CIA Sent FBI Agents After, Ended Career Of 19-Year Employee Over A FOIA Request For Historical Documents
from the open-and-transparent-retaliation dept
It wasn't even whistleblowing, although that too can destroy careers and lives. It was a FOIA request, made by someone who knew exactly which documents he wanted released.His CIA career included assignments in Africa, Afghanistan and Iraq, but the most perilous posting for Jeffrey Scudder turned out to be a two-year stint in a sleepy office that looks after the agency’s historical files."Historical documents of long-dormant conflicts and operations." Scudder dared to ask for these documents, and the CIA cut him loose. It also sent another federal agency after him -- the FBI.
It was there that Scudder discovered a stack of articles, hundreds of histories of long-dormant conflicts and operations that he concluded were still being stored in secret years after they should have been shared with the public.
To get them released, Scudder submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act — a step that any citizen can take, but one that is highly unusual for a CIA employee. Four years later, the CIA has released some of those articles and withheld others. It also has forced Scudder out.
On Nov. 27, 2012, a stream of black cars pulled up in front of Scudder’s home in Ashburn, Va., at 6 a.m. FBI agents seized every computer in the house, including a laptop his daughter had brought home from college for Thanksgiving. They took cellphones, storage devices, DVDs, a Nintendo Game Boy and a journal kept by his wife, a physical therapist in the Loudoun County Schools.To date, only his daughter has received her laptop back. Every other computer remains in the hands of the FBI, despite the fact that no charges were ever pressed and despite the fact that many of the documents Scudder asked for have been released by the CIA in the interim. More from his request list are due to be released in the near future.
The CIA avails itself of a wide array of FOIA exemptions, but its reluctance to publish historical documents is just baffling -- and is most likely a result of the agency's long-running adversarial relationship with transparency. It's been noted here before that the CIA has used the often-abused b(5) exemption to withhold documents over five decades old (dealing with the Bay of Pigs invasion), claiming that the release of the "sensitive" documents would "confuse the public."
Despite Scudder's efforts, the flow of historical CIA documents will only decrease in the future. The office charged with declassifying historical documents has been closed, deemed expendable by the agency in the face of budget cuts. This workload will be routed through the agency's FOIA office, creating even more incentive for the CIA to stonewall requests.
Scudder never did anything his superiors thought was wrong until after he attempted to free these historical documents. Everything the agency never took issue with during his previous 18 years of employment -- like personal call infractions and the possession of photos (taken by Scudder in his position as "official CIA photographer") deemed "classified" -- was suddenly yet another reason to force him out. It's been clear for a long time that the government doesn't care much for whistleblowers. It also seems to have something against transparency, even concerning documents of historical interest only.
Scudder did nothing criminal. He just did something the agency didn't like. And for that, he lost his job and clearance. So, it's not just whistleblowing that can get you destroyed. It's also holding the government to its own transparency standards -- something that isn't remotely criminal but is apparently completely unforgivable.
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Filed Under: cia, classified info, fbi, foia, freedom of information, jeffrey scudder, whistleblowing
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This is exactly why documents should not be withheld.
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"How are we different with regard to suspending large parts of our constitution both officially as well as covertly from Nazi Germany after the Entitlement Act?"
"See, now you are confused. We should not have released those documents."
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If they release a bunch of sensitive documents, we will all be completely confused by them doing so. We will wonder if the documents are fake, if they are hiding much more important documents, or if there is something more sinister going on.
This is for our protection - confusing us by suddenly becoming open and honest about what they are doing could cripple our entire economy while we all sit at the computer reading articles trying to figure out what happened.
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I think the CIA has been watching way too much"Galaxy Quest".
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Sooo....
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That clearly conflicts with his job objectives.
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"... deprived of ... property ... except by due process"
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My favorite part
“The CIA does not retaliate or take any personnel action against employees for submitting [FOIA] requests or pursuing them in litigation,” said CIA spokesman Dean Boyd.
Hahaha.
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Unfortunately this is S.O.P. for the government. The fine folks in "Employee Relations" are relentless and will let nothing stand in their way of administering justice. I can speak with some experience on the subject, I've been one of their victims. I can only imagine they are more unpleasant at the CIA to deal with.
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third party
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WHY?
I'm fairly sure he could have gotten any college or high school student to request them.
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U.S. Alphabet agencies are terrorists
At this point, we have little that we could legally do to call them account for their actions. They claim they are above the law, that the laws do not apply to them or their actions.
What they do not understand is that they could not be more wrong.
They are guilty of treason. They should all be detained, tried and convicted of treason, and since it's during a supposed period of war, there is only one punishment allowed to these traitors, execution.
We could solve the nations debt by selling tickets to be on the firing squads to handle these criminals, these traitors, these treasonous bastards.
Every member of the NSA, CIA, FBI, HSA, TSA, hell, even the Senate and House of Representatives are guilty of these crimes, let's not forget the traitors currently and formerly serving on the SCotUS, the Presidents, Vice Presidents, Attornies General - they are all equally guilty, either in their actions, or in failing to prevent the illegal actions of the people who did (and continue to) commit the treasonous actions.
So many traitors running this country just to improve their wealth and subjugate those who grant them their power through inaction.
Take Thomas Jefferson's words to heart. This cancerous / cankerous modern Government needs to be removed before the entire nation dies.
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He needs to be water-boarded in a duck pond.
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so much for 'looking after the security of the people!' more like ways to instill terror into your own citizens!
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Rights and the Government
Which means that if you even dare to use your freedoms to do any kind of research into your employer's history, you're going to be fired and prosecuted, even if you did nothing wrong.
You do not have the right to question or investigate your employers' history or actions.
Guess that goes with being employed by the government.
You're charged with defending and protecting this country and the Constitution, but don't you dare use any of it!
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I don't question his conclusion but tend to think it needs a match point to start it off. Things like this could well become that match point. The entire ignoring of the consistution by the government for it's own benefit while demanding it's citizens obey the same types of laws it is breaking. Given enough time, the consent to govern will be withdrawn by it's citizens, whether stated before hand or not.
One can see this point approaching through the polls that reflect the belief by citizens that the government is doing it's job. Faith in it is rapidly being lost daily.
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Seems like good advice to me; especially now that, despite their very real and obsessive efforts to keep the public from knowing anything, they have utterly failed. Better yet, their efforts make it EASIER and far more likely for that information to see the light of day.
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CIA/FBI are nothing to look up to anymore.
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What about being ripped off of your right to your patented land
California has so many crooked people that are greedy.
From the gold diggers to the oil diggers they stole our families and tribal LANDS.
They harass and belittle the natives of California. What really makes me sick is when I hear on a GAME SHOW "Who wants to be a Millionaire", Question was, What two states would the United States most likely want to see removed? Answer, Texas and California.
Well probably after they despoiled and pillaged California!
Then insult them with CASINOS!
We were privileged Pioneers of California!!
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Until more citizens experience this things are not going to change because of the asinine attitude "it can't happen here"
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Because the moment the government wants to take you down, suddenly all those minor infractions you've done throughout your life will come crashing down on you all at once with the weight of the government.
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Well, yes, it might.
99.999% of America has no clue about the BOP. They also don't care that it was why John Kennedy was killed.
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Tinfoil Chapeau
There was once a time when I'd laugh at that kind of tinfoil-hattery and brush it off, but over the past five years or so it's beginning to look as if all the conspiracy theories floating around out there might not be so far off the mark after all. Makes me glad I finally stopped procrastinating about increasing my security (i.e. encrypt it all and do my best to hide lol).
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