In the beginning of 2016, I requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and printout of documents listed within the NSA’s ADMS system, which catalogs NSA records within their holdings.

I filed two separate requests, seeking titles and citations for all records that bear the dates before 1900 and the second request was identical but for records dated 1900 through 1920.

The NSA responded to both requests in the same response. Below, you will find the archive.

Document Archive

National Security Agency (NSA) ADMS “Document Management System” Printouts for Documents dated 1930  [6 Pages, 2MB]

 National Security Agency (NSA) ADMS “Document Management System” Printouts for Documents dated through 1920 [61 Pages, 21.6MB]

The post National Security Agency (NSA) ADMS “Document Management System” Printouts first appeared on The Black Vault.

For the past 24 years, The Black Vault has gone after UFO documents from nearly every government agency that exists. Although thousands of pages have been released in that process, and subsequently archived on the site for others to download, there are many pages that still remain classified that the government will not release.  The National Security Agency (NSA) just confirmed again they not only have Top Secret UFO material, they will also not declassify it for national security reasons.

The lineage of this particular request goes back eleven years to 2009 when The Black Vault sought additional UFO related material from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Originally, The Black Vault had already received hundreds of pages of related material in 1996, but this 2009 request sought new records created after 1996. During the course of this case, it was discovered that five pages of material existed, but the NSA was the agency responsible for declassification. Therefore, the pages were forwarded there for review and possible release.

In August of 2012, three years after the request was filed for records dated after 1996, the NSA denied the request. The Black Vault was told that the information was classified Top Secret, and could not be released because it would “be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.” In addition, the NSA referenced a common go-to explanation for the UFO phenomena that was rooted in decades prior: weather balloons.

“[‘Unidentified aircraft’ or ‘unidentified (flying) object’] are simply terms that are used to describe conventional aircraft or objects (possibly weather balloons) that have been identified as such at the time of the report,” the letter from the NSA explained. “The reports themselves are not focused on ‘UFOs,’ but happen to contain terms related to them. The 2 documents (5 pages) referred by DIA fits this category and 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 13526.”

In October of 2019, The Black Vault would try again, and filed a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) request to the NSA to re-review the five Top Secret pages to see if they could be released. Nearly a year later, the NSA denied the release yet again, as the documents properly maintained a Top Secret classification and could not be released.

The reason for the denial by the NSA was explained with a specific citation within Executive Order 13526. The citation identified the documents as pertaining to “intelligence activities (including covert action), intelligence sources or methods, or cryptology.”

Although there are still thousands of UFO related records that have been declassified and released by the Intelligence Community (IC); there is no doubt that the pages that still remain classified — like these five pages that were denied —  certainly show more of the picture.

The question is, will we ever see them?

###

The post NSA Denies Top Secret UFO Documents — Again first appeared on The Black Vault.

Cicada 3301 is a nickname given to an organization that on three occasions has posted a set of puzzles to recruit codebreakers from the public. The first internet puzzle started on January 4, 2012 on 4chan and ran for approximately one month. A second round began one year later on January 4, 2013, and a third round following the confirmation of a fresh clue posted on Twitter on January 4, 2014. The stated intent was to recruit “intelligent individuals” by presenting a series of puzzles which were to be solved. No new puzzles were published on January 4, 2015. However, a new clue was posted on Twitter on January 5, 2016. In April 2017 a verified PGP-signed message was found: Beware false paths. Always verify PGP signature from 7A35090F. That message explicitly denies the validity of any unsigned puzzle, as recently as April 2017.

The puzzles focused heavily on data security, cryptography, steganography, internet anonymity, and surveillance.

It has been called “the most elaborate and mysterious puzzle of the internet age” and is listed as one of the “top 5 eeriest, unsolved mysteries of the internet”, and much speculation exists as to its function. Many have speculated that the puzzles are a recruitment tool for the NSA, CIA, MI6, a “Masonic conspiracy” or a cyber mercenary group. Others have claimed Cicada 3301 is an alternate reality game. No company or individual has taken credit for it or attempted to monetize it, however.

Document Archive

(Other than the NSA documents below, it should be noted that a “no records” response was given to my FOIA requests on Cicada 3301 sent to the FBI, NSA’s Intellipedia system, and the CIA.

Cicada 3301 Documents from the NSA [27 Pages, 10MB] (Note: the request date from the NSA referenced in the letter is incorrect.)

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* Thanks to Wikipedia for background information on Cicada 3301.

