapping.

    Enhanced interrogation is torture

    And so forth. If you let them choose the vocabulary, they win the argument.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      GEMont (profile), 24 Aug 2014 @ 1:14pm

      Re: New think and old words

      Welcome to Fascism 101.

      Fascinating how well one can do in an argument when everything your opponent says is actually the opposite of what he believes he is saying. :)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 25 Aug 2014 @ 4:00am

    It seems somebody actually duct taped the pages with all that black ink and faxed back. *winks at fellow techdirt readers*

    The notable absence of black is pretty clear evidence.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    GEMont (profile), 29 Aug 2014 @ 2:09pm

    Economics 101

    Actually, after examining the images above of the documents and their "redactions", it appears as though they are simply loading the text files as jpgs into Microsoft's Paint program, or something similar, and using the box tool to cover whatever areas are deemed to be "not for public consumption".

    Methinks they have found an economic method of redaction which means they expect to be doing a serious shit-load of redacting into the future and realize there probably isn't enough actual black ink available in the USA to do the job.

    So.... Paint.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    sai krishna, 4 Apr 2015 @ 9:57pm

    Exactly

    I Could Not Agree More. Exact Info

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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