Opinion ID: 181375
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant's Access to the Transit Plan

Text: The 2001 deployment of the Constellation battlegroup from San Diego to the Middle East was executed pursuant to a Navy transit plan that went through many drafts beginning on September 29, 2000, and continuing through finalization on February 24, 2001. Each of these iterations highlighted the date April 29, 2001, when, just before midnight, the battlegroup would cross the change of operation control (CHOP) point, i.e., enter into the geographic region controlled by the United States Fifth Fleet. Only the final transit plan referenced a stop in Hawaii by a single vessel, the U.S.S. Benfold, to load ammunition. No version of the transit plan specified the date on which the battlegroup would pass through the Strait of Hormuz. [9] Each iteration of the transit plan was classified confidential, which denotes information, the unauthorized disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security that the original classification authority is able to identify or describe. Exec. Order No. 12,958, § 1.3(3), 60 Fed.Reg. 19,825 (Apr. 17, 1995); see also United States v. Abu-Jihaad, 600 F.Supp.2d at 377 (noting Navy's operational instructions stating that precise current or future operational deployment, locations of surface combatant ships, and planned foreign port calls should be classified as `confidential' until after deployment or the visit has been approved by the host government (some internal quotation marks omitted)). Retired Rear Admiral David C. Hart, Jr., who commanded the Constellation battlegroup during the time here at issue, explained that the Navy does not disclose anticipated ports of call because ships are particularly vulnerable in such locations. A similar concern counseled against disclosure of plans for ships to travel through areas where their maneuverability was limited, such as the Strait of Hormuz. [10] Because of these concerns, even among persons assigned to ships in a battlegroup, only those with a secret clearance would be given access to a transit plan. Of 300 sailors on board the U.S.S. Benfold, Abu-Jihaad was one of 40 afforded such access by virtue of his status as a signalman who worked alongside quartermasters in the preparation of the ship's navigational charts. He did not, however, have access to the Navy's secure intranet for classified information (SIPRnet), which contained information even more sensitive to the national defense than that contained in the transit plan. Significantly, the Battlegroup Document revealed no information for which SIPRnet clearance would have been required, thus limiting the likely source of the information it contained to persons with access only to the transit plan.