The post Cicada 3301 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The following emails were internal communications between NSA employees on how to deal with certain types of FOIA requesters. I filed an MDR in 2019 as the records were previously released under FOIA, however, no new information came to light.  The records are archived below.

Document Archive

NSA Emails: Media Leaks Strategic Guidance Needed on Engaging FOIA Requesters, 2013 [9 Pages, 3.5MB]

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The post NSA Emails: Media Leaks Strategic Guidance Needed on Engaging FOIA Requesters, 2013 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The following document was released in 2001, and found in the CIA CREST database. In February of 2019, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of this record, and it was released to The Black Vault on September 9, 2019.

Document Archive

I/TH’s Assigned Commitment to Spend Time at NSA, December 23, 1955 [10 Pages, 3MB] – MDR release in September of 2019. New information highlighted that was previously redacted.

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I/TH’s Assigned Commitment to Spend Time at NSA, December 23, 1955 [10 Pages, 3MB] – Original CIA CREST database release.

The post I/TH’s Assigned Commitment to Spend Time at NSA, December 23, 1955 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The American electoral process retains many vestiges reflecting its eighteenth century origins. In the age of supersonic transport and email, U.S. citizens select their national leadership on a timetable derived from the speed of carriages and town criers.

In the past, in the transition periods following elections, the Central Intelligence Agency has been the manager for general orientations about the foreign intelligence community and for specific, classified briefings on topics of concern to the incoming administration.

In 2000 the National Security Agency, for the first time, decided to engage more actively in the presidential transition briefing process. The issues for NSA were not small. For those in the new administration for whom this would be the first exposure to cryptology, a briefing would be an important factor in determining how they would interact with NSA.

Previously, the National Security Agency (NSA) released the below document to offer insight into the 2001 transition. I requested what is called a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and was successful in getting the NSA to review the document more thoroughly, and remove some of the “blacked out” information. I have included all releases, for reference.

The Documents

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2019 Release (With highlights of new information) – [28 Pages, 14.2MB] – This document was released to me in 2019, with less redactions, and is embedded below, after the Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) was completed.

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2016 Release – [28 Pages, 1.6MB] – This document was released to me in 2016, after an MDR that I filed, and it is archived here for reference.

 Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration 2013 Release – [25 Pages, 2.3MB] – This was the original release of the document in 2013, and it is archived here for reference.

The post Presidential Transition 2001: NSA Briefs a New Administration (2004 Document) first appeared on The Black Vault.

Kryptos is an encrypted sculpture by American artist Jim Sanborn located on the grounds of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia. Since its dedication on November 3, 1990, there has been much speculation about the meaning of the encrypted messages it bears. Of the four messages, three have been solved, with the fourth remaining one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world. The sculpture continues to provide a diversion for cryptanalysts, both amateur and professional, who are attempting to decrypt the final section.

The below represents multiple FOIA requests to get documents on the sculpture declassified.

Document Archive

The National Security Agency (NSA) Documents

In the early 1990s, the NSA proposed a challenged that was taken up by a small group of cryptanalysts who wanted to decode the message on the Kryptos statue.  The documents below were the results of their research, including clues to deciphering the still unencrypted ‘fourth message.’

 The CIA Kryptos Sculpture [ 98 Pages, 2.36MB ] – This document was declassified and released to The Black Vault in September of 2014.  It took nearly 3 years to process.

 NSA Documents on Kryptos [ 60 Pages, 8.56MB ] – This was the first batch of documents released to The Black Vault by the NSA, in relation to my 2011 FOIA request.

 CIA Released Document, 9 July 2014 [ 2 Pages, 8.56MB ] – This single document was referred by the NSA to the CIA for review and release.

The Kryptos Sculpture Intellipedia Entry [ 10 Pages, 2.2MB | Released 07/2017 ]

The post The CIA’s Kryptos Statue first appeared on The Black Vault.

PROMIS is believed by some to be the forefunner to the now infamous “Prism” program by the National Security Agency (NSA).  The “Prism” program was brought to light by leaker Edward Snowden, yet it is now coming to light, that a program has existed long before this new revelation.  It was known as PROMIS.

PROMIS is also the name for a Department of Justice computer software program.  In the mid-1970s, Inslaw, Inc., a small Washington D.C. software development company, created for the a highly efficient, people-tracking, computer program known as Prosecutor’s Management Information System (Promis). Inslaw’s principal owners, William Anthony Hamilton and his wife, Nancy Burke Hamilton, later sued the United States Government (acting as principal to the Department of Justice) for not complying with the terms of the Promis contract and for refusing to pay for an enhanced version of Promis once delivered. This allegation of software piracy led to three trials in separate federal courts and two congressional hearings.

