FC: FBI asks website to delete Japanese intelligence documents

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,37718,00.html

FBI Pressuring Spy Archivist
by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

10:00 a.m. Jul. 21, 2000 PDT
The FBI wants to delete a Japanese intelligence document from a
U.S. website.

Two special agents on Thursday contacted online archivist John
Young, who maintains a massive archive of files related to spy
agencies, and politely asked him to yank information related to
Japan's Public Security Investigation Agency.

Young refused to comply with the request. He said the FBI told him
they were asking on behalf of the Japanese Ministry of Justice,
which oversees the PSIA.

An FBI spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The 120KB document appears to be a PSIA personnel file, with over
400 names, birthdates, and titles, starting with Director General
Hidenao Toyoshima. The document's title: "The Most Incompetent
Intelligence Agency in the World."

"There's nothing wrong with me putting this stuff up in the U.S.,"
Young says of his cryptome.org site. "It's not wrong or illegal."

Young, a 64-year-old New York architect, has spent years
amassing a vast collection of reports. The collection, over 4,000
files about privacy, technology, and intelligence agencies, is
probably the world's most comprehensive public collection of its
kind.

For the last week, Young has been busy placing a series of
documents related to Japanese intelligence on cryptome.org. Last
Friday, he posted what appears to be an internal CIA document
about the agenda of a Japanese delegation's visit in June 1998.

On Sunday, Young added a document apparently classified as
"secret" by the CIA -- also prepared for Japanese officials -- that
includes a fairly detailed overview of the U.S. intelligence
community, including its budgets and personnel trends. Its author is
listed as assistant CIA director Charles Allen, who referred calls to a
spokeswoman.

"We're always concerned if classified information is made public," a
CIA spokeswoman said. "That's a serious matter.... Leaks of
classified information are certainly of concern to this agency."

Young has identified his source for the apparently leaked
documents only as "S.K." Someone using the name Shigeo Kifuji last
week posted some of the same documents on the
alt.security.espionage newsgroup using a Web-based email
account.

[...]

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