All previous FOIAs
| Tracking # |
2022-034 |
| Submitted | Oct. 1, 2021 |
| Due | Nov. 22, 2021 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Emmanuel Freudenthal
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
- All of the documents disclosed in previous Freedom of Information Requests since 2010
You can exclude the documents disclosed here: https://www.africom.mil/foia-freedom-of-information-act-requests
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Emmanuel Freudenthal
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 1, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: U.S. Africa Command
Good morning Mr. Freudenthal,
We have no record of your 1 October 2021 request submission for this
information. However, it is no problem to in-process it now. But, before
we can get started we need you to narrow down the scope of your request
because " All of the documents disclosed in previous Freedom of Information
Requests since 2010" is entirely too broad to process. Your request as
submitted does not provide a description of records that will allow
USAFRICOM to reasonably ascertain exactly which records are being requested
and to locate them. Federal agencies are not required to conduct
wide-ranging or unreasonably burdensome searches for records. Please
provide a narrowed description of the records you are seeking, including
information such as case numbers, who the original requester was, the
subject matter, a particular event, exercise and/or program to which the
records pertain. This information will help to provide context for us, and
to properly conduct our search for records.
Sincerely,
U.S. Africa Command FOIA Office
From: Emmanuel Freudenthal
Dear AFRICOM,
I believe that the request was sent to the same email as the reminder.
Is there a FOIA reading room or a list of the FOIAs that you have processed available anywhere publicly?
I believe that such proactive disclosure is a requirement of the FOIA and it would facilitate the processing of this case.
Best,
Emmanuel
From: U.S. Africa Command
Good morning Mr. Freudenthal,
We have searched through this email inbox and are unable to locate your
original submission for this request. As stated in our last email to you,
it is no problem to process your request, but we will need some contextual
information prior to being able to start processing. Regarding your
question about a publicly available list of FOIA's, our log for fiscal year
2020 is publically available. If you would like to request our FOIA logs
from other fiscal years, we ask that you submit a formal request for them,
as they have not been made publically available yet, but they will be made
available as time allows.
Sincerely,
U.S. Africa Command FOIA Office
From: Emmanuel Freudenthal
Dear AFRICOM,
You've asked me for "some contextual information" and I am not sure what this means. Could you clarify this?
You've asked me to narrow down this request. To that end, and to provide you with a very clear and easy process to find the responsive documents, please look through your FOIA logs for all the requests with *any* of the following words in the "Request Topic": Burkina, Mali, Niger, Chad, Nigeria, Mauritania, Cameroon, Sahel, Dirkou, Niamey, Agadez, Arlit, Diffa, Ouallam, Bamako, Gao, Garoua, Maroua, Ouagadougou, or N’Djamena.
Then you can send me the documents that you have disclosed for the requests found through the search above.
I believe that I have provided very specific details on how to find the documents that I have requested. Furthermore, the documents have already been redacted and released so this should be very easy and fast to release them.
Please let me know as soon as possible if anything is unclear. I am looking forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.
Best regards,
Emmanuelk
From: U.S. Africa Command
Good morning Emmanuel,
Thank you for the additional information you provided in your previous email, it is very helpful.
The case processing number for this request is 2022-034. Your request is being processed in accordance with title 5 U.S.C. § 552, the Freedom of Information Act. The actual processing time for the records you requested will depend upon our administrative backlog and whether the records requested require consultation with other DoD components and other agencies.
If you have any questions regarding your inquiry, please contact us by email: africom.stuttgart.accc.list.foia-mba@mail.mil, and refer to FOIA #2022-034.
Sincerely,
U.S. Africa Command FOIA Office
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Oct. 20, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #2022-034.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: U.S. Africa Command
Good morning Emmanuel,
We have conducted a thorough search of our files and notated three instances of information being released during the requested time frame using the requested search parameters. The information is publically available in our Reading Room. For your convenience, you may access the Reading Room through the following link: https://www.africom.mil/foia-freedom-of-information-act-requests. Please let us know if this email response is sufficient or if you would like a formal, signed, final response letter.
Sincerely,
U.S. Africa Command FOIA Office
From: Emmanuel Freudenthal
Dear AFRICOM,
Thanks for your response.
Indeed, I would like a formal letter that confirm that since 2010, AFRICOM only every released 3 documents that contain any of these words: Burkina, Mali, Niger, Chad, Nigeria, Mauritania, Cameroon, Sahel, Dirkou, Niamey, Agadez, Arlit, Diffa, Ouallam, Bamako, Gao, Garoua, Maroua, Ouagadougou, OR N’Djamena. And that these 3 documents are be amongst the 15 or so that are currently publicly available in your reading room.
I find it very hard to believe it to be the case, so I would really encourage you to review your search. For example the word "Mali" shows up in 14 of the FOIA requests just for 2021.
If you only found 3 responsive documents, then I would really like you to confirm this in a formal letter. Please also make sure that the letter includes instructions for filing an appeal.
Best,
Emmanuel
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