The following article excerpt is used to best explain the program as connected to the NSA – while the FOIA documents follow below.

The FOIA Documents

Department of Justice (DOJ)

 Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of INSLAW, Inc., March 1993, and the 1994 DOJ Report on INSLAW/PROMIS matter, released by the Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Information Policy (OIP) [465 Pages, 11MB] – Special thanks to GovernmentAttic.org for this record.

National Security Agency (NSA)

 NSA Documents Regarding PROMIS, Released 4 October 2018 [17 Pages, 2.7MB] – In March of 2016, see below, the NSA required a $440 payment in order to continue to process my request on PROMIS. Although I did not respond, I was surprised to receive this in October of 2018. It appears that this is only part of what the NSA has on PROMIS, and additional records are still being processed. I will add them when they are released to me.

 NSA Documents Regarding PROMIS, Released 22 October 2018 [85 Pages, 8MB] – This release includes the user’s manual of the PROMIS system, various memorandums and more. One document was withheld entirely and this, according to the NSA, is now the final release of information.

 ARCHIVED (Read Above) Letter regarding the NSA use of the PROMIS System [4 Pages, 1.1MB] – The NSA did find a considerable amount of documents, however, they are requiring a payment of $440 for the release of the material.

The post NSA Surveillance Program: PROMIS first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to this article:

“GNI (Global Network Intelligence) and IW (Information Warfare) are two acronyms that have become part of NSA’s language over the past couple of years. Both convey new and comprehensive activities that are critical to NSA’s future and both dramatically affect the Agency’s offensive (SIGINT) and defensive (INFOSEC) missions. The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the background and ongoing activities in each area, to explain their interrelationships, and to discuss a few relevant challenges that are of general interest to the NSA workforce.”

This record was released previous in heavily redacted form. In February 2018, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of this document, in hopes to get some of the redactions lifted. In August of 2018, the NSA removed a considerable amount of redactions, and released the document to The Black Vault.

You can find the newest version (as posted in August of 2018) of this record.

Document Archive

 Global Network Intelligence and Information Warfare: SIGINT and INFOSEC in Cyberspace, 1995 [13 Pages, 2.4MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/SIGINTINFOSEC-Cyberspace.pdf

The post Global Network Intelligence and Information Warfare: SIGINT and INFOSEC in Cyberspace, 1995 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The following document was published in the Cryptologic Quarterly, Summer 1994, Volume 13, Issue No. 2.

When it was first released, it was heavily redacted, and has remained released in that form since 2010. So, in October of 2016, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of the record.

It took until the end of May of 2018 for the record to be released, however, it was a huge win since a lot of the information that was previously redacted, was released to the general public.  Upon this record’s release to The Black Vault, it had never been seen by the public in this way.

Document Archive

 Doing Business Smarter: A Proposal for Consolidating NSA’s Analysis and Reporting of Foreign Space borne Reconnaissance, 1994 [25 Pages, 4.2MB]

2018 Release

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/MDR-85685.pdf

2010 Release

 Doing Business Smarter: A Proposal for Consolidating NSA’s Analysis and Reporting of Foreign Space borne Reconnaissance, 1994 [22 Pages, 5.3MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/Doing_Business_Smarter.pdf

The post Doing Business Smarter: A Proposal for Consolidating NSA’s Analysis and Reporting of Foreign Space borne Reconnaissance,1994 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The document, “Beyond BOURBON-1948: The Fourth Year of Allied Collaborative COMINT Effort Against the Soviet Union” dated 1995 was first released in approximately 2010. The document had excessive redactions.  After a document has been reviewed, as long as two years have passed, you can request a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) to get the document re-reviewed for possible further release. In other words, get redactions lifted.

In October of 2016, I request an MDR on the document. The NSA reviewed it under MDR Case 85686, and released the record to me in June of 2017.

Declassified Document

 Beyond BOURBON-1948: The Fourth Year of Allied Collaborative COMINT Effort Against the Soviet Union, 1995 (Result of 2017 MDR Request) [61 Pages, 7.3MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/MDR85686.pdf

The post Beyond BOURBON-1948: The Fourth Year of Allied Collaborative COMINT Effort Against the Soviet Union, 1995 (Result of 2017 MDR Request) first appeared on The Black Vault.

