NATlONAL SECURITY AGENCY CENTRAL SECURITY SERVICE FORT GEORGE G. MEADE, MARYLAND 20755 Serial: J9416-92 2 October 1992 Mr. Lee Tien 1452 Curtis Street Berkeley, CA 94702 Dear Mr. Tien: This responds to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of 27 June 1992 for parts III and IV of Military Cryptanalysis, by William Friedman and parts III, IV, V and VI of Military Cryptanalytics, by Lambros Callimahos. Our office also received your appeal letter dated 21 July 1992 in which you object to the fact that you had not received a response to your FOIA request. Your appeal letter was forwarded to another Agency office and they have already responded to your appeal. During our search for documents pursuant to your request, only parts III and IV of Military Cryptanalysis William Friedman and part III of Military Cryptanalytics Lambros Callimahos were located. Although Lambros Callimahos planned to write parts IV, V and VI of Military Cryptanalytics, none of these documents exist because Lambros Callimahos died before he could complete this task. The remaining documents have been reviewed by this Agency as required by the FOIA and have been found to be currently and properly classified in accordance with Executive Order 12356. These documents meet the criteria for classification as set forth in subparagraphs (a)(2), (a)(4) and (a)(8) of section 1.3 and remain classified CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET as provided in section 1.1 of Executive Order 12356. The documents are classified because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to the national security. Because the documents are currently and properly classified, they are exempt from disclosure pursuant to the first exemption of the FOIA (5 U.S.C. section 552(b)(1)). In addition, this Agency is authorized by various statutes to protect certain information concerning its activities. We have determined that such information exists in these documents. Accordingly, those portions are also exempt from disclosure pursuant to the third exemption of the FOIA which provides for the withholding of information specifically protected from disclosure by statute. The specific statues applicable in this case are Title 18 U.S. Code 798; Title 50, U.S. Code 403(d)(3); and Section 6, Public Law 86-36 (50 U.S. Code 402 note). No portion of the information is reasonably segregable. Since we were unable to locate parts IV, V and VI of Military Cryptanalytics and because the remaining documents are denied in their entirety, you are hereby advised of this Agency's appeal procedures. Any person notified of an adverse determination may, within 60 days after notification of the denial, file an appeal to the NSA/CSS Freedom of Information Act Appeal Authority. The appeal shall be in writing addressed to the NSA/CSS FOIA Appeal Authority, National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755. The appeal shall reference the initial denial of access or the Agency's inability to locate records and shall contain, in sufficient detail and particularity, the grounds upon which the requester believes release of the information is required or the grounds upon which he believes the records exist. The NSA/CSS Appeal Authority shall respond to the appeal within 20 working days after receipt. Please be advised that NSA processes requests on a two-track queue, first-in, first-out, and easy-hard. This method of responding to requesters is advocated by both the Department of Defense, of which NSA is a component, and the Department of Justice. The first-in, first-out system is employed in fairness to all requesters. When we acknowledged receipt of your 27 June 1992 request, we also notified you that 458 cases preceded yours in the queue. Regarding the easy-hard processing, we believe it is needless for a requester to wait a long period of time to learn that the Agency has no records responsive to his request or to obtain a response regarding records that do not require a complex review. The documents you request have been the subject of previous FOIA requests. Because the determination regarding this material was already a matter of record, a detailed review was not required, and your request falls within the "easy" category. However, to ensure that the passage of time had not changed the decision regarding the need to protect the documents, consultation with various Agency components had to be conducted. Until this determination was completed, we did not know that your request could be handled under the easy-hard queue. Also, the other outstanding requests you have with this Agency will continue to be handled in keeping with the first-in, first-out, easy-hard system. Sincerely, MICHAEL A. SMITH Director of Policy