DM B3 FBI 2 of 2 Fdr- 9-16-03 Memo From Snell Re FBI Document Access- 3 Withdrawal Notices- Delgago Email to FBI Pledging Cooperation- Letter Re PENTTBOM Concordance 299

8/14/2019 DM B3 FBI 2 of 2 Fdr- 9-16-03 Memo From Snell Re FBI Document Access- 3 Withdrawal Notices- Delgago Email to…

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/dm-b3-fbi-2-of-2-fdr-9-16-03-memo-from-snell-re-fbi-document-access-3-withdrawal 1/10

Law Enforcement Sensitive

MEMORANDUM

To: Dan Marcus

From: D ieter Snell

Re: FBI Document Access

Date: September 16,2003

Our concerns with current access to FBI documents boil down to two fundamental

problems: (1 ) the scope of the response to date has been both under-inclusive and over-inclusive as against our investigative needs; and (2) the process is too cumbersome and

inefficient to allow us to focus ou r document selection and review in a timely and fluidfashion.

At present we have two means to retrieve FBI documents: (1) the "Concordance"database that the Bureau has made available to us on two computer terminals at FBIHQ;and (2) the formal document request and production process. Neither is adequate.

A. Concordance

Th e Concordance database includes interview reports (FD-302s) and reportsregarding physical evidence from the Penttbom file, but does not have ElectronicCommunications, Letterhead Memoranda, or even investigative inserts from thePenttbom file. A lthoug h Concordance purp ortedly contains over 162,000 docu me nts,only a small subset of those will be of use; yet, many other important documents in thePenttbom file are not accessible to us as m atters stand.

Concordance does no t contain much of what it is purported to contain and is seriouslyoutdated. O ur examination reveals that Concordance does no t contain any interview

reports dated after June 2002.

Furthermore, we have discovered some very significa nt interview reports that werefiled under the Penttbom file num ber but that are not in Concordance. For instance, inreviewing documents produced to the Joint Inquiry, we found an interview report of anindividual who: associated with at least four of the hijackers; admitted to having hadcontact with the "spiritual advisor" of two of them; and helped the hijackers find living

accomm odations. Concordance contains only earlier and materially incomplete interviewreports of this person.

It is evident that a significant amount of the investigation into the hijackers'

associates is not filed under the Penttbom case number and therefore would not berepresented in the Concordance database, even if it were complete. Indeed, the most

important of these individu als generally had their ow n independent FB I investigations.





B. Document Production

The FBI's response to our formal requests for document production has provenextremely tardy and significantly incomplete. For purposes of factual investigation intothe plot (inclu ding Designated Sensitive Ma terial), th e most significant outstanding

document requests are FBI Docum ent Request N os. 2 and 10.

FBI Document Request No. 2 is dated June 4, 2003; response was due June 18, 2003.

To date, we have received either no response or an incomplete response for at least 10 ofthe 19 individu als listed in Item #1 of the Request (according to our best estimate), andno response at all for Items #3-7. Nor h ave we received any response to date for ourmore recent FBI Document Request No. 10, dated August 26 , 2003. The latter request isfar more extensive than the former, a fact that gives us grave concern as to the FBI's

ability to respond completely within anything approaching a reasonable timeframe.

We believe the reason for the FBI's inability to comply with our document requestsmore expeditiously lies in the extraordinarily cumbersome, multi-tiered research and

review process the Bu reau has been employing for its docum ent productions. Am ong themore time-consuming aspects of this process appears to be a painstaking redactionprocess, whereby certain types of material (described in the attached "9/11 CommissionTask Force Document Deletion Codes") is masked in the materials produced to us. Inresponse to our questions concerning the need to redact certain material, the Bureau has

permitted me to examine certain of the redactions, i.e., redactions not required by statute.This examination has established that material of clear significance to our work has beenredacted from the documents produced to us.

As to the responsiveness of the FBI's document request searches, our review

demonstrates that significant numbers of responsive documents are not being located and

produced. For example, we believe the FBI has, or at least recently had, open activeinvestigations on at least two individua ls listed in Item #1 of FBI Document Request No.2 but has produced only a handful of documents fo r these individuals.

Based on our concern that the Bureau's searches were no t sufficiently comprehensive,we asked our FBI point of contact to search these names in the FBI's Automated Case

Support (ACS) system. The search revealed well over a hundred responsive docum ents

that have not been produced.

