BAGHDAD — So. I filed a FOIA request on myself a while back with the CIA. Yesterday my brother received a letter that says that after an exhaustive search they found “one document that we have determined must be withheld in its entirety” based on exemptions to the FOIA and Privacy Act laws. The exemptions cover disclosure of CIA “intelligence sources and methods, as well as the organization functions, names” etc of personnel employed by “the Agency” and “material which is properly classified pursuant to an Executive order in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.”
On the one hand, I think, “Hm. What the hell does the CIA have on me, anyway?” On the other, I think, “Bitchin’! The CIA has spook stuff on me! Who’s the spy in my circle of friends?” Looks like someone in Langley’s getting another FOIA-gram from me…
Seriously, how common is it for a journalist to have a document about him that can’t be released for “national security reasons”? Anyone from the CIA reading this site — and server logs don’t lie, yo — want to chime in and explain? And don’t worry about me blowing your cover. I don’t work for the Bush administration.
UPDATE 23 March 2006 at 1231 +0200 GMT: A copy of the two page letter is available here (page 1) and here (page 2). I wonder if this is part of President Bush’s wiretapping scheme or if the CIA has been “employing journalists again”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird, which is supposed to be a no-no.
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