Aircraft and the Big Pipe surveillance program (United States Customs and Border Protection)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Any correspondence or records related to the New York Times story ( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/us/politics/george-floyd-protests-surveillance.html ) which reveals that the Department of Homeland Security has flown aircraft over at least fifteen American cities to perform surveillance and law enforcement support for activities relating to protests, demonstrations, and other related issues in the cities during those events. This should include any requests or responses to or from the New York Times itself, as well as responses to and from the Department of Homeland Security or related agency. This data that I am seeking is held by a mixture of agencies related to the Department of Homeland Security including but not limited to the Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine operations.

The New York Times report specified the existence of at least 270 hours of surveillance. I request copies of such surveillance recordings such as videos, photographs, radio or telephone interception information.

I additionally request a detailed list of all cities which requested or were offered, or where operations were run relating to domestic demonstrations or protests, looting or rioting, or similarly related events.

I am additionally writing to independently request contemporary FAA registration information such as agency name, addresses, ADS-B beacon information, Mode-S transponder identification, FAA tail numbers, as well as the make, model, year of production, and serial numbers for each aircraft. Aircraft should be understood to include helicopters, drones, airplanes, dirigibles, and any other vehicle - man or unmanned - used for these operations or for operations which would, could, or did incidentally collect surveillance data on any activities in cities with protests or demonstrations during the months of May, 2020 and June, 2020. This includes but is not limited to operations above New York City (New York), Buffalo (New York), Minneapolis (Minnesota), Del Rio (Texas), Dayton (Ohio), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Washington (District of Columbia), Detroit (Michigan), Sierra Vista (Arizona), Corpus Christi (Texas), Portland (Oregon), Oakland (California), Los Angeles (California), and other minor or major American cities.

For each aircraft, I am requesting all maintenance records, vendor documents, emails, as well as other correspondence regarding or related to the aircraft within the last five years as well as any additional equipment attached to any of the aircraft used during the months of May 2020 and June 2020 relating to the demonstrations or related events. For example, if a Harris Corporation's cell site simulator is installed in the aircraft, even temporarily, I request information about this equipment, and its use during the specified time period.

Finally, I am also seeking information about the Department of Homeland Security's "Big Pipe" program. I request all documents, emails, slides, training materials and other communications relating to the Big Pipe program. Furthermore, I request a list of which other federal agencies have access, access and audit logs about their use as well as the point person or contact information for the responsible person at their respective agency.

This information is part of a journalistic research project involving the Seattle Privacy Coalition.

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,

Jacob Appelbaum

Hello,

I'd like to follow up on my request and I am requesting a status update on my original FOIA request dated 06/23/2020.

Sincerely,
Jacob Appelbaum