The Secret Service recently admitted that it possesses six previously unacknowledged documents relating to the break-up of a 2600 meeting at Pentagon City Mall last November. In conjunction with that admission, the agency has filed an affidavit executed by the Special Agent in Charge of its Washington field office. The affidavit, which is re-printed below, provides the most detailed explanation yet of the Secret Service's role in this affair.

The most important parts of the affidavit appear to be paragraphs 22-24, which state that "the Secret Service received information from a business indicating that that business' PBX had been manipulated," and that the business provided the agency with "certain information concerning the individual(s) who had entered the system." Based on these statements, here is the best guess of what happened: 1) the "victim business" had some reason to believe that the individual involved had some relationship to 2600; 2) the business passed this information on to the Secret Service; 3) the Secret Service knew that people associated with 2600 met at the mall on a regular basis; and 4) the Secret Service recruited the mall security personnel to identify the individuals attending the monthly meetings.

The litigation of CPSR's FOIA case against the Secret Service is proceeding, and new information will continue to be posted as it is obtained.

CPSR is a national organization of individuals concerned about the impact of computer technology on society. The best way to support CPSR's work is to become a member. For more information, write to .

David Sobel CPSR Legal Counsel dsobel@washofc.cpsr.org

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                  UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                  FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA



Computer Professionals        )
for Social Responsibility,    )
                              )
               Plaintiff      )
                              )       Civil Action No. 93-0231
          v.                  )
                              )
United States Secret Service, )
                              )
               Defendant      )

PUBLIC DECLARATION OF WILLIAM F. BURCH, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, WASHINGTON FIELD OFFICE

I, William F. Burch hereby depose and say:

1. I am the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of the United States Secret Service (hereinafter Secret Service), Washington Field office having held this position since January 24, 1993. I have been employed as a Special Agent of the Secret Service since January 20, 1969.

2. I am providing this declaration in connection with the above-captioned civil action arising under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The purpose of this declaration is to address matters raised by the plaintiff in Plaintiff's Memorandum in Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgement and in Support of Plaintiff's Cross-motion for Summary Judgement (hereinafter Plaintiff's Memorandum).

3. This declaration is provided for the public record and is somewhat limited, as the records which are at issue in this case were compiled by the Secret Service in the course of a criminal matter which is currently open and ongoing. I have, however, also provided a separate and more detailed declaration for in camera review by this Court.

4. In my position as the Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office, I am aware that plaintiff submitted to the Secret Service a FOIA request for information in the possession of the Secret Service which concerns "the breakup of a meeting of individuals" associated with the "2600 Club" at the "Pentagon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia on November 6, 1992."

5. In January of 1993, my office received a written request from the Secret Service's Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts (FOI/PA) Office asking that my office search its records to determine if it maintained information concerning plaintiff's FOIA request.

6. Pursuant to this request my office realized that it was maintaining records concerning an ongoing criminal matter and that these records might contain information which was responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request.

7. It was then directed that a copy of all records concerning this criminal investigation be provided to Secret Service headquarters.

8. In May of this year I was asked to provide an in camera and a public declaration concerning the underlying criminal investigation and the records concerning that investigation which related to plaintiff's FOIA request.

9. In the original draft of these declarations I noted that they referred only to certain newspaper articles and two specific records. Through my discussions with the "case agent" assigned to the underlying criminal matter, I was, however, personally aware that my office maintained certain additional records which appeared to concern plaintiff's FOIA request.

10. Upon further review I found that inadvertently copies of certain records which were in the possession of my office and which appeared to be responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request were not in the possession of the Secret Service FOI/PA.

11. Copies of all records maintained by my office which records concern plaintiff's FOIA request, and which records were in the possession of my office at the time this office's original search for material responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request,l have now been provided to Secret Service headquarters.

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1 The underlying criminal investigation has continued and, therefore, additional records have been compiled by the Secret Service in regard to that investigation.

12. Additionally, a record by record, page by page comparison has been made of the information maintained in the Washington Field Office, which information was in the possession of the Secret Service at the time of my office's original search for information responsive to plaintiff's FOIA request, with the copies of the records which have now been provided to Secret Service headcluarters. This comparison showed that these two groups of records are now identical.

13. The records which concern plaintiff's FOIA request, with the exception of the newspaper articles, had been provided to the Secret Service fron a confidential source and had been compiled for law enforcement purposes.

14. The information contained in these records was compiled in order to identify and to further investigate individual(s) who are considered to be possible suspect(s) in a criminal investigation being conducted by the Secret Service, which investigation relates to a violation of Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 1029, and/or 1030, "Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices," and "Fraud and related activity in connection with computers."

15. More specifically, the Secret Service has reason to believe that the suspect(s) in this case had gained access to a Public Branch Exchange (PBX) owned by a private company and manipulated that PBX so as to enable the commission of several tens of thousands of dollars of telephone toll fraud.

16. It is my understanding that at the request of my office the records at issue in this case, with the exception of the newspaper articles, were withheld from release due to the ongoing nature of the enforcement proceeding, as to release the information could constitute an invasion of the privacy of certain individuals, as the records at issue had been provided to the Secret Service by a confidential source, and as to release the records would reveal the identity of confidential sources.

