Credit Where It's Due: DOJ Changes Its Tune On FISA Transparency
from the now-let's-see-what-happens dept
Earlier this week, I complained that the Department of Justice seemed to be stonewalling a Freedom of Information Act request I’d filed seeking copies of mandatory semi-annual reports to Congress on the National Security Agency’s compliance with the procedures and civil liberties safeguards of the FISA Amendments Act--which the House voted yesterday to reauthorize for another five years. After sitting on the request for two months (the statutory deadline is 20 business days), DOJ had finally replied with a letter claiming they could "neither confirm or deny the existence" of reports that were required by federal law. I thought this was a little ridiculous. Fortunately, there were officials at the Justice Department who thought so too.
Having appealed the denial of my request, I got an impressively prompt reply on Tuesday evening from the director of the Office of Information Policy at DOJ, assuring me that she recognized the agency's initial response had been "incorrect," and that a new one would be forthcoming immediately. By Wednesday morning, their stance had changed entirely: They had found the reports I sought, and were forwarding them to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for review to determine what would need to be redacted before release--with a request that ODNI seek to expedite its analysis to compensate for their own delay.
Now, to be sure, I'd rather have had this response a month ago, and the documents before the House vote, but at this point DOJ appears to be doing exactly what they're supposed to and making a good faith effort to facilitate the redaction and release of these important assessments. So it seemed appropriate to follow up on my initial blog post to acknowledge that--and in particular Office of Information Policy director Melanie Pustay, who straightforwardly acknowledged the error and acted quickly to correct it. We'll see soon enough whether a similar spirit of transparency reigns at ODNI.
Cross-posted from Cato-at-Liberty.
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Filed Under: doj, fisa, fisa amendments act, foia, freedom of information, mistakes, odni
Reader Comments
The First Word
“This was all planned out.
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Freedom and the constitution be damned.
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Still
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Thank you for your FOIA Request. Below you will find the information you requested in regards with FISA Amendments Act
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[REDACTED]
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Thank you for your request.
DOJ
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I think government should acknowledge anything can go viral. Treat all FOIA requests as if they were about to go viral and just do the right thing. But we have a culture of secrecy in government based on wrong doing and fear of exposure. So everything gets classified.
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Do you honestly think everything happens because of the internet web thing, and not because people actually do their job from time to time?
Are you really that full of yourself?
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This was all planned out.
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Stunning Transparency
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Re: Stunning Transparency
If you've ever worked inside an organization bigger than...oh say...half a dozen people...you'd realize how quickly "they" turns into the "I" who was tasked the job.
Acting like there aren't real individuals...humans...working in organizations like the DOJ doesn't make it so.
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Re: Re: Stunning Transparency
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