FOIA

USDA to post animal-welfare reports, under pressure

From the Humane Society of the US:

In response to a lawsuit filed in January by The Humane Society of the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will again be posting annual reports from registered animal research facilities on its web site. APHIS, which had earlier pulled the online documents at the request of the research facilities, will resume the postings on Tuesday, May 10, in a clear victory for animal protectionists. …

The HSUS filed its federal lawsuit after waiting for years for the USDA to fulfill four separate Freedom of Information Act requests. The first request was filed in 2001, and it asked for the 1999 annual reports from all registered animal research facilities. In 2002, The HSUS requested a list of all USDA-registered research facilities that house and/or conduct research on any ape species for the years 2000 to the present, and information concerning the number of ape species held at each facility. The third request, prompted by a complaint from a member of the public, was filed in 2003 for documents of a specific research institution. The fourth request, filed in 2004, asked for the annual reports from 2000 to the present.

The USDA provided only 24 of the 1,400 documents requested in 2001 (and didn’t provide them until 32 months later), and never provided any documents responsive to the 2002, 2003, or 2004 FOIA requests.

APHIS’ decision to post the annual reports does not settle The HSUS’s lawsuit against the USDA. There are still unresolved issues between the agency and The HSUS, notably the large number of redacted pages in the annual reports so far provided. The HSUS is also waiting on annual reports that the agency must still vet with animal research facilities before releasing.

Full press release

USDA APHIS: Annual Reports of Research Facilities

Ag Dept releases photos/video of hideous cruelty at horse-butchering plant in Texas

Due to a Freedom of Information Act request to the US Department of Agriculture, the animal-welfare organization Animals’ Angels received around 500 photos, and a video, showing nauseating cruelty at the Beltex Corporation’s horse-slaughter facility in Texas. That abattoir has since closed, but Beltex still operates a slaughterhouse in Mexico and a “slaughter horse feedlot” in Texas where horses are kept until being sent to Mexico.

The photos, video, and accompanying documents are posted at this page. No images are displayed on the page;

However, if you want to risk vomiting and nightmares, this page displays some of the photos.

You can also read the PDF press release from Animals’ Angels, the group that filed the FOIA request. Note that the press release contains several sickening photos. Below is the text of the press release, minus the images.

Press Release
November 2008
Animals’ Angels
phone: 410-848-3153
fax: 410-848-0213
www.animals-angels.com

Animals’ Angels, an animal welfare organization
based in Maryland, last week received over 900
pages of documents and photographs from the
United States Department of Agriculture taken
during part of 2005 at the Beltex horse
slaughter plant in Texas. Documents received 36
months after making a Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) request, reveal an appalling number
of incidences and an equally appalling degree of
suffering sustained by horses. Evidence
indicates alarming cruelty corresponding
directly to horse slaughter.

The large FOIA document contains hundreds of
photographs that graphically depict horses with
open fractures, legs missing, battered and
bloody faces, eyeballs dangling and
what appears to be horses left to bleed to
death. The document provides unimpeachable
evidence for the immediate ban on the
slaughter of American horses.

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Defense Dept docs on Gitmo, Iraq, GWOT

This afternoon the Pentagon posted several new documents released due to Freedom of Information Act requests:

• Detainees: Incident Reports of Detainee on Detainee Assaults at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Release Date: February 2009 (22 MB)  (Posted 11 Feb 09)
• Global War on Terrorism: Memo from USD-P Douglas Feith to Director, DIA, dated Feb 2, 2002, “Request for Support” (7 MB)  (Posted 11 Feb 09)
• Global War on Terrorism: DoD Answers to The New Yorker Magazine (7 MB)  (Posted 11 Feb 09)
  
• Detainees: Sampling of Mass Disturbance Incident Reports from NOV 8, 2005 through DEC 2, 2007. Release Date: January 2009 (7 MB)  (Posted 11 Feb 09)
• Detainees: List of Mass Disturbances at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from NOV 8, 2005 through DEC 2, 2007. Release Date: January 2009 (10 MB)  (Posted 11 Feb 09)
• Detainees: Documents relating to Australian and British citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Release Date: January 2009 (Posted 11 Feb 09)

CIA’s 2008 FOIA Report

The CIA has just posted its Freedom of Information Act Annual Report for fiscal year 2008 [PDF file].

Some of the main stats:

The agency processed 1,698 requests during the year. (703 requests had been pending at the start of the year, and 1,935 were received during the year. Thus, 940 were left pending at the end of the year).

Of those 1,698 processed requests, documents were released in full 237 times. They were denied in full due to FOIA exemptions 388 times. A partial release was granted 532 times. The remaining 541 were full denials for various reasons other than the FOIA exemptions, such as “no records” or “improper FOIA request.”

The CIA processed 101 FOIA appeals during the year. In one single case, the appeal resulted in a total reversal (i.e. the documents were released in full). In 21 cases, portions of the requested documents were released. The CIA upheld its initial denial in 58 cases. In the remaining 21 cases, the appeals were closed “for other reasons,” such as “no records.”

Past annual reports are here.

Filing FOIA requests

I’m often asked – in interviews and from this site’s readers – how to file a Freedom of Information Act request. It’s a fairly simple procedure – you don’t need a special form or a lawyer. I keep meaning to write and post a guide, but until that day arrives, here are some guides from elsewhere:

How to Use the Federal FOI Act [Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press]

National Archives and Records Administration Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reference Guide

The National Security Archives’ guide

The Justice Department, which advises the rest of the Executive Branch on FOIA, has lots of reference material here.

