Copley Plays

To Whom It May Concern:

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

FOIA request
Any records created, redacted, generated etc in relation to the following:
Generalkonsulat der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany
Three Copley Place, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02116
Tel.: 001 (617) 369 4900
Fax: 001 (617) 369 4940
E-mail: rk-1@bost.diplo.de
Internet: www.boston.diplo.de

From November 2, 2015 to current.
EFOIA request for correspondence and production.
Vaugh indexing requested for any cited exemptions

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,

William Fernandes

Follow up for status request on this. Can you reply with the assigned FOIA#. This request was filed under the EFOIA statute.

Notice of Appeal:

Grounds:
Overwhelming public interest. As shown in first OIG report quoted it is of the national interest for this type of information to be declassified and disseminated for public information.

The field division and locality has been repeatedly the subject of news in relation to failures in enforcement and or investigation without fruition of national security matters, which has created threats to public safety which is well documented. Any necessity for surveillance and or creation of documentation of any matters related to an ally of the United States operating within the area of the city would have overwhelming public interest.

https://oig.justice.gov/reports/2014/s1404.pdf
'On April 15, 2013, two pressure cooker bombs placed near the finish line of the Boston Marathon detonated within seconds of each other, killing three and injuring more than two hundred people. Law enforcement officials identified brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as primary suspects in the bombings. After an extensive search for the then-unidentified suspects, law enforcement officials encountered Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, Massachusetts. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot during the encounter and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who fled the scene, was apprehended the following day and remains in federal custody. A decade earlier, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev immigrated to the United States from Kyrgyzstan with their parents Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. Anzor Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen, his wife Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, and their son Dzhokhar Tsarnaev arrived in the United States from Kyrgyzstan in 2002. They applied for and received an immigration benefit. The elder son, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his sisters, Bella and Ailina Tsarnaeva, arrived in the United States in 2003 and also received an immigration benefit. In the years that followed, all six family members became Lawful Permanent Residents of the United States. Two years before the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva came to the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) based on information received from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). In March 2011, the FBI received information from the FSB alleging that Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva were adherents of radical Islam and that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was preparing to travel to Russia to join unspecified underground groups in Dagestan and Chechnya. The FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force in Boston (Boston JTTF) conducted an assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev to determine whether he posed a threat to national security and closed the assessment three months later having found no link or “nexus” to terrorism. In September 2011, the FSB provided the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev that was substantively identical to the information the FSB had provided to the FBI in March 2011. In October 2011, the CIA provided information obtained from the FSB to the the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) for watchlisting purposes, and to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of State for their information. Upon NCTC’s receipt of the information, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was added to the terrorist watchlist. NOTE: This report is an unclassified summary of a 168-page classified report that was also issued today, 10 April 2014, by the Inspectors General for the Intelligence Community, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of Justice, and Department of Homeland Security. Redactions in this document are the result of classification and sensitivity designations we received from agencies and departments that provided information to the OIGs for this review. As to several of these classification and sensitivity designations, the OIGs disagreed with the bases asserted. We are requesting that the relevant entities reconsider those designations so that we can unredact those portions and make this information available to the public. '

Reference:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Shadow_Factory.html?id=8zJmxWNTxrwC
'Journalist Bamford exposed the existence of the top-secret National Security Agency in The Puzzle Palace and continued to probe into its workings in his follow-up Body of Secrets. Now Bamford discloses inside, often shocking information about the transformation of the NSA in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 2001. He shows how the NSA's failure to detect the presence of two of the 9/11 hijackers inside the United States led the NSA to abandon its long-held policy of spying only on enemies outside the country. Instead, after 9/11 it turned its almost limitless ability to listen in on friend and foe alike over to the Bush Administration to use as a weapon in the war on terror. Bamford details how the agency has conducted domestic surveillance without court approval, and he frames it in the context of the NSA's ongoing hunt for information about today's elusive enemies.'

Reflecting On 9/11 In The Face Of Another National Crisis
https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2020/09/10/9-11-covid19-context

Mitchell Zuckoff’s Fall and Rise Recounts the Story of 9/11
http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mitchell-zuckoffs-fall-and-rise-recounts-9-11/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Airlines_Flight_11
'American Airlines Flight 11 was a domestic passenger flight that was hijacked by five al-Qaeda members on September 11 in 2001, as part of the September 11 attacks. Mohamed Atta deliberately crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing all 92 people aboard and ensuring the deaths of 1,402 people at and above the aircraft's impact zone. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767-223ER, registration N334AA,[1] was flying American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental service from Logan International Airport in Boston to Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. '

https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/19-years-later-boston-remembers-911-terrorist-attacks/TOZRI7N7MZASFEKDLK25AEARFQ/
'BOSTON — At 8:46 a.m. on Friday, the exact moment Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower 19 years ago, time stood still on the front lawn of the Massachusetts State House.

That’s where Gov. Charlie Baker observed a moment of silence for the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The scars of 911 are still deeply felt in Boston, the place where two of the four hijacked planes originated.'

https://www3.bostonglobe.com/metro/specials/boston-marathon-explosions/?arc404=true

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/15/the-fall-house-tsarnaev/lg5Q3XqtbOOQR1ZCWgB1sK/story.html

This was sent in appeal for release for review in Appeal A-2021-02060 on 06/23/2021 via the FOIASTAR Portal. I waiting for an electronic response to confirm the request was being processed in the DOJ Review Unit.

/s/
William Fernandes

This was sent in appeal for release for review in Appeal A-2021-02060 on 06/23/2021 via the FOIASTAR Portal. I waiting for an electronic response to confirm the request was being processed in the DOJ Review Unit.

/s/
William Fernandes

Can you ask the analyst assigned to this for an update please.
D2021-00011

Good Day:

I was following up on the attached. Can you advise a status?
Thanks,
William

To: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, iscap@nara.gov
From: William Fernandes, requests@muckrock.com
Re: FBI File:1484445-000

Notice of appeal due to non-compliance for request for mandatory declassification review

Timeline of events

Date of FOIA request:12/23/2020
Date of entity response: 01/01/2021
Date of initial appeal:02/18/2021
Date of appeal response:06/15/2021
Date of DOJ review Board Appeal:06/23/2021
Date of DOJ review Board Remand for MDR: File number assigned: D- 2021-00011, August 24, 2021
Date of last status provided by entity: DOJ OIP, 01/20/2023

/s/
William Fernandes

Hi Daniel:
Can you help provide a status on this for me?

Thanks
William

FBI Number: 1484445-000

Thanks Daniel. To seek oversight review in relation to this matter. Would I contact DOJ OPR or DOJ OIG, as based on the timeframe that the appeal was acknowledged in receipt, a second MDR period has opened due to the processing time of (2+ years)?

I just want to make sure if the Committee needs additional staffing or restructuring, that I do my part to ensure you're able to fulfill the demands of transparency while avoiding 18 U.S.C 798, for failure to complete duties in a timely fashion.

Best,
William