This particular document was found, when I filed a FOIA request back on April 10, 2014, asking for: a copy of all records, electronic or otherwise, pertaining to the internal discussion by the National Security Agency on how the agency would deal with FOIA requests, the media, and any and all inquiries into the NSA after Edward Snowden released classified information. 

It took until 20 September 2017, but the NSA released the below document as responsive to the above.

Document Archive

 NSA/CSS Media Engagement and Outreach Plan: September – December 2014 [21 Pages, 1.8MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/NSAMediaPlan-SepDec2014.pdf

FOIA Case File

I requested the entire “FOIA Case File” with processing notes and internal documents, regarding the above case. Although I do not do this for every FOIA case I file, I felt this one would be interesting to see the “behind the scenes”.

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/77487A.pdf

The post NSA/CSS Media Engagement and Outreach Plan: September – December 2014 first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to the Department of Justice (DOJ):

“Consensual monitoring is the interception by an electronic device of any wire, oral, or electronic communication where one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the monitoring or recording. A warrant is not required to conduct consensual monitoring, and the party providing consent may be a government agent. See 18 U.S.C. § 2511, (2) (c) – (e) (2002).”

In June of 2014, I requested from the NSA, records on their policy regarding “Consensual Monitoring.”  It took until September 12, 2017, to get a response, which can be found below.

Document Archive

 The National Security Agency (NSA) Policy on Consensual Monitoring, Released September 2017 [9 Pages, 1.2MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/nsaconsensualmonitoring.pdf

The post The National Security Agency (NSA) Policy on Consensual Monitoring first appeared on The Black Vault.

In April of 2014, I requested from the National Security Agency (NSA) the following:

I respectfully request a copy of all records, electronic or otherwise, pertaining to the internal discussion by the National Security Agency on how the agency would deal with FOIA requests, the media, and any and all inquiries into the NSA after Edward Snowden released classified information.

It took more than three years, but the NSA finally responded with the below document.

Document Archive

 NSA/CSS Media Engagement and Outreach Plan, September – December, 2014 [21 Pages, 1.4MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/NSA-Snowden-FOIA.pdf

The post NSA/CSS Media Engagement and Outreach Plan, September – December, 2014 first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to Wikipedia:

The Voynich manuscript is an illustrated codex hand-written in an unknown writing system. The vellum on which it is written has been carbon-dated to the early 15th century (1404–1438), and it may have been composed in Northern Italy during the Italian Renaissance. The manuscript is named after Wilfrid Voynich, a Polish book dealer who purchased it in 1912.

Some of the pages are missing, with around 240 remaining. The text is written from left to right, and most of the pages have illustrations or diagrams. Some pages are foldable sheets.

The Voynich manuscript has been studied by many professional and amateur cryptographers, including American and British codebreakers from both World War I and World War II. No one has yet succeeded in deciphering the text, and it has become a famous case in the history of cryptography. The mystery of the meaning and origin of the manuscript has excited the popular imagination, making the manuscript the subject of novels and speculation. None of the many hypotheses proposed over the last hundred years has yet been independently verified.

In 1969 the Voynich manuscript was donated by Hans P. Kraus to Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where it is cataloged under call number MS 408.

 In June of 2017, I requested from the National Security Agency (NSA) all records they had to The Voynich Manuscript. Below, you will find the search results.  They did inform me they have put some of the material on their website, however, it does not appear that it is complete.

Below, according to the NSA, is a complete set of records.

Document Archive

 The Voynich Manuscript NSA Documents [348 Pages, 57MB]

The post The Voynich Manuscript – National Security Agency (NSA) Documents first appeared on The Black Vault.

In June 2013, former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden perpetrated the largest and most damaging Public release of classified information in U.S. intelligence history.

In August 2014, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) directed Committee staff to carry out a comprehensive review of the unauthorized disclosures.

The aim of the review was to allow the Committee to explain to other Members of Congress-and, where possible, the American people-how this breach occurred, what the U.S. Government knows about the man who committed it, and whether the security shortfalls it highlighted had been remedied.

Download the Report

 Executive Summary of Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden, September 15, 2016 [4 Pages, 0.9MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/defenseissues/hpsci_snowden_review_-_unclass_summary_-_final.pdf

The post Executive Summary of Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former National Security Agency Contractor Edward Snowden, September 15, 2016 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The NSA was a target of one of my original FOIA requests, which yielded the below results. Some of these records were one of the first documents I scanned onto The Black Vault back in 1996, and are archived here as a timestamp for what the NSA was releasing then vs. now.

