UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Making Secret(s): The Infrastructure of Classified Information A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies by Stacy Elizabeth Wood 2017 © Copyright by Stacy Elizabeth Wood 2017 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Making Secret(s): The Infrastructure of Classified Information by Stacy Elizabeth Wood Doctor of Philosophy in Information Studies University of California, Los Angeles, 2017 Professor Safiya U Noble, Chair This dissertation defines and analyzes the infrastructure of classified information including the sites, systems, objects and discourses that enable the creation, maintenance, management and destruction of classified information. Seeking to situate classified information as something other than a mere absence of information or an impediment to knowledge, this dissertation focuses on what kinds of records, documents, evidence and knowledge are created through the daily practices of official secrecy at the federal level. The increasing complexity of overlapping technical infrastructures and organizational standards requires thinking about records infrastructurally, re-framing individual documents as systems, if we are to begin thinking of future use and access. This dissertation examines records within the infrastructure of classified information by contextualizing the need for research into these records as objects of great complexity that eschew easy distinctions between open and closed. It utilizes a research framework oriented ii around four elements: Standards, Economies, Rupture and Culture. Using methods from infrastructure studies, archival studies and critical discourse analysis, it analyzes the field of creation within socio-technical systems and identifies materiality as a matter of paramount importance for the maintenance of evidential value within overlapping systems of trust. This dissertation illustrates the paucity of nuanced understandings of networked records in federal agencies and exposes a number of areas for further research and challenges for those who work in archival studies and information policy. This dissertation finds that a vital rethinking of the role of archival work and thinking could lead to an integration of archival processes into daily government work instead of traditional modes of custodial transfer. iii The dissertation of Stacy Elizabeth Wood is approved. Anne J. Gilliland Michelle Caswell Lisa Parks Safiya U Noble, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2017 iiii Table of Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Secrecy and Bureaucracy………………………………………………………………… 3 Research Questions……………………………………………………………………... 11 Method………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………… 19 Roadmap………………………………………………………………………………... 20 Chapter 1: Standards and Classification……………………………………………………...23 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..23 Executive Orders and Legislative Acts…………………………………………………. 24 Department of Defense…………………………………………………………………. 34 The Information Oversight Office……………………………………………………… 38 The Manual as Genre…………………………………………………………………… 39 Standards in Action, a Proliferation of Training and Instruction Manuals……………... 42 Secrecy as Standard and the Standards of Secrecy……………………………………....…..52 Chapter 2: Public Records, Private Phones…………………………………………………..58 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………... 58 Private Contracts and the United States Government: Setting the Scene………………. 59 Public Records and Private Contractors……………………………................................68 Regulations for Contractors…………………………………………………………….. 71 Cell Phones in the DoD…………………………………………………………………. 75 SME-PED to DMCC-S…………………………………………………………………..81 “Smartphones” at the Top………………………………………………………………. 88 Classified Records…………………………………………………………………………... 89 ivi Chapter 3: …but her emails or Spectacle and Rupture in Classified Information Infrastructure…………………………………………………………………………………...96 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………... 96 Mapping a Controversy…………………………………………………………………. 98 Records Management in the State Department…………………………………………. 99 FAM/FAH……………………………………………………………………………... 104 SMART and “Print-and-File”………………………………………………………………110 A Generation of Controversy………………………………………………………….. 115 The Investigation……………………………………………………………………… 123 Classified Information on the Server………………………………………………….. 127 Perpetual Breakdown……………………………………………………………………… 129 Chapter 4: The Majestic Twelve: Classification, Evidence and Conspiracy……………...131 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………… 131 The Majestic Twelve………………………………………………………………….. 133 Studying Conspiracy Theory………………………………………………………….. 135 We Want to Believe…………………………………………………………………… 147 Hoax of Proof? Authenticating the MJ-12 Documents………………………………... 