The full-service investigative site MuckRock is nine years old, an apt moment to celebrate its remarkable journalistic achievement. Founder Michael Morisy had the ingenious idea of automating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process, so that anybody could take advantage of open government laws at the federal or state level. These laws are quite strong...
Tag: FOIA
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Why the CIA Loved the Late George H. Bush
Last month, 19 senior CIA officials, current and former, signed a statement lauding the late president George Bush, who served as CIA director for one year. The agency put out a complimentary “unclassified” video about his service to the agency. Langley’s Twitter feed featured 11 straight days of photos and anecdotes about Bush’s warm relationship...
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Influence Operation: ACLU Sues for Records of the CIA’s Haspel Nomination Campaign
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the CIA for records pertaining to the Agency’s campaign to support Gina Haspel’s nomination as director of the agency. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, filed Thursday, seeks records related to “Haspel’s potential conflict of interest in serving as the classification authority over information about her own role in...
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FOIA Watch: The ‘Indiana Jones Warehouse” (or Where the Government Stashes its Oldest Records0
Anyone who uses the Freedom of Information Act to investigate the working of the U.S. government is likely to run into road block called “no responsive records.” For example, when I sued the CIA for the files of George Joannides, a psychological warfare operations officer, I was told the agency had no records responsive to...
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On the Day He was Nominated, Brett Kavanaugh Ruled for the CIA and Against Me
ON A MONDAY AFTERNOON, on July 9, the D.C. Court of Appeals handed down a 2-1 decision against me and in favor of the CIA in a long-running Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. At 4:20 p.m., Judges Brett Kavanaugh and Gregory Katsas, a Trump appointee, filed a 14-page opinion with the clerk of the court in Washington. They ruled that the...
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