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FOI Advocate Blog

The NFOIC open government blog is a compendium of original concepts and analysis as well as ideas, edited excerpts and materials from a variety of sources. When the information comes from another source, we will attribute it and provide a link. The blog relies on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited; we will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

If you're looking for Advocate posts from before July, 2011, visit http://foiadvocate.blogspot.com/.

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NFOIC's FOI Friday for April 20, 2012
April 20, 2012 11:02 AM

A few open government and FOIA news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier:

Jessica Dorrell, Bobby Petrino Scandal Shows Power Of FOIA

Bobby Petrino is just the latest Arkansas coach to reveal a bit too much on a state issued cell phone. Petrino was dismissed by Arkansas athletic director Jeff Long on before his phone records became available, but the revealing records won't make it any easier for him to land his next job.

Visit International Business Times for the rest.

Judicial Watch Sues DHS for Records Regarding President's Illegal Alien Uncle

Judicial Watch, the organization that investigates and fights government corruption, announced today that it has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for records related to President Obama's illegal alien uncle, Onyango Obama, who was arrested in August 2011 on drunken driving charges in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Visit Wall Street Journal for the rest.

FOIA Requests Overwhelm City Clerk’s Office

A small number of individuals and entities are responsible for the 10 to 20 weekly Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that are overwhelming Evanston’s city clerk’s office, said City Clerk Rodney Greene at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Visit Evanston Patch for the rest.

Poisons lurk where lead-smelting factories once stood

Ken Shefton is furious about what the government knew eight years ago and never told him — that the neighborhood where his five sons have been playing is contaminated with lead.

Visit USA Today for the rest.

Hawaii Open Government Under Attack

All is not well in the Aloha state. “Sunshine” advocates including Rep. Barbara Marumoto are rising up to oppose a recent attack on Hawaii’s open government. A new bill that was introduced earlier this year is set to intentionally delay responses to public records requests. SB2858 “Creates a process for an agency to obtain judicial review of a decision made by the Office of Information Practices relating to the Sunshine Law or the Uniform Information Practices Act, and clarifies standard of review.”

Visit Government in the Lab for the rest.

CIA Digs In, Refuses to Repeal Damaging Mandatory Declassification Review Regulations.

The CIA has responded to a letter signed by 36 groups requesting that the it withdraw new MDR fee regulations that allow it to charge up to $72 per hour to search for documents –even if none are found.  The response from the CIA’s Information Management Services: Talk to our lawyers, not us.

Visit Unredacted for the rest.

Groups File FOIA Request on 2009 Yemeni Attack

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights have filed a Freedom of Information Act request looking into a 2009 U.S. missile strike that killed 41 Yemeni people, the groups announced on Tuesday.

Visit National Journal for the rest.

Watchdog Group Sues County For Records Of Investigation Of Freeholder’s Son

The Union County Watchdog Association (UCWA) has filed a lawsuit in Union County Superior Court seeking access to investigatory records involving a former county employee, Patrick Scanlon, Jr., who is the son of Freeholder Deborah Scanlon.

Visit NJToday for the rest.

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arkansas open records, bobby petrino, CIA, DHS, FOI, FOIA, freedom of information, hawaii open government, hawaii transparency, judicial watch, open meetings, open records, UCWA
FCC FOIA denial rates higher than CIA for ‘records not reasonably described’
April 6, 2012 1:53 PM

From Daily Caller:

The FCC’s own Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reports suggests that the agency is actually more transparent than the federal government average, putting the agency at odds with numbers recently revealed by Florida House Republican Mario Diaz-Balart.

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CIA, fcc, FOI, FOIA, FOIA denial, freedom of information, government transparency, open government
Internal critique of Bush torture memos declassified following FOIA request
April 4, 2012 10:36 AM

From The National Security Archive:

The State Department today released a February 2006 internal memo from the Department's then-counselor opposing Justice Department authorization for "enhanced interrogation techniques" by the CIA. All copies of the memo (Document 1), which reflect strong internal disagreement within the George W. Bush administration over the constitutionality of such techniques, were thought to have been destroyed. But the State Department located a copy and declassified it in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Security Archive.

The author of the memo, Philip D. Zelikow, counselor to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, described the context of the memo in congressional testimony on May 13, 2009, and in an article he had previously published on foreignpolicy.com site on April 21, 2009.

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CIA, FOIA requests, President Bush, torture, U.S. State Department
Lawsuit: CIA withholds documents using legal exemption it does not have authority to apply
March 27, 2012 3:35 PM

From truthout.org:

For the past eight years, the CIA has used an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that "protects intelligence sources and methods" to justify the withholding of certain records from requesters.

But a federal lawsuit filed against the agency charges that the CIA does not have the authority to deny records under what is known as a (b)(3) exemption unless the agency consulted with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and received specific authorization in each instance it had denied records under that rule, which it apparently has not done.

