Tuesesday March 10, 1998 3/10/98 E-mail Federico.F.Pena@hq.doe.gov and mail Federico F. Pena The Secretary of Energy United States Department of Energy Washington, D.C. 20585 Dear Secretary Pena: Purpose of this letter is to appeal a denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request. I wrote on Tuesday February 17, 1999 15:11 e-mail and mail Ms. Elva Barfield Freedom of Information Office U. S. Department of Energy Albuquerque Operations Office/OIEA POB 5400 Albuquerque, NM 87185-5400 EBARFIELD@DOEAL.GOV Dear Ms. Barfield: VP Al Gore is in the crypto business. Information SuperSpyWay Al Gore Approved Encryption for China in Return for Campaign Donations by Charles R. Smith Portions of the above document posted on Internet at http://www.us.net/softwar/ and http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ states 1. Gore charged with encryption policy according to PDD-5 and PRD-27 on April 16, 1993. 2. Government officials represent themselves on Al Gore's behalf for RSA patent purchase negotiations in Feb. 1994. 3. RSA chairman Bidzos meets with Chinese officials at the same time as Ron Brown in Oct. 1995. 4. RSA Chairman Bidzos enters into merger negotiations with Security Dynamics, a company backed by Sanford Robertson, in Nov. 1995. 5. VP Gore calls Sanford Robertson from the White House for a donation in Nov. 1995. 6. Robertson delivers $100,000 donation ($80,000 soft - $20,000 directly into the Clinton/Gore campaign) in Jan. 1996. 7. RSA signs deal with China in Feb. 1996. The administration previously prosecuted similar deals but this time does nothing. 8. Justice Dept. approves RSA merger with Security Dynamics in April 1996 for $280 million dollars, netting Sanford Robertson's company a cool $2 million just to write the deal. In 1991 I was in involved with Sandia National Laboratories Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty seismic data authenticator. At that time Sandia director Tommy A Sellers had assumed responsibility for directorship from Robert Clem. Sandia supervisor Tom Wright replaced my supervisor, John Holovka, who was the supervisor for the CTBT seismic data authenticator. Wright brought in Ph.D. Steven Goldsmith to supervise me. Sellars, Wright, and Goldsmith were new to crypto-type projects. Much of this is documented at http://www.jya.com/whp021598.htm. This is evidenced by Sellar's attached SEP 24 1991 memorandum, which Goldsmith help author, addressed to Dr James J Hearn at the National Security Agency. The SEP 24 memorandum contained a number of technical errors. I corrected these errors in my attached December 20, 1991 memorandum. Department of Energy and it predecessors have a well-documented history of not requiring technical expertise for pursuit of interests. Stewart Udall, The Myths of August, writes, Any cover-up must be implemented and enforced by designated agents, and one man emerged in 1953 as the quarterback of the AEC's damage-control effort. His name was Gordon Dunning. Although the personnel charts of the 1950s list him as a low-level "rad-safe" official in the Division of Biology and Medicine, documents demonstrate that he was clothed with authority to manage and suppress information about the radiation released by the testing of nuclear weapons. ... About the time Sellers and Sandia Ombudsman gave me a directed transfer to break electronic locks for the FBI/ERF [engineering research facility], Goldsmith and Wright, certainly with the approval of Sellers, placed a contract with RSA Inc [http://www.rsa.com/], I was told. Ms Barfield, we think the American public needs to know more about RSA's work with Sandia National Laboratories. Therefore, Under the provision of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, I am requesting access to: 1 ALL purchase requisitions, including any attached statement of work, issued by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, or DOE/ALOO between January 1, 1991 and February 17, 1998 to RSA Inc. 2 Copies of all invoices from RSA Inc received by Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratories, or DOE/ALOO between January 1, 1991 and February 17, 1998 If there are any fees for searching for, or copying, the records I have requested, please inform me before you fill the request. As you know, the Act permits you to reduce or waive the fees when the release of the information is considered as "primarily benefiting the public." I believe that this requests fits that category and I therefore ask that you waive any fees. Your office agreed to waive fees before. This request is surely of "public interest." December 13, 1994 DOE/AL FOIA officer Gwen Schreiner waived fees for the reason, "We have considered your request and have determined that release of the requested records is in the public interest, that disclosure of this information is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government, that you or the organization you represent have little or no commercial interest in the material contained in the records, that you or the organization you represent have the qualifications and ability to use and disseminate the information, and that the records are not currently in the public domain. A waiver of fees is therefore granted." This waiver of fees was, undoubtedly, issued as a result of former Energy Secretary Hazel O'Leary's Openness initiative. Heart of America paid my way to hear Secretary O'Leary's celebrated whistleblower speech. If all or any part of this request is denied, please cite the specific exemption(s) which you think justifies your refusal to release the information and inform me of your agency's administrative appeal procedures available to me under the law. I would appreciate your handling this request as quickly as possible, and I look forward to hearing from you within 20 working days, as the law stipulates. I received no response to the above FOIA. Therefore I appeal as a result of non-response. As you may be aware (6)(A) Each agency, upon any request for records made under paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this subsection, shall-- (i) determine within ten days \1\ (excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) after the receipt of any such request whether to comply with such request and shall immediately notify the person making such request of such determination and the reasons therefor, and of the right of such person to appeal to the head of the agency any adverse determination; and And you may also be aware ------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ Under section 12(b) of the Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996 (Pub. L. 104-231; 110 Stat. 3054), the amendment made by section 8(b) of such Act striking ``ten days'' and inserting ``20 days'' shall take effect on October 3, 1997. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- (ii) make a determination with respect to any appeal within twenty days (excepting Saturdays, Sundays, and legal public holidays) after the receipt of such appeal. If on appeal the denial of the request for records is in whole or in part upheld, the agency shall notify the person making such request of the provisions for judicial review of that determination under paragraph (4) of this subsection So I expect a response to this appeal within the time allotted to you by law. Much of this unfortunate matter is appearing on Internet. http://www.jya.com/whp021598.htm http://www.jya.com/cylinked.htm Letter from Bill Payne Regarding Cryptography at Sandia http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Crypto AG: The NSA's Trojan Whore? http://caq.com/CAQ/caq63/caq63madsen.html NSA, Crypto AG, and the Iraq-Iran War http://www.aci.net/kalliste/speccoll.htm How Secure is America's Nuclear Arsenal? http://www.aci.net/kalliste/nukearse.htm And, of course, we continue to seek settlement. Sincerely, William H. Payne 13015 Calle de Sandias Albuquerque, NM 87111