21 July 2000. Add message and names.

20 July 2000

    To: nccs-ny@fbi.gov
    From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
    Date: 20 July 2000
    Subject: PSIA Request

    July 20, 2000

    Federal Bureau of Investigation
    NCCS, New York
    C37

    Dear FBI,

    This confirms my telephone remarks today that I decline
    your request to remove the list of members of Japan's
    Public Security Investigation Agency posted on Cryptome:

      http://cryptome.org/psia-lists.htm

    The file shall not be removed except in response to a US
    court order.

    You have informed me that your telephone request to remove
    the list was made at the request of the Japanese Ministry of
    Justice and that no US criminal investigation is underway in this
    matter.

    You said that you will convey to the Ministry of Justice that I
    have declined to remove the list and that I should expect
    to be contacted directly by the Ministry of Justice as a result
    of declining to remove the list.

    You said that you will speak to the US Attorney and call me
    again.

    I have agreed with your request not to identify the two FBI Special
    Agents to whom I spoke today.

    I told you that I would be publishing an account of this on Cryptome.

    Regards,

    John Young
    Cryptome

Note: Yes, it is contradictory that Cryptome will publish the PSIA names but not those of the FBI Special Agents. The senior Special Agent said at the end of the conversation that if his and the other agent's names were published "you are going to be in real trouble." Until that time both agents had been very polite. He then said he was going to take the matter up with the US Attorney and call again.

So we're brooding on that threat, pondering the FBI names on this notepad, comparing this situation with that of the MI6 names and the MI5 names and the Iranian names and the PSIA names and the CIA names Cryptome has published. In none of the other instances was Cryptome threatened. And are wondering why the FBI carnivores deserve privacy we don't get from them and the world's surveillance agencies.

More later.

Meanwhile, if curious send an inquiry to the FBI address on our e-mail. Or telephone: 212-384-3155.

    Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 00:34:27 -0400
    To: nccs-ny@fbi.gov
    From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
    Subject: PSIA Request

    July 21, 2000

    Federal Bureau of Investigation
    NCCS, New York
    C37

    Dear FBI,

    This supplements my message yesterday on declining to
    remove a list of names of members of Japan's Public Security
    Investigation Agency from the Internet site Cryptome.org.

    In that message I wrote that I agreed with your request to not
    identify the two Special Agents who spoke to me on this matter.

    After reflecttion on this I have decided that publishing the names
    of the Special Agents would be consistent with publishing the
    names of the PSIA members, and in both cases the purpose
    of publishing is to contribute to public awareness of how
    government functions and to identify who performs those
    functions. I believe this is why the two Special Agents readily
    identified themselves to me and that it would be appropriate
    for me to share that information with readers of Cryptome.

    Therefore I shall publish the names of the two Special Agents
    who spoke with me at:

       http://cryptome.org/fbi-psia.htm

    Sincerely,

    John Young
    Cryptome

The FBI Special Agent who initially telephoned was James Castano. Mr. Castano explained the Ministry of Justice request to remove the PSIA material and answered all my questions about it. I explained my intention to publish an account of the FBI's request on Cryptome because there had been interest in how such requests are processed between governments. I asked if I could provide his name in the account. He asked with emphasis that I not do so. I agreed.

In the course of discussing my sending an e-mail to Mr. Castano, his supervisor, Special Agent Dave Marzilliano, came on the phone and repeated the information Mr. Castano provided about the Ministry of Justice request.

Both agents were very courteous during most of the conversations. Except toward the end of the conversation with Mr. Marzilliano, when I mentioned my intention to publish an account without revealing his and Mr. Castano's names, he warned me there would be "serious trouble" if their names were published, and that he would be speaking with the US Attorney about the matter and call me again.

Mr. Marzilliano did not explain why their two names should be concealed, why there would be "serious trouble" if revealed, what "serious trouble" meant, the legal basis for such trouble, nor what it was in my comments that alarmed him.