C. Proposed Solution

We believe that any workable solution to our concerns must afford us greaterparticipation in the search process on the ACS system as well as more timely access to

the results of such searches. One possibility we have proposed is for us to work directly

with the searchers and for them to provide us with the results of the searches

immediately, after only those redactions required by statute are made. Another solution

might be for us to submit search queries on a daily basis an d receive the redacted results

of the searches with a one-day turn-around.





In an y event, the current system is not worka ble, especially in view of our severe timeconstraints. Proper execution of our job requires that we receive responses to our

inquiries far sooner, and that those responses be complete. The current system simplycannot accomplish those essential objectives.




9/11 COMMISSION TASK FORCE

DOCUMENT DELETION CODES[As of August 11, 2003]

"A" - SOURCE/INFORMANT INFORMATION - Information, the disclosure ofwhichwould tend to reveal the identity of an informant or source where confidentiality is

expressed or implied.

"B" - FBI TECHNIQUES AND/OR METHODS - Information onsensitive FBI

techniques and/or methods which would impede or impair the effectiveness of that

technique and/or method.

"C" - NON-RELEVANT FBI CASE INFORMATION - Information neither relevant nor

responsive to the Commission's requests.

"D" - FBI PENDING CASE INFORMATION - Information w hich wo uld impede orjeopardize a pend ing investigation of the FBI.

"E" - STATUTORY - Inform ation legally prohibited from release by statute.

"F" - PRIVACY/SECURITY - Information, the disclosure ofwhich would be an

unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy or jeopardize the safety of lawenforcement personnel and/or their family members

Material redacted under this code includes (1) social security numbers;

(2) date and place of birth; (3) home address and telephone numbers;

(4) personnel cell phone and pager numbers

"G" - FOREIGN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION - The identity of a foreigngovernment and/or foreign service to include the names of foreign law enforcement

employees/officials.



9/11 COMMISSION TASK FORCE

DOCUMENT DELETION CODES

"A"- SOURCE/INFORMANT INFORMATION - Information, th e disclosure of whichwould tend to reveal the identity of an informant or source where confidentiality is

expressed or implied.

"B" - LAWENFORCEMENT PRIVILEGE/TECHNIQUES - Disclosure of the

information wo uld impede or impa ir the effectiveness of an investigative technique,method or procedure utilized by the FBI.

"C" - LAWENFORCEMENT PRIVILEGE/FBI CASE INFORMATION - Disclosureof

the information on FBI investigations not related to the terrorists acts of September11,2001 or subsequent related terrorism investigations.

"D" - GRAND JURY MATERIAL - Information protected under the Grand Jury secrecyprovision — Rule 6e of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

"E" - STATUTORY - Information, the disclosure of which is prohibited by Federal

Statute -Each statute w ill be iden tified num erically (ex.: E-l, E-2, etc.)D E-l - FISA's: Title 50 U.S.C . Section 1806 (B)D E-2 - NSA Personnel: Title 50 U.S.C. Section 402

D E-3 - CIA Personnel: Title 50 U.S.C. Section 403gD E-4 - Title IE: Title 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510-2522 -—

DE-5

- Pen Registers: TitlelS U.S.C. Section 3123(d)

"F" - PRIVACY/SECURITY - Information, the disclosure of which would be an

unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of a member of law enforcementand/or their family members.

"G" - FOREIGN GOVERNMENT INFORMATION - Information obtainedfrom a

foreign government or international organization where there is an agreement orunderstanding that the identity of the sourc e as well as the info rm ation received will

be treated confidentially.

"H" - THIRD AGENCY INFORMATION - Information originating with anothergovernment agency that requires a review by committee staff or other agencyrepresentative.



W I T H D R A W A L N O T I C E

RG: 148

Box: 00001 Folder: 0002 Document: 7

Series: Dan Marcus Files

Copies: 1 Pages: 3

ACCESS RESTRICTED

The item identified below has been withdrawn from this file:

Folder Title: FBI [2 of 2]

Document Date: 09-08-2003Document Type: Memorandum

From: Team 1A

To: Front Office

Subject: Access to FBI documents

In the review of this file this item was removed because access to it is

restricted. Restrictions on records in the National Archives are stated ingeneral and specific record group restriction statements which are available

fo r examination.

