Washington,
D.C., 14 October 2004
- The Transportation
Security Administration this week refused to release the texts or
even the titles of five aviation warnings given to airlines just
before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, even though the titles and substance
of the warnings have been published in the best-selling 9/11 Commission
report, according to an analysis of the documents posted today on
the Web by the National Security Archive at George Washington University.
The five warnings -
called Information Circulars - were sent to the civil air industry
by the Federal Aviation Administration to summarize emerging threats
between June 22, 2001 and August 16, 2001. The 9/11 Commission,
the Congressional 9/11 Joint Inquiry, and White House briefings
described and discussed these warnings in detail; and the National
Security Archive filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request
for them in April 2004. By letter dated September 29, 2004 and received
by the Archive this week, the Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) withheld all the substance of the warnings, citing five different
exemptions to the FOIA, and blacked out even the unclassified information
- such as the document titles and numbers - claiming that this information
fits in the new category of "Sensitive Security Information."
"This ranks as
a dubious secret," said Barbara Elias, the FOIA coordinator
at the National Security Archive. "The titles and document
numbers are printed in the number one best-selling book in the country,
but clearly our government has not acted on a central recommendation
of that book, to reduce secrecy and share more information with
the public."
"Public circulation
of warnings like these would make our country safer," said
Thomas Blanton, the National Security Archive director. "The
government is choosing to hide our vulnerabilities rather than fix
them."
The National Security
Archive has posted on its website www.nsarchive.org
a side-by-side comparison of the information withheld by the TSA
and citations of the same information in public documents such as
the 9/11 Commission Report. A recurrent theme throughout the 9/11
Commission's report is the need to prevent widespread overclassification
by the U.S. federal government. The Commission found overclassification
interferes with sharing critical information and impedes efficient
responses to threats. The TSA's recent refusal to release its more
than three-year-old Information Circulars and its decision to block
the release of even the publicly-known parts of these documents
serve to remind the public that the information-sharing recommendations
of the 9/11 Commission have yet to be put into practice.
Documents
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TSA
Release on the 6/22/2001 FAA Information Circular Compared with
Public Records
The TSA's excisions on
this unclassified FAA log referring to the requested June 22, 2001
Information Circular block the document number in full in some places
and in part in others. The actual June 22, 2001 document was withheld
in full. The substance of this Information Circular is discussed
in the Congressional Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 Attacks and is
quoted in the 9/11 Commission Report. The 9/11 Commission Report
endnotes supply the Information Circular document number and title.
Even though this information is available to the public, the TSA
has withheld such references as Sensitive Security Information.
How this three-year-old document number could be used to harm security
is unknown.
TSA
Release on the 7/18/2001 FAA Information Circular Compared with
9/11 Commission Report Endnotes
In this standard e-mail
distributing the July 18, 2001 Information Circular, the TSA withholds
the Information Circular (IC) number and a one-sentence summary
of the document. The IC number and the title of the document have
already been released to the public in the 9/11 Commission Report,
as seen here in the report's endnotes.
TSA
Release on the 7/31/2001 FAA Information Circular Compared with
9/11 Commission Report Endnotes
The July 31, 2001 Information
Circular is also denied in its entirety and the document number,
publicly released here in the 9/11 Commission Report endnotes, is
also withheld in this TSA release.
TSA
Release on the 8/16/2001 FAA Information Circular Compared with
9/11 Commission Report Endnotes
This ACI Intelligence
Watch Log, clearly marked UNCLASSIFIED, was issued a day after the
August 16, 2001 FAA Information Circular. The TSA has withheld the
IC document number and the name of the FAA officer who is receiving
praise for the IC. We cannot assess the quality of this document
or the work of the officer because the IC document was withheld
in full.
TSA
Release on the 7/31/2001 FAA Information Circular - Comparison of
Pages 8 and 9
Comparing these two pages
related to the July 31, 2001 Information Circular further illustrates
the unreasonable TSA Sensitive Security Information withholdings.
The markings on the second page indicate that the TSA intended to
excise the IC document numbers in this unclassified ACI Intelligence
Watch Log, just as it had withheld every other IC document reference.
The TSA however, for unknown reasons, neglected actually to block
the IC numbers on this page. This apparent mistake reveals that
material withheld as being Sensitive Security Information on other
pages is identical to publicly, known information that has no evident
impact on security. The 9/11 Commission Report endnotes cite the
title of this Information Circular and its IC number, IC-2001-04A.
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