CIA Tells FOIA Requester That...

[Mike]

More FOIA-related nonsense, this time from the CIA. Michael Morisy, co-founder of MuckRock, sent a request for internal emails discussing (rather ironically) the fact that the CIA's "FOIA Portal" seems to suffer from extended periods of downtime.

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

A copy of emails sent to or from the CIA's FOIA office regarding the FOIA Portal's Technical Issues.

According to the CIA's current FOIA website: "FOIA requests cannot currently be made online due to technical issues. Requests can still be submitted via the US Postal Service and facsimile."

http://www.foia.cia.gov/

Please also include any attachments to these emails.

Given the agency's disdain for the FOIA process (second only to the NYPD), I'm sure this sort of outage is viewed as a feature, not a bug. But whatever internal musings the CIA had about its FOIA portal issues will apparently be staying internal for the time being.

The CIA rejected Morisy's request in full, basically stating that searching for emails is hard work and that the requester could have at least bothered to know exactly who was talking about the portal issues and exactly when they were doing it before making the request.

The FOIA requires requesters to "reasonably describe" the information they seek so that professional employees familiar with the subject matter can locate responsive information with a reasonable amount of effort. Commonly this equates to a requirement that the documents must be locatable through the indexing of our various systems. Extremely broad or vague requests or requests requiring research do not satisfy this requirement. We require requesters seeking any form of "electronic communications" such as emails, to provide the specific "to" and "from" recipients, time frame and subject. We note that you have provided the subject only. Therefore, we must decline your request.

Obviously, a FOIA requester isn't going to know these sorts of specifics beforehand, hence THE REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. As MuckRock's JPat Brown points out, Twitter user Mythosopher had perhaps the best response to this refusal...

You can't see any emails or know who sent or received them. But you must request the exact email and who sent and received it.

... along with this graphic:

The CIA has pretty much ensured many requests will be found too cumbersome to comply with. It used 2013's brief sequester as an excuse to shut down its office in charge of declassifying historical documents and fold it in with the FOIA department's steady stream of extension requests and denials. And the CIA joins an ever-lengthening list of federal agencies completely mystified by internal email systems. Oddly, this same government expects the US public to trust that agencies like the FBI, CIA, NSA and countless law enforcement entities will be able to find the needles in your personal email haystacks -- obtained in bulk with FISA court orders, NSLs or old-fashioned open-ended, non-specific warrants.

The CIA itself has already raided internal networks to root out Senate staffers and whistleblowers, but no one heard anyone complain about the lack of specifics making the job too tough to do. It's only when the public asks to dip into the government's business that these agencies suddenly start acting like the impossible is being demanded.

Originally Published: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 14:51:52 GMT
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[stormium]

awee... poor cia guys...

i was reading this news story last week: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-t...e-the-cia/

while the issue with the jazz salad was interesting,

jazz salad issue

jazz salad issueGrapes are in the title of the salad. I asked about them, and the server pointed to the cherry tomatos [sic], said they were grapes. I said, “no, those are tomatos [sic], soooo should I just get grapes from the salad bar”. [sic] She didn’t really give an opinion — but I did get grapes from the salad bar, and I did tell the cashier about it (she asked me to write a note — I hope you got the note). I do not condone putting salad bar items into a Jazz Salad (I have been known to get a separate container for salad bar items to add to my Jazz Salad) but felt justified in this case

the issue with the russian theme menu was really my favorite; that relates to this thread as follows: wtf...

while i think that the public has a right to know about jazz salad because it's absolutely delicious when prepared properly, i don't think that the public has the right to request information regarding the cafeteria operations at the cia due to the amount of resources being wasted just by making that request (unless the request is to determine wasteful spending habits at the cia cafeteria, in which case i do understand).

but, while making little cutsie foia requests may seem like a good idea, but it gives the cia the opportunity to not give any fucks about actual information requests like "i would like to see internal emails that discuss why the foia portal rarely works."

i imagine that at the cia, there is a low level drone that is sitting in their work station reading all of these requests and determining priority based on frivolity. think about it:

which gets priority: foia request regarding menu items or foia request regarding inability to make foia request?

keep in mind, this is the cia... they do not want to share their information. jazz salad wins and gets passed up the hierarchy with a priority stamp.

meh... maybe it's just me.