This puzzle REDACTED, the FBI, NSA, and CIA "blacked out" (see grid below for details).

I immediately knew something odd was going on, given that 21-, 38-, and 55-Across had the telltale [---] indication of "no clue." But I had DOLPHIN FREE TUNA stuck in my head. And LOOSELEAF TEA, for some reason ... even though that makes no sense for [Student's note-taking aid].
I also wondered why these three orgs had been REDACTED in the horizontal direction, but not the vertical. Well, from a construction perspective, it would be at least an order of magnitude to do the REDACTED squares in both directions — it'd be as if those nine black squares were essentially white squares.
That might even be an impossible task, given how huge those swaths of white squares would be. Just that upper right corner alone … imagine that those "FBI" squares were white. Yikes, that'd be even tricky for a themeless grid, much less a themed one!
Speaking of that, Joel uses a themeless count, all the way down to 72 words (the max for a themeless). It allows for some great bonuses, especially in the upper right and lower left corners: STATICKY, PINE CONE, FOOT RACE, ALL IN FUN (REST AREA is a little drab in comparison). KISSED UP and SETH ROGEN were also fun bonuses.
Nice insider's nod to work in GLUEY, an adjective I often apply to entries like ANS, ITI, RNC (Republican National … Convention? Ah, Committee.). Joel does well to weave his puzzle together in such a way that it doesn't require very many GLUEY bits to hold everything together. Great craftsmanship that I've come to expect from Joel.
Some of the longer stuff wasn't super exciting, though. THE TRUTH felt partial-ish, and entries like SPRAYER, CONTEND, CRYING OUT feel like they do their job without adding much. Ah, the eternal trade-off of snazziness vs. smoothness in fill …
It'd have been great to get something a little more exciting than LOOSELEAF BINDER — maybe DATE OF BIRTH … which sometimes does get redacted! On that note, it was a little odd to redact the orgs themselves, not secrets they want to keep.
But all in all, some secretive fun.