NND: 221

Withdrawn: 01-25-2008 by:

RETRIEVAL #: 221 00001 0002 7

S~)

&SS \K



WITH DRA WAL NOTI CE

RG: 148



Copies: 1 Pages: 2

ACCESS RESTRICTED



Document Date: 08-28-2003Document Type: Memorandum

From: Doug Greenburg

To:

Subject: Meeting at FBIHQ re Documents



fo r examination.

NND: 221


RETRIEVAL #: 221 00001 0002 8



CDT nr_ 202 324 9594 P. 02JUL-25-2003 12:11 FBI QGC

U.S. Department of Justice

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Office of the General Counsel Washington,D.C 20535

July 25, 2003

Daniel Marcus, General CounselNational Comm ission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United StatesSuite 3002100KStree t ,N.W.Washington, D.C. 20036

RE: Commission's Requests for Docum ents

Dear Mr. Marcus:

Please be advised that the FBI has established two workstations equipped withConcordance software at FBIHQ for immediate use by the Commission. The stations have beenloaded with approximately 162,000 FBI 302's from the PENTTBOM file as well as approximately2,000 pages of FBI lab reports. While the vast majority of the materials have not been redacted,approximately 12,818 FBI 302's have been redacted to protect sources and methods. These

documents were also produced to the Moussaoui defense in redacted fo rm at Should you have anyspecific concerns regarding individual redactions taken, we would be happ y to discuss them. Ofcourse, all of this material is Moussaoui-related and is covered by the terms of the non-disclosureagreement executed betw een the Commission and the Department of Justice.

The material is electronically searchable. Mem bers and staff of the Comm ission arefree to use the workstations to review and search the materials as they wish. We w ould be happy toprovide your staff training on how to use the Concordanc e softwa re. To this end , we wo uld propose a1 hou r training session for all interested C om mission personnel the week of July 28th. Please contac tme to ma ke these arrangemen ts.

If members or staff wish to have paper copies of any of the imaged documents, wewould be pleased to provide copies for paper production to the Com mission after prop er bates-stamping to ensure an accurate record of what was produced.

We believe the workstations will provide the Comm ission with the ability andopportunity to condu ct its own searches of substantial amounts of PENTTBOM material. We remainwilling to discuss with you methods to conduct additional searches of relevant materials on behalf ofthe Commission.

-Sincerely,

Robert S. SintonAssistant General Counsel



W I T H D R A W A L N O T I C E

RG: 148



Copies: 1 Pages: 2

ACCESS RESTRICTED



Document Date: 07-22-2003Document Type: Letter

From: Robert Sinton

To: Daniel Marcus

Subject: Commisison's Requests for Documents



fo r examination.

NND: 221


RETRIEVAL*: 221 00001 0002 10



OELGADO - REVISED Draft Director email to all employees re: 9̂ Comrnisibn " """ * " ' " " " Page 1

From: EMAIL EMAIL

To: ALL

Date: Wed, Jul 16, 2003 9:46 AM

Subject: REVISED Draft Director email to all employees re: 9-11 Commission

MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR TO ALL EMPLOYEES

As you may have seen in press reports, Congress has established a Commission to look into the tragic

events of September 11, 2001 and to make recommendations for improving our nation's security in the

future. The Commission will issue a public report attempting to set forth a definitive historical account of

September 11th, but also discussing various policy and structural issues affecting Counterterrorism.

I have pledged the full cooperation of the FBI to the Commission. The Commission has requested

thousands of documents from the FBI as well as briefings on a number of topics. We have established a

team at FBIHQ to search for responsive materials, process documents and respond to requests. The

Commission has also expressed its desire to visit a number of field offices later this summer or fall.

Your office may be contacted by members of our 9-11 Commission task force at FBIHQ for assistance in j

locating documents or other information. Your office may also be selected for a field office visit by

Commission staff. Coordination for all requests for visits or documents must be done through FBIHQ.

Questions can be directed to our overall Commission POCs, Pat O'Brien (324-8558) or Bob Sinton •

(324-9613), or through the POCs for the Counterterrorism Division, Tracey North or Rick Kelly (324-7498). • »Please be fully responsive to requests for assistance from these representatives.

Thank you for your cooperation with this important effort.