National Security Agency’s UFO Files Batch #1 [159 Pages]

National Security Agency’s Batch #2, Records Once Exempt From Release [254 Pages]

The “Missing” UFO Files

The below documents are the UFO records released today by the NSA. Years after The Black Vault put the UFO records (as scanned above) – the NSA added them to their website as well.  One interesting document of note is the the “Yeates Affidavit.”

In 1980, the NSA was involved in Civil Action No. 80-1562, “Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. National Security Agency”. Documents related to that litigation are below, and marked with “*”. “XXXXX” has been inserted in a title if a portion of the title has been deleted prior to release. During this court case, the judge was given an “in camera” Top Secret clearance to see the explanation on why the NSA was not releasing the UFO documentation, and why the majority of it, were to remain blacked out.

The judge decided in the NSA’s favor, and allowed the information to remain classified. As the years went by, the NSA released the COMINT records, but most of them had only a few words visible per page. The rest, was largely redacted using white out (less of an impact than black ink).

In July of 2013, I requested a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) of ALL of these records from the NSA. What this means, is that you can request an agency to review a document that was classified many years ago, but may not be classified anymore, and hopefully, if you are lucky, they will release more of it.

But, they claim they can not find any of the unredacted original reports for a review. That amounts to literally HUNDREDS of pages of classified UFO material – that has mysteriously vanished into thin air. They did find the Yeates Affidavit, which they did review.

 FOIA Case Processing Notes for my FOIA Case 73445 and MDR 73494 [4 Pages, 1.2MB]

The Yeates Affidavit – 2014 Release

 2014 Yeates Affidavit Release version in July 2014, a year later. This is the most unredacted version that I know of, however, as of May 20, 2016, almost two YEARS after I was successful in getting it reviewed, the NSA still has an older, much more redacted version, that they release to the public. This is a clear and blatant disregard for transparency to the general public. If the NSA releases this information in a FOIA Reading Room online, they should inform the public they are not giving them the whole and complete story, as there is much more information to be found in the document.

The Documents

 * In Camera Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates – Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. NSA (Civil Action No. 80-1562)

The NSA still releases the above record on their website, with complete disregard that my MDR was successful in getting a much less redacted version released to the public —  SEEN HERE.

 * Communications Intelligence (COMINT) reports [broken into sizable parts for viewing]. These COMINT reports are what the NSA claims to have lost – and are no longer available for review. So, according to them, this important and valuable information has been lost forever.
PART A
PART B
PART C
PART D
PART E
PART F
PART G
PART H
PART I
PART J

 * Affidavit of Eugene F. Yeates – Citizens Against Unidentified Flying Objects Secrecy v. NSA(Civil Action No. 80-1562)

 “U.F.O. Files: The Untold Story” by Patrick Huyghe

 “Govt.’s Super-Secret Security Agency Warns: Take UFOs Seriously or Be Prepared for Sneak Invasion by Space Aliens” by Thomas L. Muldoon, National Enquirer

 “The U.S. Government and the Iran Case”– IUR Report

 “Report of U.F.O. Crash in ’47 Called False by Science Panel”– The New York Times

 “What the U.S. Government Knows About UnidentifiedFlying Objects” by Peter Gersten, Frontiers of Science

 “Is the CIA Stonewalling?” by Richard Hall

 “The Government and UFOs”

 “UFO As Advanced Technology”

 “French Government UFO Study”

 Communications Intelligence (COMINT) report – “XXXXX Unidentified Flying Objects”

 COMNAVSECGRU visual sighting report

 “Report Bibliography” issued by the Defense Documentation Center

 “Now You See It, Now You Don’t” by Captain Henry S. Shields, HQ USAFE/INOMP

 Joint Chiefs of Staff report concerning the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976

 Exploitation Report – A Fragment, Metal Recovered in the Republic of the Congo

 Navy report – Country: Cuba, Subject: UFO

 Routing and Transmittal Slip from Louis E. Foster, DIA with a DIA summary sheet and US Defense Attache report on the sighting of a UFO in Iran on 19 September 1976

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Flying Saucers Are a Myth

 Department of State report – Subject: Tunisian Firefall

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Celestial Body Observed over Antarctica

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Political Report for August 1965

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Unidentified Flying Objects

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Sighting of Object Possibly Originating from
Space Vehicle

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Unidentified Flying Objects

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Unidentified Flying Objects Reported Over Angola

 Department of State AIRGRAM – Subject: Report of Unidentified Object Which Fell Near Municipio of General Teran, N.L.

