More than nine years after a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request was submitted to the National Security Agency, the agency has released a heavily redacted copy of a 1972 NSA Technical Journal article titled “Maybe It’s Related to the Phase of the Moon…”
The Black Vault submitted the request on August 6, 2017, seeking the article, which was published in the Fall 1972 edition of the journal. The NSA ultimately processed the request as FOIA Case 102240 and issued its response on August 25, 2026.
The article, written by Herbert S. Guy, Jr., concerns the analysis of a callsign system. The portion released on the opening page describes it as “the story of the dissection of a callsign system” and discusses the overlapping work of cryptanalysts, traffic analysts and linguists.
However, only a relatively small portion of the underlying article is readable in the release. Large sections, including entire pages, remain withheld.
In its response, the NSA stated that the withheld material is exempt under FOIA Exemption 3, which permits withholding information protected from disclosure by another federal statute. According to the agency:
“The specific statute applicable in this case is Section 6, Public Law 86-36 (50 U.S. Code 3605).”
The NSA further stated that it “reasonably foresees that disclosure of the withheld information would be harmful to an interest that is protected by the identified exemption.”
The Black Vault intends to appeal the redactions and seek additional disclosure of the material withheld from the 1972 article. Any subsequent appeal determination or additional release will be added to this archive as the FOIA case progresses.
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Document Archive
FOIA Case 102240 Release Package [7 Pages, 0.8MB]
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