Specific instructions for requesting the FBI files of deceased persons are at Get Grandpa’s FBI File, while the companion site Get My FBI File tells you how to get your own file from the FBI and seven other agencies. They both include fill-in-the-blank request-generators.

You’ll usually find information (of widely varying quality) about filing FOIA requests on the website of each entity that’s covered by FOIA, such as the FBI, NSA, and Pentagon. It obviously helps to read the instructions for the agency you’re requesting from, but only as supplementary reading. Be sure to start with at least one of the above guides.

As I like to say, borrowing the tagline from the game Othello, FOIA takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master. The requirements for filing a request are minimal, yet phrasing your request in just the right way so that you get what you want is an art that can’t be taught (although the above guides have some good tips and guidelines to get you started). Also, if your request is rejected in whole or in part, then you’ll want to file an appeal with the agency. Again, the basics of an appeal are easy, but crafting an appeal that succesfully refutes the agency’s reasons for withholding is tricky.

But don’t worry about these things. Just start filing – you’ll learn as you go. And if you’re planning on becoming a regular requester, definitely look at the Justice Department’s FOIA Guide, which might have too much info for a one-time requester but is absolutely indispensable if you request often and file appeals.

Obama embraces openness, strengthens FOIA

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From the National Security Archive:

President Obama embraces openness on day one, as urged by the National Security Archive and a coalition of more than 60 organizations

New president says era of secrecy in Washington is over, pledges “new era of openness in our country”

For more information contact:Meredith Fuchs/Tom Blanton – 202/994-7000

Posted: January 21, 2009

Washington, D.C., January 21, 2009 – On his first full day in office, President Barack Obama signed an executive order and two presidential memoranda heralding what he called a “new era of openness.” Announcing a Presidential Memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act to reestablish a presumption of disclosure for information requested under FOIA, President Obama said that “every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known.”

The FOIA Memorandum articulates a presumption of disclosure for government records and a hostility to the use of secrecy laws to cover up embarrassing information.  It directs the Attorney General to issue new guidelines governing FOIA and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to improve information dissemination to the public.

President Obama also issued an executive order reversing changes made by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Records Act (PRA), stating he would hold himself and his own records “to a new standard of openness.”  The PRA order permits only the incumbent president (and not former presidents’ heirs or designees or former vice presidents) to assert constitutional privileges to withhold information, and would provide for review by the Attorney General and the White House Counsel before a president could claim privilege over his or her records.

Finally, President Obama also today issued a Presidential Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government which recognizes that “[o]penness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.”  It directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the Chief Technology Officer, and the Administrator of the General Services Administration to develop an Open Government Directive within 120 days to implement the memo.

“This is the earliest and most emphatic call for open government from any president in history,” said Archive director Tom Blanton.  “President Obama has reversed two of the most dramatic secrecy moves of the Bush initiatives, one that told agencies to withhold whatever they could under FOIA and the other that gave presidential heirs and vice presidents the power to withhold presidential records indefinitely.”

In November 2008, the National Security Archive and a coalition of more than 60 organizations called on President Obama to reverse the secrecy trend and issues new directives on openness on Day One of his presidency.  Today, President Obama heeded that call and took decisive action to ensure that openness, transparency, and accountability would be the rules and not the exceptions for his administration.

“President Obama is doing what he said he would do from the campaign trail.  He is trying to transform how the public will learn about government decisions and actions” said Meredith Fuchs, the Archive’s General Counsel.  “I hope his decisive leadership on these issues pushes the bureaucracy to make these principles a reality — to give us an accountable, democratic, national government.”

Creation of the Defense Exec Intelligence Board

Today on its FOIA site, the Pentagon has posted the charter that created the Defense Executive Intelligence Board in 1994 [DoD PDF].

Accordingly, it is essential that a management mechanism be established to provide effective oversight of Defense intelligence programs to make key decisions for efficient allocation of available resources to address Department needs.

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Released/Deceased Gitmo Detainees: A List

Due to a FOIA request, the Pentagon has quietly released a list of all Guantanamo detainees who have been released or transferred or who have died in custody as of October 6, 2008 [PDF @ DoD].

Also be sure to download their previously released list of all DoD Gitmo detainees as of May 12, 2006 [PDF @ DoD].

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Some newly released docs

Justice Dept: Amerithrax Court Documents [DOJ]

Pentagon: “The Worldwide Military Command and Control System, A Historical Perspective (1960-1977), September 1980″ (25MB) [DOD FOIA site]

Justice Inspector General: “Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, August 2008″ [DOJ IG]

Dept of Homeland Security: “Updated Status Report from DHS Regarding Deficiencies in Implementation of Executive Order 13,392, “Improving Agency Disclosure of Information”, (PDF, 3 pages – 1.18 MB)” [DHS FOIA site]

Several new audits from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstructions [SIGIR]

Pentagon docs: expenditures in Iraq & elsewhere

——————

Today in its Freedom of Information Act reading room, the Pentagon has posted 202 pages of documents related to its Iraqi Freedom Fund transfers/expenditures from 2002 to 2006:

DOD reading room [PDF | 9 megs]

Memory Hole mirror

The Government Accountability Office explains the Iraqi Freedom Fund:

“The Iraqi Freedom Fund is a special account providing funds for additional expenses for ongoing military operations in Iraq, and those operations authorized by P.L. 107-40 (Sept. 13,2001), Authorization for Use of Military Force, and other operations and related activities in support of the global war on terrorism.”

Some sample pages from the Pentagon’s FOIA release:

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