CDC agreement on Ebola

Dear CDC,

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

1 - Signed Memorandum of Understanding on Material Transfer Between the Government of the United States of America And the Government of the Republic of Guinea drafted around January 2018. I previously received via a FOIA request (#18-00091-FOIA) an unsigned copy of this agreement. Please find it attached for your reference.

2 - All agreements such as Memorandums of Understanding signed between the USA and Guinea, Sierra Leone, or Liberia, from 2nd November 2017 until today.

3 - The inventory in Guinea all materials for the purpose of determining which materials should be destroyed and which should be inactivated. This document is mentioned under Section 2; 1) a) of the MoU referred to above under #1.

4 - The inventory, as mutually determined, of materials transported to the United States through gamma irradiation methods as specified under Section 2; 1) e) of the MoU referred to in #1 above.

5 -The documentation by the Government of the United States of activities covered by this Memorandum of Understanding with video cameras, as specified under Section 2; 4) c) of the MoU referred to in #1 above. This could include documents, images or videos.

6 - All research agreements or arrangements as specified under Section 3 of the MoU referred to in #1 above, if they exist

7 - All addendums and modifications to the MoU, if they exist, as specified under Section 5; 4) b) of the MoU referred to in #1 above.

This request should be properly classified as a media request. I am a freelance investigative reporter covering covering East and Central Africa, with a particular focus on business, corruption, natural resources, land and social issues.

I have a strong likelihood of publishing news articles based on information released in response to this request. I have previously been published in Le Monde Afrique, IRIN News, Sydney Morning Herald, African Arguments and others.

This request should be properly classified as a media request. I am a freelance investigative reporter covering covering East and Central Africa, with a particular focus on business, corruption, natural resources, land and social issues. I have a strong likelihood of publishing news articles based on information released in response to this request. I have previously been published in Le Monde Afrique, IRIN News, Sydney Morning Herald, African Arguments and others. If you have questions about my media classification, please let me know and I'm happy to address them.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filed electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not, and I would like text-searchable documents.

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.

Best regards,
Emmanuel Freudenthal

Dear Mr Davidi,

Thanks for the letter.

Is there a specific point (or points) of the FOIA request that is the reason for the very long timeframe in which you expect to reply to this request?

In that case, I'd be happy to narrow it down. But I need a bit more details in order to do so.

Thanks in advance.
Best,
Emmanuel

Dear FOIA Office,

Thanks for your message and I'm glad you could revise the timeline.

Also, please note that I made a mistake regarding the likely signature date, it should read January 2017 (as in the document I had attached).

I'm looking forward to receiving the documents by September 1st. Please don't hesitate to let me know if you need further information from me.

Best,
Emmanuel

Dear CDC

I'm hereby appealing the final response to FOIA request 18-00859-FOIA .

I've noted your reply for items 1, 2, 6 and 5.

For item 3, it does not duplicate item 7 of #18-00091 because:
- I am requesting the inventory of samples that are *in Guinea,* as planned by the MoU, not the samples brought to the US as requested in the previous FOIA request. Since this agreement was acted upon, this document must exist and the suggestion that the CDC does not have a copy defies common sense.
- it's a longer timeframe because the previous FOIA request stopped in November 2017

Your contention that item 4 is a duplicate of item 7 of #18-00091 is clearly incorrect, because of the different time frame outlined in that request. As I stated with regard to item 3, this document exists and your contention that the CDC does not possess a copy beggars belief.

For item 7, could you confirm, like you've done for items 2, 5 and 6, that you've looked at whether CDC held any copies of such documents?

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.

Best regards,

Emmanuel

Dear CDC,

Could you urgently confirm that you've received my request for an appeal to FOIA request 18-00859-FOIA ?

I sent it on 10th August.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
Emmanuel

Hello,

The FOIA appeal copied below was sent to your office in September. Could you please confirm that it was received and is being processed?

Thank you.
__________

Dear CDC

I'm hereby appealing the final response to FOIA request 18-00859-FOIA .

I've noted your reply for items 1, 2, 6 and 5.

For item 3, it does not duplicate item 7 of #18-00091 because:
- I am requesting the inventory of samples that are *in Guinea,* as planned by the MoU, not the samples brought to the US as requested in the previous FOIA request. Since this agreement was acted upon, this document must exist and the suggestion that the CDC does not have a copy defies common sense.
- it's a longer timeframe because the previous FOIA request stopped in November 2017

Your contention that item 4 is a duplicate of item 7 of #18-00091 is clearly incorrect, because of the different time frame outlined in that request. As I stated with regard to item 3, this document exists and your contention that the CDC does not possess a copy beggars belief.

For item 7, could you confirm, like you've done for items 2, 5 and 6, that you've looked at whether CDC held any copies of such documents?

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.

Best regards,

Emmanuel