Ray Cline Media Contacts

To Whom It May Concern:

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

Records, diaries, transcripts and other logs of all mail, telegram, telephone, contact between former CIA analyst Ray Steiner Cline and the following journalists:

Joseph C. Harsch (May 25, 1905 – June 3, 1998) - Christian Science Monitor, NBC
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) - Los Angeles Times
John Scott (March 26, 1912 – December 1, 1976) - TIME
Joseph Wright Alsop V (October 10, 1910 – August 28, 1989) - Various
Stewart Johonnot Oliver Alsop (May 17, 1914 – May 26, 1974) - Saturday Evening Post
Wallace Carroll (death 2002) - New York Times
Cyrus Leo Sulzberger II (October 27, 1912 – September 20, 1993) - Various
Tadeusz "Tad" Witold Szulc (July 25, 1926 – May 21, 2001) - New York Times
Henry Gemmill (death 1994) - Wall Street Journal
Chalmers M. Roberts (death 2005) - Washington Post
Murrey Marder (death 2013) - Washington Post
Charles J. V. Murphy (death 1987) - FORTUNE
James Russell Wiggins (December 4, 1903 – November 19, 2000) - Washington Post
Alfred Friendly (December 30, 1911 – November 7, 1983) - Washington Post
Philip L. Geyelin (death 2002) - Wall Street Journal
Louis Kraar (death 2006) - Wall Street Journal, Fortune and TIME
Charles Leffingwell Bartlett (born August 14, 1921)
Harry Schwartz (death 2004) - New York Times
William V. Shannon (death 1988) - New York Times
Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) - Washington Post and Newsweek

His repeated contact and revealing of information to the press was documented by CIA and revealed in a memorandum for Deputy Director that was assigned the number CIA-RDP80B01676R001700030003-0.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes. The release of these documents will improve the public's understanding of CIA activities and governmental contact with the press.

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,

Michael Best

I am appealing CIA's improper decision that I am an "all other" requester. Per my original request, I am a member of the news media and request classification 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 files online and make them available through the non-profit 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 "qualified because it also had “firm” 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.