 American Embassy Tunis report – Subject: Unidentified Flying Objects

 Report from Air Force Special Security Office – Subject: (Unclassified) UFOB NEAC Area

 General Accounting Office Report to the Honorable Steven H. Schiff, House of Representatives – Government Records – Results of a Search for Records Concerning the 1947 Crash Near Roswell, New Mexico

 * Memorandum and Order – Citizens Against UFO Secrecy v. National Security Agency
(Civil Action No. 80-1562)

 “Communication With Extraterrestrial Intelligence” by Lambros D. Callimahos

 * “UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions”

 * “UFO’s and the Intelligence Community Blind Spot to Surprise or Deceptive Data”

 Memorandum for the Record – Subject: Information Request Solicitation

 United States Air Force Fact Sheet 95-03 – “Unidentified Flying Objects and Air Force
Project Blue Book”

 Report of Air Force Research Regarding the “Roswell Incident”

 JANAP 146

 Key to the Extraterrestrial Messages by H. Campaigne

 Extraterrestrial Intelligence by Howard H. Campaigne

The post UFOs: The National Security Agency (NSA) Collection first appeared on The Black Vault.

According to Wikipedia:

The abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government happened during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983.  Although only 17 Japanese (eight men and nine women) are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted, there may have been hundreds of victims.

The North Korean government has officially admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens. There are testimonies that many non-Japanese citizens, including nine European citizens, have been abducted by North Korea. Some districts in Japan fund North Korean-run schools, which teach children that the abduction issue was fabricated by Japan.

Declassified Documents

National Security Agency (NSA)

In June of 2016, I requested under the FOIA for documents from the National Security Agency (NSA) regarding these allegations/incidents. After being told my request was too broad, I narrowed the scope of my request to have them search for records from 1977-1983, in hopes that would get me an adequate response.

Despite my best efforts, the NSA is classifying 100% of the material.

On 26 July 2016, I received the below response (of which I have appealed — and I will add the response once it is received):

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/84689A.pdf

The post North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, 1977-1983 first appeared on The Black Vault.

On June 26, 2014, I read the following by Hendrick Simoes of Stars & Stripes Magazine:

“U.S. personnel accustomed to drinking their coffee on the drive to work will have to put that habit on hold for about a month. It’s one of a few lifestyle changes Americans will have to make during the holy month of Ramadan.” (Click above link for full article)

I was intrigued by this, and how government agencies may react to this holiday, and if they were instructed to do anything different. After nearly two years, I finally received a response to my FOIA request to the National Security Agency (NSA) and their observance of Ramadan.

The documents obtained were of a June 19, 2015, internal NSA Newsletter entitled, “The Daily Enterprise.” The headline reads, “Reflecting on Ramadan” and outlined instructions for how all NSA employees were to respect and observe Ramadan.

Simply put by this NSA newsletter:

“Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic year– the month in which the Quran, Islam’s holy book, was revealed by God.

During this time, Muslim people around the world fast from sunrise to sunset for the entire month. This requires that they abstain from drinking, eating and intimacy during those hours each day. Since fasting is one of the five Pillars of Islam, Muslims around the world take the month of Ramadan very seriously. For Muslims, fasting is the required way of worshiping prescribed in the Quran.

Before we take a more detailed look at how Ramadan is observed, let’s first take note of some of the ways that Ramadan
will manifest itself here at NSA.”

Here are some excerpts of the newsletter, as sent to all NSA personnel:

• To start, throughout the month of Ramadan, please be mindfu I that the person working right next to you could be observing Ramadan. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, NSAI CSS has a significant number of Muslim employees.
• Because they will be fasting from both food and beverages during daylight hours , most Muslims will be thirsty, hungry, and sleep-deprived at some point during this strenuous month. As a result, managers may see some behavioral changes and an increase in time-off requests throughout th is timeframe. The majority of Muslims will ask for time off during the last 10 days of Ramadan and the first 3 days of the following month (the Eid ai-Fitr celebration). While everyone working at NSA is professional and adheres to high standards, if a Muslim employee seems to have a little less patience or endurance during the month of Ramadan, this may be a temporary effect of the daily fasting.
• Everyone knows it is summer, which means that most offices will be planning their annual picnic/ morale-building activity (MBA) during this time. To be inclusive and to ensure maximum employee participation– since most Muslims wi ll be fasting during this month — please refrain from planning these types of MBA events during Ramadan.