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(b)(3) exemption, CIA, FOIA exemptions, FOIA requests
NFOIC supports lawsuit challenging new CIA charges to public records requesters
February 23, 2012 9:59 AM

COLUMBIA, Mo. (February 22, 2012) – In a federal district court lawsuit supported by the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) and the Knight FOI Fund, a Virginia watchdog organization is challenging a new CIA regulation that obstructs citizen challenges to government overclassification by imposing excessive charges in the review process.

National Security Counselors (NSC), an Arlington-based public interest group, has filed suit in federal district court challenging a new CIA regulation that could cost information seekers up to $72 an hour, even when a mandatory review fails to declassify or release any new information.

Under the new rule, the Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) program, through which the public can request that CIA documents be declassified, would also require information-seekers to agree to a minimum $15 duplication fee. Concerns are that these exorbitant fees will stymie the efforts of the public to participate in the MDR program and seek the declassification of public information.

See the full release and the complaint here.

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CIA, FOIA, National Security Counselors, public records requests, request fees
NFOIC's FOI Friday for February 17, 2012
February 17, 2012 1:13 PM

A few open government and FOIA news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier:

"Why I'm Suing the FBI, the DoD and the CIA"

Over the past year, I've filed dozens of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the FBI, CIA, Department of Defense, and other government agencies in hopes of prying loose documents I need to support my investigative reporting efforts on a wide-range of issues and policies.

One of the frustrating realities about the FOIA process is the enormous backlog of requests government agencies have to contend with, which means many months or years could pass before my request is finally processed and I receive a response. However, a little-known FOIA provision allows requesters to seek an estimated date of completion from government agencies on their FOIA requests...

Visit TruthOut for the rest.

Cybersecurity Bill Threatens Public Access to Information, Accountability

Yesterday organizations concerned with open government and accountability released a letter expressing their concern with several sections of the recently-introduced Cybersecurity Act of 2012 and urging the Senate to delay voting on the bill until the issues have been carefully and thoroughly reviewed.

The letter cites provisions in the bill that create unnecessary, overbroad and unwise limitations to access of information, including broad exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and jeopardize the rights of whistleblowers.

Visit OpenTheGovernment.org for the rest.

Arkansas Police use of force records subject to FOI

Police records regarding the use of force by an officer are not exempt from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, the state Supreme Court said today in a ruling hailed as a victory for open government.

The high court affirmed a circuit judge’s ruling that the Little Rock Police Department could not refuse to release its use-of-force reports requested under the FOI law. The reports were requested by an attorney for Chris Erwin, who was struck several times by Little Rock police Lt. David Hudson during an arrest outside a Little Rock restaurant on Oct. 29.

Visit Arkansas News for the rest.

EPA, Commerce take lead in developing "FOIA Portal"

A buzz is growing in the federal Freedom of Information community about a new $1.3 million “FOIA Portal” under development and slated for launch this fall. Thursday we got a chance to look under the hood a bit, as part of a group organized by the Office of Government of Information Services.

Visit Investigative Reporting Workshop for the rest.

Conn. high court rules university can withhold trade secrets

The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in University of Connecticut v. Freedom of Information Commission that a public entity could invoke the trade secret exemption in the state freedom of information act to shield its own records from being released.

Visit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for the rest.

FOI requests trigger DOT investigation

Outside investigators will conduct a probe of the planning, real estate and record-keeping practices of the Delaware Department of Transportation as a result of new signs of poor document security and unexplained gaps in key files potentially involving millions in taxpayer dollars.

The investigation was triggered by a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed by The News Journal in recent months involving agency land deals and the involvement of political figures in certain highway projects that affect commercial interests.

Visit Delaware Online for the rest.

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arkansas police foi, CIA, Connecticut schools trade secrets, cybersecurity act, delaware dot, DoD, FBI, FOI portal, foia provisions, jason leopold, NFOIC FOI Friday
ACLU sues U.S. for information on targeted killing program
February 2, 2012 8:41 AM

From ACLU's Blog of Rights:

Today we filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to demand that the government release basic — and accurate — information about the government’s targeted killing program.

Our government’s deliberate and premeditated killing of American terrorism suspects raises profound questions that ought to be the subject of public debate. Unfortunately the Obama administration has released very little information about the practice — its official position is that the targeted killing program is a state secret — and some of the information it has released has been misleading.

Read More
ACLU, CIA, Department of Defense, Department of Justice (DOJ), FOIA requests, national security, targeted killing
CIA refuses to respond to FOIA request regarding Occupy movement
December 21, 2011 11:42 AM

From www.Salem-News.com:

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is refusing to process a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that would reveal what role, if any, the agency has played in law enforcement’s coordinated, nationwide campaign to shut down and evict Occupy movement encampments in cities throughout the country.

The FOIA demand for records was filed by the Washington D.C.-based civil rights legal organization, the Partnership for Civil Justice (PCJF).

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CIA, FOIA requests, Occupy movement
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