Authorized Leaks

Emma North-Best filed this request with the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America.
Tracking #

F-2018-00820

Est. Completion None
Status
Awaiting Appeal

Communications

From: Emma North-Best

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

Copies of all entries from the Agency's internal tracking of leaks, i.e. the Agency's leak database, where the leak is marked as authorized. The Agency has previously disclosed the existence of this database and that this was one of the fields that was tracked. Please see attached for one version of the form as an example and proof of prior disclosure of the existence of the authorized leak tracking.

I am a member of the news media and request classifcation as such. I have previously written about the government and its activities for AND Magazine, MuckRock and Glomar Disclosure and have an open arrangement with each. My articles have been widely read, with some reaching over 100,000 readers. As such, as I have a reasonable expectation of publication and my editorial and writing skills are well established. In addition, I discuss and comment on the fles online and make them available through the non-proft Internet Archive, disseminating them to a large audience. While my research is not limited to this, a great deal of it, including this, focuses on the activities and attitudes of the government itself. As such, it is not necessary for me to demonstrate the relevance of this particular subject in advance. Additionally, case law states that “proof of the ability to disseminate the released information to a broad cross- section of the public is not required.” Judicial Watch, Inc. v. Dep’t of Justice, 365 F.3d 1108, 1126 (D.C. Cir. 2004); see Carney v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 19 F.3d 807, 814-15 (2d Cir. 1994). Further, courts have held that "qualifed because it also had “frm” plans to “publish a number of . . . ‘document sets’” concerning United States foreign and national security policy." Under this criteria, as well, I qualify as a member of the news media. Additionally, courts have held that the news media status "focuses on the nature of the requester, not its request. The provision requires that the request be “made by” a representative of the news media. Id. § 552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). A newspaper reporter, for example, is a representative of the news media regardless of how much interest there is in the story for which he or she is requesting information." As such, the details of the request itself are moot for the purposes of determining the appropriate fee category. As such, my primary purpose is to inform about government activities by reporting on it and making the raw data available and I therefore request that fees be waived.

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,

Emma Best

From: Central Intelligence Agency

Dear Requester:

Attached is the final response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) query of 2 February 2018. Please review the attachment, and should you have any questions, please call the CIA FOIA Hotline at +1 (703) 613-1287.

Regards,
Public Access Requests Branch
Central Intelligence Agency

_________________________________________________________________________________
Warning - Please DO NOT REPLY to this e-mail. This e-mail is used solely to provide a response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and is not a means of communicating with CIA regarding your request. As a result, the account from which this message originated is not routinely monitored. Should you have any questions or concerns about our response, please call the CIA FOIA Hotline at +1 (703) 613-1287.

From: Emma North-Best

I am appealing the integrity of the search in its entirety, as the records are known to exist per CIA-RDP80R01720R000700040058-4 etc.

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