To see more of this newsletter, it is published below.

Declassified Documents

Download the .pdf [4 Pages, 0.6MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/nsa/ramadan-nsa.pdf

The post Internal NSA Newsletter Exposes How ALL NSA Employees Should Observe Ramadan first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Utah Data Center, also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, is a data storage facility for the United States Intelligence Community that is designed to store data estimated to be on the order of exabytes or larger.  Its purpose is to support the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), though its precise mission is classified.

The National Security Agency (NSA) leads operations at the facility as the executive agent for the Director of National Intelligence.  It is located at Camp Williams near Bluffdale, Utah, between Utah Lake and Great Salt Lake and was completed in May 2014 at a cost of $1.5 billion.  

According to an interview with Edward Snowden, the project was initially known as the Massive Data Repository within NSA, but was renamed to Mission Data Repository due to the former sounding too “creepy”.

The following are documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Declassified Documents

 Emails To/From the National Security Agency (NSA) Regarding the Utah Data Center, April – June, 2013 [20 Pages, 1.7MB]

The post The Utah Data Center first appeared on The Black Vault.

However, in this request, I asked the National Security Agency (NSA) for their oldest document on record. Nothing specific – just whatever the oldest document was.  This request was filed in November of 2013. This is what I asked for:

I respectfully request a copy of the oldest document, report, or letter, chronologically, that your agency currently archives.

After some wait, they wanted me to clarify what I was looking for. Not sure what part of the original request was confusing, but, alas, they asked:

 – Are you seeking the oldest NSA record that we currently hold in our Archives?

My answer was simply, “Yes.”

After waiting another 19 months, I finally received the document.

 The Oldest Document the NSA Has On File, according to FOIA Case 75793A

The post Oldest Record on File at the National Security Agency (NSA) first appeared on The Black Vault.

On the February 26^th, 2009, John Greenewald, Jr. of The Black Vault filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for all UFO documents not released prior to 2009.Two documents, totaling five pages, were sent to the NSA to release, as they were the controlling agency of the documents.

In a response dated 3 August 2012, more than 3 ½ years after the original request, the NSA says the following as they explain the documents not releasable:

“The other category of records consists of foreign intelligence reports that contain the words such as “unidentified aircraft” or “unidentified (flying) object” or the like: These are simply terms that are used to describe conventional aircraft or objects (possibly weather balloons) that have been identified as such at the time of the report. The reports themselves are not focused on “UFOs,” but happen to contain terms related to them. The 2 documents (5 pages) referred by DIA fits this category and 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 13526. These documents meet the criteria for classification as set forth in Subparagraph (c) of Section 1.4 and remain Classified TOP SECRET as provided in Section 1.2 of Executive Order 13526. The documents are classified because their disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave 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 short, the documents are classified Top Secret.They mention UFOs, but according to the NSA, they are describing conventional aircraft or even weather balloons (no mention of swamp gas… yet.).However, the documents themselves remain completely classified Top Secret – our nation’s highest level of secrecy.

There is no telling what is in the documents themselves.The NSA has released hundreds of documents relating to UFOs; many of which still remain classified Top Secret, like the five pages above.

Letter referenced above:  https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/NSA-UFO-WeatherBalloon2012.pdf

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/NSA-UFO-WeatherBalloon2012.pdf

The post UFOs Are Weather Balloons; But Documents Remain Top Secret. In 2012 first appeared on The Black Vault.

From April of 1956, to the Fall of 1980, the NSA published the “NSA Technical Journal” which contained articles and intelligence on all sorts of topics.

Below, you will find an archive of those articles and full NSA Technical Journals which have been released.

Document Archive

Misc. Military Intelligence Publications

 On The Trail of Military Intelligence History [44 Pages, 7.45 MB]

NSA Technical Journal Full Article Index

 Full Index of NSA Technical Journal Articles [202 Pages, 5.87MB]

NSA Technical Journals (Full Release)

  Fall 1980, Volume 25, Number 4 [47 Pages, 3MB]

NSA Technical Journal Table of Contents

(NSA lists the contents of the journals as classified. Each article, or full journal, can be requested with a Mandatory Declassification Review Request to the NSA)

 NSA Technical Journal, April 1956, Volume 1, Number 1 [1 Page, 123kb]

 NSA Technical Journal, July 1956, Volume 1, Number 2 [1 Page, 117kb]