17. I have been advised that plaintiff is now claiming that the Secret Service's action in withholding these records was improper. In particular, I have been advised that plaintiff is alleging that the records have been improperly withheld as the Secret Service does not have the authority to conduct investiga- tions in the area of computer crime, and, as the Secret Service is not conducting a criminal investigation, but "'merely engaging in a general monitoring of private individuals activities' .... or conducting an inquiry 'for purposes of harassment'." Plaintiff's Memorandum, page 5.

18. While I am not an expert in the proprieties of releasing or withholding information under the FOIA, as the Special Agent in Charge of the Secret Service's Washington Field office, I can provide relevant information concerning the Secret Service's investigative authority and the underlying criminal investigation through which the records in question came into the possession of the Secret Service.

19. The Secret Service is a criminal law enforcement agency which operates under the provisions of Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 3056. Under Section 3056, Subsection (b), the Secret Service is specifically authorized to detect and arrest any person who violates federal criminal laws relating to coins, obligations, and securities of the United States and foreign governments, electronic fund transfers, credit or debit card fraud, false identification documents or devices, false identification documents and devices, and certain laws relating to financial institutions. Additionally, pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code, Sections 1029 and 1030, the Secret Service is specifically charged with the authority to investigate offenses concerning fraud and related activity in connection with computers and/or access devices. See Title 18 U.S.C. 1030(d), Fraud and related activity in connection with computers ("The United States States Secret Service shall ... have the authority to investigate offenses under this section."). Contrary to plaintiff's argument, the Secret Service does, therefore, have clear statutory authority to conduct criminal investigations relating to computer fraud.

20. With regard to plaintiff's allegation that the Secret Service was "merely engaging in a general monitoring of private individuals' activities" .... or conducting an inquiry "for purposes of harassment," (Plaintiff's Memorandum, page 5), I would state that there is absolutely no truth to plaintiff's suggestion.

21. The records which are at issue in this case were provided to the Secret Service by a confidential source and were compiled by the Secret Service for law enforcement purposes -- the identification of possible suspect(s) in a criminal investigation and the further investigation of the suspect(s).

22. In connection with its law enforcement responsibilities, the Secret Service received information from a business indicating that that business' PBX had been manipulated and that as a result the business had been the victim of long distance telephone toll fraud.

23. The victim business provided the Secret Service with information which might lead to the individual(s) who had manipulated the system or utilized the manipulated system to steal telephone time.

24 The victim business had access to certain information concerning the individual(s) who had entered the system, but could not directly identify the individual(s) involved. It was, through a follow-up investigation and an attempt to identify the individual(s) who had committed this fraud, that the Secret Service came into the possession of the information which is at issue in this case.

25. The details of the law enforcement proceeding which underlies this matter are set out in my in camera declaration. I believe, however, that the generic facts as described above show that the records which are at issue in this case were compiled by the Secret Service for valid law enforcement purposes.

26. I am aware that plaintiff is arguing that the records at issue have been improperly withheld as the records consist of information which is already known to the subject(s) of the investigation. To the knowledge of the Secret Service, however, this is not correct. At this time the Secret Service has no reason to believe that the suspect(s) in its investigation, or the plaintiff in this case, are aware of the nature of the Secret Service's investigation, who is under investigation by the Secret Service, what information is in the possession of the Secret Service, or who has provided information to the Secret Service in regard to this matter.

27. I am also aware that the plaintiff argues that "the shopping mall was clearly the source of the records being withheld." Again contrary to plaintiff's argument, to date there has been no public statement that the "Mall" is the source of the information which is being withheld.

28. Additionally, the Secret Service recently contacted the source to determine the position of the source in regard to this matter. At this time, the source reiterated the source's original position and understanding that the fact that it had provided certain information to the Secret Service would not be revealed.

29. Further, the records at issue also contain information concerning a second source of information which source has since provided information to the Secret Service in regard to the underlying criminal case.

30. Due to the nature of the investigative work conducted by the Secret Service, this agency must protect from exposure the sources which the Secret Service utilizes to gain information in the course of its criminal investigations. In the course of its investigative function the Secret Service routinely receives information from various sources with the understanding that, unless the source is needed to provide testimony or records in a criminal trial, the fact of that source's cooperation will not be revealed to the public. Further, information is often provided by a source with the understanding that at the time of a criminal trial a subpoena will be issued to protect the fact of the earlier cooperation of the source. Therefore, if such confidential sources are compromised by premature exposure, the result could have a chilling effect on the law enforcement function of the Secret Service in that, in the future, such sources would be less cooperative with the Secret Service, and federal law enforcement in general.

31. It is, then, reasonable and necessary that the Secret service preserve its relationship with confidential sources by protecting from release information which would expose the cooperation of such sources with the Secret Service.

32. As I have attempted to describe above, the records which are being withheld in this case are records which were compiled by the Secret Service for law enforcement purposes. Further, the release of the records could result in interference with an open enforcement proceeding, an invasion of the personal privacy of third parties, reveal information provided by a confidential source and compromise the future cooperation of a confidential source, by revealing the cooperation of those sources with the Secret Service. My office has, therefore, requested that the records involved in this matter continue to be withheld.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true to the best of my knowledge and belief.

/Signed/ William F. Burch Special Agent in Charge Washington Field Office
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