154 Diplomatics……………………………………………………………………………. 166 The MJ-12 Documents as Imagined Records…………………………………………. 170 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….. 171 Appendix A: Abbreviations and Acronyms…………………………………………………176 Appendix B: Department of Defense Organizational Chart……………………..……………..177 References…………………………………………………………………...…………………180 vi List of Figures Figure 1 Example of Derivatively Classified Document ………………………….55 Figure 2 Markings on Photographs …………………………………………………...56 Figure 3 DMCC-S Fact Sheet from Defense Information Systems Agency ….......86 Figure 4 General Dynamics Sectera Edge …………………………………….......89 Figure 5 A.J. Bond Johnson photo of Gen. Ramey with alleged Roswell debris. Credit – Fort Worth Star-Telegram Photograph Collection, Special Collections Division, The University of Texas at Arlington Libraries……………...............................................................................149 Figure 6 Page 5 of the Majestic 12 Documents in “The Vault” Credit: FBI ……164 Figure 7 Truman-Forrestal Memo Credit: Ryan Woods ………………………...168 vii STACY WOOD Department of Information Studies University of California Los Angeles EDUCATION PhD University of California, Los Angeles Anticipated 2017 Information Studies MLIS University of California, Los Angeles Anticipated 2017 Archival Studies BA University of California, Los Angeles 2007 English and World Literature, Gender Studies, Media Studies SELECTED AWARDS Aimee Dorr Fellowship for Public Policy 2015 University of California Los Angeles Distinguished Teaching Award 2015 University of California Los Angeles PUBLICATIONS Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles 2016 Wood, S. Police body cameras and professional responsibility. Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture. Forthcoming. 2016 Cifor, M. and Wood, S. Critical feminism in the archives. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies. Forthcoming. 2014 Wood, S. et. al. Mobilizing records: re-framing archival description to support human rights. Archival Science. 10.1007/s10502-014-9233-1 2014 Kelty, C., Panofsky, A., Erickson, S., Currie, M., Crooks, R., Wood, S., Garcia, P., Wartenbe, M. Seven dimensions of contemporary participation disentangled. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. doi: 10.1002/asi.23202 Book Chapters 2016 Wood, S. Police body cameras: Emotional mediation and the economies of visuality. Emotions, Technology, and Design. Ed. Safiya U. Noble and Sharon Y. Tettegah. Elsevier; UK. viii 2014 Wood, S. Collective Intimacies. Making Invisible Histories Visible: A Resource Guide to the Collections. Ed. K. McHugh, B. Johnson-Grau and B. Sher. UCLA Center for the Study of Women. Book Reviews 2011 Wood, S. Book Review: Narrating from the Archives: Novels, Records, and Bureaucrats in the Modern Age by Marco Codebò. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 7(2), Article 12. INVITED TALKS Wood, S. (2017) Police Body Camera Footage: Public Records and Private Evidence Memory Work, Black Bodies, and Social Justice University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities and the University of Michigan School of Information Wood, S. (2015) Classified Information Infrastructure and Archival Concerns Library and Information Studies Alumni Association Annual Colloquium University of California Los Angeles Department of Information Studies RECENT CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS Wood, S. (2017) Citizen Documentation and Police Body Cameras. Paper presented at the Personal Digital Archiving Conference. Wood, S. (2016) Un/Natural Silences: Donor Requested Destruction in the Mazer Archives. Paper presented at the American Studies Association meeting. Wood, S. (2016) Police Body Cameras and the Privatization of the Chain of Evidence. Paper presented at the Conference and School on Authority, Provenance, Authenticity, Evidence (APAE) University of Zadar. Wood, S. (2016) Conspiracy Theories and Classified Information Infrastructure. Paper presented at the Summer School on Controversies and Conspiracies, SciencesPo. Wood, S. (2016) Navigating Public Records Law and Police Body Camera Evidence. Paper presented at the Archival Education Research Institute, Kent State University. Wood, S. and Cifor, M. (2016) Critical Feminism in the Archives. Paper presented at the Archival Education Research Institute, Kent State University. viiii Introduction “Doesn’t the act of noticing matter as much as what’s noticed?” – Harry Mathews, The Journalist In a series of documents declassified and released by James Clapper and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in November of 2013, one might have noticed a few curiosities with respect to redaction. A number of them had their dates of filing and