 NSA Technical Journal, October 1956, Volume 1, Number 3 [1 Page, 113kb]

 NSA Technical Journal, January 1957, Volume 2, Number 1 [1 Page, 108kb]

 NSA Technical Journal, April 1957, Volume 2, Number 2 [1 Page, 113kb]

 NSA Technical Journal Articles Individually Released

 Emergency Destruction of Documents – April 1956 – Vol. I, No. 1 [3 Pages, 294kb]

 Development of Automatic Telegraph Switching Systems – July 1957 – Vol. II, No. 3 [13 Pages, 454kb]

 Chatter Patterns: A Last Resort – October 1957 – Vol. II, No. 4 [7 Pages, 301]

 Introduction to Traffic Analysis – April 1958 – Vol. III, No. 2 [6 Pages, 346kb]

 Signals from Outer Space – April 1958 – Vol. III, No. 2 [4 Pages, 379kb]

 Science and Cryptology – July 1958 – Vol. III, No. 3 [4 Pages, 231kb]

 A New Concept in Computing – December 1958 – Vol. III, No. 4 [10 Pages, 375kb]

 About NSA – January 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 1 [5 Pages, 300kb]

 Data Transmission Over Telephone Circuits – January 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 1 [8 Pages, 395kb]

 Soviet Science and Technology: Present Levels and Future Prospects –
January 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 1 [13 Pages, 686kb]

 Cryptanalysis in The German Air Force – April 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 2 [9 Pages, 788kb]

 A Program for Correcting Spelling Errors – October 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 4 [4 Pages, 331kb]

 The Borders of Cryptology – October 1959 – Vol. IV, No. 4 [4 Pages, 190kb]

 Did Aleksandr Popov Invent Radio? – January 1960 – Vol. V, No. 1 [4 Pages, 219kb]

 Book Review: Lost Languages – Fall 1960 – Vol. V. Nos. 3 & 4 [4 Pages, 296kb]

 The GEE System I – Fall 1961, Vol. VI, No. 4 [20 Pages, 1.49mb]

 Book Review: Lincos, Design of a Language for Cosmic Intercourse, Part 1 – Winter 1962 – Vol. VII, No. 1 [5 Pages, 209kb]

 A Cryptologic Fairy Tale – Spring 1962 – Vol. VII, No. 2 [12 Pages, 328kb]

 Aristocrat – An Intelligence Test for Computers – Spring 1962 – Vol. VII, No. 2 [4 Pages, 169kb]

 Why Analog Computation? – Summer 1962 – Vol. VII, No. 3 [4 Pages, 314kb]

 Book Review: Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision – Winter 1963 – Vol. VIII, No. 1 [3 Pages, 234kb]

 Soviet Communications Journals as Sources of Intelligence – August 1964 – Vol. IX, No. 3 [4 Pages, 164kb]

 Something May Rub Off! – Winter 1965 – Vol. X, No. 1 [5 Pages, 303kb]

 Time Is – Time Was – Time Is Past Computes for Intelligence – Winter 1965 – Vol. X, No. 1 [13 Pages, 687kb]

 Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence – Winter 1966 – Vol. XI, No. 1 [9 Pages, 413kb]

 Extraterrestrial Intelligence – Spring 1966 – Vol. XI, No. 2 [2 Pages, 140kb]

 The Library and the User – Spring 1968 – Vol. XIII, No. 2 [5 Pages, 267kb]

 Mokusatsu: One Word, Two Lessons – Fall 1968 – Vol. XIII, No. 4 [6 Pages, 327kb]

 Key to The Extraterrestrial Messages – Winter 1969 – Vol. XIV, No. 1 [11 Pages, 383kb]

 Q.E.D. – 2 Hours, 41 Minutes – Fall 1973, Vol. XVIII, No. 4 [22 Pages, 916kb]

 Earliest Applications of the Computer at NSA – Winter 1973 – Vol. XVIII, No. 1 [3 Pages, 186kb]

The post NSA Technical Journals first appeared on The Black Vault.

  4 March 2011 [2 Pages, 200kb]

  21 March 2011 [2 Pages, 220kb]

  24 March 2011 [1 Page, 200kb]

The post History Today first appeared on The Black Vault.

  NSA Newsletter – September 1999 [16 Pages. 1.45 MB]

  NSA Newsletter – October 1999 [16 Pages. 2.03 MB]

  NSA Newsletter – November 1999 [16 Pages. 1.92 MB]

The post NSA Newsletters first appeared on The Black Vault.