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FOIA appeal, again

Friday 5/15/98 2:55 PM

E-mail [email protected] and mail

Federico F. Pena
The Secretary of Energy
United States Department of Energy
Washington, D.C. 20585

Dear Secretary Pena:

Purposes of this letter are to

 1 protest an improper Freedom of Information Act dismissal by
Thomas O. Mann , Deputy Director, Office of Hearings and Appeals
[email protected]

2 appeal a denial of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request.

I attach a copy of my 3/10/98 appeal letter to you.

DOE/ALOO failed to respond with time allotted by law to my FOIA request,
as you can read in my appeal letter.

On March 30, 1998 Barfield finally did respond.  But late.

APR 28 Mann writes me,

  We learned that AOO issued a determination concerning your request on
March
  30, 1998.  Because your appeal was based on the Department�s failure
to respond,
  and because the Department has responded you appeal is now moot.

I follow the law.

If Mann feels that there is law or federal regulation to support is
claim that the
time-out clause in the FOIA no longer applies because of a late agency
response,
then he should report this to you. 

Mann adds in the final paragraph of his APR 28 letter

  Accordingly, the appeal dated march 10, 1998, that you filed under the
Freedom of
  Information Act, is hereby dismissed.

My appeal is not, as Mann concluded, moot.  My appeal is active.

Mann, however, writes

  You may, however, file an appeal with the Office based on the March 30
determination.

Man also writes

  Please note that, as stated in the determination letter, appeals under
the Freedom of
  Information Act should be addressed to the Director of the Office of
Hearings and Appeals.

And Barfield writes

  Such an appeal must be made in writing within 30 calendar days after
receipt of this letter,
  addressed to the Director, Office of Hearing and Appeals, ...

Secretary Pena, your employees are apparently trying to invent their own
FOIA rules instead
of complying with federal law.

  Whenever a FOIA request is denied, the agency must inform
  the requester of the reasons for the denial and the requester's
  right to appeal the denial to the head of the agency.

I am appealing to you, not
http://www.hr.doe.gov/htbin/callup?name=breznay&SYNONYM=YES,
[email protected]

I ask that your office takes WRITTEN corrective action to educate or
perhaps reprimand
both Mann and Barfield for not following the law.

Barfield writes in her Mar 30 letter

  The Kirtland Area Office (KAO), oversight for the Sandia National
Laboratories (SNL),
  conducted a search but could not locate any responsive documents.  The
KAO also made
  the determination that the documents you are seeking are contained in
procurement files
  in possession and control of SNL and are, therefore, not �agency
records� subject to
  provision of the FOIA.

Secretary Pena, Barfield�s statement appears to be an attempt for
bureaucrats to hide,
perhaps in the case of RSA and VP Al Gore, possibly incriminating
records from the public.

Therefore, I assert that the requested documents are or should be part
of DOE agency documents,
if DOE is doing a proper job of managing its contractors.

Therefore, I add this clause to my previous appeal.  And ask that your
respond within the
time limit allowed you by law.

Of course, I continue to feel that we should settle this unfortunate
matter seen on Internet
at

http://www.jya.com/whp050898.htm
http://www.jya.com/whp-10usca.htm
http://www.jya.com/whp043098.htm
http://www.jya.com/mf050998.htm
http://jya.com/whpfiles.htm
http://www.jya.com/crack-a5.htm
http://caq.com/cryptogate
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/speccoll.htm
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/nukearse.htm

before it gets even more serious and eventually costly to the taxpayer.

Sincerely,



William H. Payne 
13015 Calle de Sandias 
Albuquerque, NM 87111

Tuesesday 3/10/98 8:10 PM

E-mail [email protected] 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
  [email protected]

  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