When I was in the AF 50+ years ago, I was stationed at the National Security Agency. Since I wasn't doing much during the COVID lockdown, I decided to write up my work experiences. NSA rules require that any former employee's written works about NSA must be submitted for "approval". I submitted my 26 pages to them. Most of it was quoting open source, unclassified internet articles. When I received my works back, 12 pages had been "redacted" by the NSA censors. All of the 12 pages which had been blacked out by the censor's were my quoted, open source, unclassified internet articles. There was no classified information as they were information I obtained from the internet. No reason was give for the deleactions. If they can eliminate unclassified open sources, I'm sure glad I didn't put in the nursery rhyme, "Mary Had A Little Lamb." They could have very well eliminated that unclassified story!

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Bill

In a bureaucracy there is always an incentive to prove that one is performing diligently. The moment that a bureaucracy is created the purpose for which it was created becomes secondary to the perpetuation of the bureaucracy. A bureaucrat's position becomes more secure when there is an assistant, and the position becomes indispensable when the assistant has an assistant.

Nothing must make sense in order to justify any bureaucratic action, all that is required is a showing of compliance with policy.

The OP may choose to resubmit his work for reconsideration, thereby ensuring a red circle around the OP's name on all documents and files, and probably resulting in another new bureaucratic position or two in the next budget cycle, perhaps even a promotion or creation of a new department head position.

As Mr. Reagan once said, the closest thing to eternal life is a government program.

Or as I've said, there is nothing more permanent than a government "temporary" anything.

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Can open, worms everywhere.

Recently, I was listening to a podcast with a former FBI counter intelligence agent that wrote a book. When he sent his book in for pre-publication review, of all the stuff he had in the book, the only things they made him redact were the terms "CIA" and "Central Intelligence Agency" every where they occurred. Sometimes you have to wonder.

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Vegan by proxy.

Never invite the man into your business.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

If I understand correctly you were stationed at the NSA but employed by USAF. You were in my mind exempt from the stated policy. You are now under their radar and should do nothing.

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Front sight and squeeze

I also happened to be at NSA in most of 1955 and 2 months in 1956.
At that time NSA was still at Arlington Hall in Arlington, VA. I remember
a little sign over the door when leaving:
WHAT YOU SAW HERE,
WHAT YOU DID HERE,
WHEN YOU LEAVE HERE,
LET IT STAY HERE.
I always thought that was pretty good advice.

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In Omnia Paratus

For the record, merely because something is on the Internet does not mean it is unclassified. WikiLeaks is the most well-known example.

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50 Years of DSOTM

A viable defense to a charge of violating the Espionage Act if there ever was one.

When I was in the Army, we were preparing to deploy on a training exercise to a nearby installation. About a week before we left, the battalion commander reads us the riot act about operational security and that we were to tell NO ONE of the planned deployment, under penalty of life in front of the firing squad. A couple of days later I'm getting my haircut at the barber shop just off post, and the barber is telling us all about it (I had a pretty good idea who the lieutenant with the big mouth was). Better still, two days before we left the post newspaper had a front page article about where we'd be going and what we'd be doing. So much for OPSEC. Fortunately it was basically just a camping trip, which turned into something like a feature-length Thee Stooges episode.

My question is from whom are we keeping these "secrets"? Most of
the world knows these things already. Maybe it's the home folks that
need to be kept in the dark.