NSA's Barbara McNamara denies fee waiver appeal

[bill payne <billp@nmol.com>]

Tuesday 8/25/98 12:31 PM

Charles R Smith  http://www.us.net/softwar/

NSA  deputy director Barbara McNamara's  wrote me a letter dated 19
August  1998.

http://www.nsa.gov:8080/mission.html

McNamara DENIED my fee waiver appeal for search for invoices NSA spent
on public key chips.

>From my inside dealings with NSA�s R division and Sandia employees  I
learned that both had some VERY UNFORTUNATE EXPERIENCES with public key.

I am sending both you and John Young copies of NcNamara�s letter.

McNamara wrote,

    This response may be construed as a denial of your appeal. 
Accordingly, you are hereby 
  advised to your right to seek judicial review of my decision pursuant
to 5 U.S.C. � 552(a)(4)
  (B) in the United States District Court in the district in which you
reside, in which you have
  your principal place of business, in which the Agency�s records are
situated (U.S. District
  Court of Maryland), or in the District of Columbia. 

http://www.jya.com/hr105-37.txt 

>From my case law studies at UNM law library, I HAVE NOT seen any example
of anyone
suing for a fee waiver denial.

McNamara wrote

  The key issue I considered in my review is whether disclosure of the
information is likely
  to contribute to the public understanding of the operations or
activities of the government.

My guess is that NSA has squandered tens of millions of dollars TRYING
to build public key
chips - like the Cylink 1024. http://www.cylink.com/

Some of NSA's money, I think, was spent at Sandia Labs funding the
failed Sandia low- and
high-speed public key chips.  See  Whitfield Diffie, "The First Ten
Years of Public Key Cryptography," Proceedings of the IEEE, 76(5), May
1988. referenced at http://www.aci.net/kalliste/nukearse.htm

Sandia's public key chips didn't get the same answers, Sandia Ron Kulju
told me.
KULJU,RONALD J.           (505)845-8860  RJKULJU   (505)844-9478  0519   
http://www.sandia.gov/cgi-bin/emplloc

Both NSA and Sandia MUCH TROUBLE building semiconductor devices.  I have
inside
information on NSA�s problems from National Semiconductor.  National was
hired
by NSA to help make chips at NSA's facility.

Perhaps McNamara opinion should be challenged IN COURT?

We have some experience in this endeavor. http://jya.com/whpfiles.htm

And may get some recognition 

http://www.jya.com/chrysler98.htm

  The Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, now in its sixth year,
  honors outstanding designers (or design teams).  Winners are chosen
  from across the design disciplines by a judging panel of design
  leaders.  One the selection is made, Chrysler will award $10,000
  to each winner (or winning team) at a ceremony in New York in the
  Fall of 1998.  Award winners will be flown to New York for the 
  Award Ceremony.

for our efforts.

I see that you are trying to gain some VISIBILITY for your encryption
product http://www.softwar.net/plight.html.  And that you are BIG into
the FOIA
business too. http://www.softwar.net/softb.html

Then TOO you can charge NSA OVER $100 per hour for your efforts should
we win.

NSA attempting to conceal how much taxpayer money it has squandered is
clearly
in the public interest.  And we have the ABILITY and EXPERTISE to
disseminate
this information to the public.

Perhaps you might be interested in participating in perhaps THE FIRST a
FOIA fee waiver
lawsuit?   Pro se, of course, for both legal and economic reasons.

McNamara would be, along with OTHERS at NSA, a NAMED DEFENDANT.

On the other hand, perhaps these crypto-related government messes 

http://www.aci.net/kalliste/speccoll.htm   
http://caq.com/cryptogate  
http://jya.com/whpfiles.htm  
http://www.qainfo.se/~lb/crypto_ag.htm

should get SETTLED so that we can all move on to other projects?

Later
bill