For example, nuclear science and design files are uniquely classified as “Restricted Data”. These files were previously accessed through what is known as Q Clearance, a special background check and access protocol. (And yes, the Q-Space is the “Q” in QAnona reference to that anonymous character Clearance inside the US government.)
The Restricted Data designation was created by the Atomic Energy Act at the dawn of the Cold War and is now administered by the Department of Energy, which oversees the development and stockpiling of nuclear weapons. of the country. As nuclear historian Alex Wellerstein explain On Twitter today, the goal is to build a taxonomy outside the defense establishment that will allow scientific knowledge to be more versatile than simple military applications.
“TS/RD” files are what are called “naturally classified,” where, unlike other classified scientific or intelligence works, they are said to have been classified high grade from the moment they were created. Effectively, instead of opting in to the classification, nuclear design and science must opt out.
Meanwhile, the NC2 documents — alleging that documents related to how presidential nuclear football works or how nuclear launch procedures would play out — history has its own classification known as Information. extremely sensitive information (ESI), which again requires special access rights.
Some Report surrounding the search for Mar-a-Lago, by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl and others, says that the FBI raid also involved what is known as the Special Access Program (SAP), a type of Unusual unique classification refers to the most sensitive covert operations and technical capabilities of intelligence and defense systems. (The intelligence community has the military’s equivalent of SAP, known as CAP, or Controlled Access Program.)
SAP requires that someone specifically “read” the program — that is, they need a specific “need to know” and the documents are carefully tracked to see who read them and where they are stored. where. Typically, individuals get to “read” a SAP in the amount of a small ceremony, which includes meeting with a specially cleared security officer and signing a specific non-disclosure agreement for That SAP. During an official’s employment, the SAPs they are authorized to access are carefully monitored.
In addition to SAP, which focuses on capabilities, there is another type of categorical information known as SCI, “Sensitive Segmentation Information”. This designation is often used to protect what intelligence officials call “sources and methods.” Such information could include, for example, the identity of an asset placed high in a foreign government or how the NSA has managed to technically penetrate foreign military communications networks. Based on NewsweekWilliam Arkin’s, at least some of the documents searched during the FBI’s search involved “sources and methods”. And The Wall Street Journal report This afternoon, a list of items removed from Mar-a-Lago included “different classified/TS/SCI documents.”
SAP and SCI are known by their own code names. For example, our longstanding classification for satellite reconnaissance is TALENT KEYHOLE, so the documents protected by it are labeled “TS/SCI TALENT KEYHOLE.” (FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was presumably part of the team that signed off on this week’s Mar-a-Lago search, is a minor player in the The Bush Administration Confrontation on one of the most famous and most notorious SAP of recent, STAR WINDan NSA wiretapping program created after 9/11.)
