Updated 101st Airborne Division Ebola Mission Malaria Prophylaxis Procedures

To Whom It May Concern:

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

Any and all official malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance disseminated in any form to include documents, slides, or unclassified orders, to members of the 101st Airborne Division, from October 1, 2014 through the effective date of processing of this request, to include any 101st Airborne Division policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any 18th Airborne Corps policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any Army policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; or any version of AFRICOM Command Manual (ACM) 4200.03 (Force Health Protection Procedures for Deployment and Travel), U.S. AFRICOM Command Note 4200.03, any other U.S. AFRICOM issuance that updates or replaces these documents; and to specifically include any malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance specifically issued for Operation United Assistance or other U.S. military missions in response to the 2014 west African Ebola outbreak.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

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 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,

Remington Nevin

Commander
101st Airborne Division (AASLT)
ATTN: FOIA Officer
91 Michigan Avenue
Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223-5634

Re: Appeal of denial of FOIA request dated December 18, 2014, subject: “Updated 101st Airborne Division Ebola Mission Malaria Prophylaxis Procedures”

This is an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act. I am writing to appeal the denial of a request properly made to the Commander, 101st Airborne Division, on December 18, 2014.

As may be confirmed at the public website MuckRock (https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/101st-airborne-division-ebola-mission-malaria-prophylaxis-procedures-13669/), a FOIA request for “[a]ny and all official malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance disseminated in any form to include documents, slides, or unclassified orders, to members of the 101st Airborne Division, from October 1, 2014 through the effective date of processing of this request, to include any 101st Airborne Division policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any 18th Airborne Corps policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any Army policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; or any version of AFRICOM Command Manual (ACM) 4200.03 (Force Health Protection Procedures for Deployment and Travel), U.S. AFRICOM Command Note 4200.03, any other U.S. AFRICOM issuance that updates or replaces these documents; and to specifically include any malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance specifically issued for Operation United Assistance or other U.S. military missions in response to the 2014 west African Ebola outbreak”) was submitted to the Commander, 101st Airborne Division, on December 18, 2014.

This request was immediately responded to with a response of “No Record” in an email from Ms. Valerie Florez, dated December 19, 2014. In this response, Ms. Florez considered the request “a duplicate request” and erroneously stated that “[t]his request has already been answered”, presumably referring to a related request made by the requester on October 1, 2014, which requested substantially similar documents dated “from September 1, 2014 through the effective date of processing of this request”, and which resulted in a response of “No Responsive Documents” from the Commander, 101st Airborne Division. As this earlier request was initially acknowledged on October 2, 2014, presumably the search for responsive documents for this request included those dated only through October 2, 2014. Indeed, in a response dated October 17, 2014, Ms. Florez noted that “there were no reports for you for the time you requested”. As this response specifically noted the relevance of the requested dates in the non-response, a new request requesting documents with different dates should not and cannot be considered a “duplicate request”.

The new request which is the subject of this appeal, which was summarily denied with a response of “No Record” on December 19, 2014, was clearly for documents with a different set of dates, and hence constitutes a new request and not a “duplicate request” as erroneously concluded by your office.

The requestor also has reason to believe that a response of “No Records” for the new period requested is highly implausible, and that a through search as required under the statute would return responsive documents that are neither classified nor otherwise ineligible for mandatory release under the FOIA. Substantiating this is the fact that an organization supporting the deployment of the 101st Airborne Division, namely the Blanchfield Army Community Hospital, responding to a similar request in a letter of November 21, 2014, identified an unclassified slide presentation “developed by the Preventive Medicine Department, [Blanchfield Army Community Hospital], to train providers for deployment, which includes information pertaining to malaria prevention” (see: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/ft-campbell-meddac-ebola-mission-malaria-prophylaxis-procedures-13893/#files).

In this regard, it is implausible that this single presentation, which itself meets the requirement for a responsive document under the present request, would not be available to the Commander, 101st Airborne Division, under a thorough search as required by the FOIA; nor is it plausible that this single document constitutes the only document pertinent to malaria prevention and otherwise responsive to my request distributed within the command. In this regard, a finding of “No Responsive Documents” would imply either (1) that instructions on malaria prevention have been improperly classified at a level of security classification inappropriate to their content and not in accordance with law, or that (2) members of the 101st Airborne Division deploying to a highly malaria endemic area received no unclassified official guidance, instructions, or education regarding malaria prevention from their command. Both possibilities are clearly highly implausible.

In conclusion, I hereby restate my original request that your office immediately produce “[a]ny and all official malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance disseminated in any form to include documents, slides, or unclassified orders, to members of the 101st Airborne Division… to specifically include any malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance specifically issued for Operation United Assistance or other U.S. military missions in response to the 2014 west African Ebola outbreak”, as specified in my original request of December 18, 2014.

I thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation with this matter. I look forward to receiving a response to my original request no later than January 23, 2015.

Sincerely,

Remington Nevin

Commander
101st Airborne Division (AASLT)
ATTN: FOIA Officer
91 Michigan Avenue
Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223-5634

Please acknowledge receipt of my appeal submitted to your office dated December 31, 2014.

I thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter.

Sincerely,

Remington Nevin

To Whom It May Concern:

This FOIA request has been forwarded to your office for processing. Confirmation of receipt and an estimated date of completion would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

To Whom It May Concern:

This FOIA request, for "Any and all official malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance disseminated in any form to include documents, slides, or unclassified orders, to members of the 101st Airborne Division, from October 1, 2014 through the effective date of processing of this request, to include any 101st Airborne Division policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any 18th Airborne Corps policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; any Army policy, instructions, procedures or guidance; or any version of AFRICOM Command Manual (ACM) 4200.03 (Force Health Protection Procedures for Deployment and Travel), U.S. AFRICOM Command Note 4200.03, any other U.S. AFRICOM issuance that updates or replaces these documents; and to specifically include any malaria prophylaxis policy, instructions, procedures or guidance specifically issued for Operation United Assistance or other U.S. military missions in response to the 2014 west African Ebola outbreak.", has been forwarded to your office for processing from the Commander
101st Airborne Division. Confirmation of receipt and an estimated date of completion would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Dr. Remington Nevin

Valerie M. Florez
Freedom of Information/Privacy/PII Officer
91 Michigan Avenue
Fort Campbell, Kentucky 42223
(270) 798-2469
DSN 635-2469
FAX: 270-798-7452

Dear Ms. Florez,

Thank you very much for your message. The document you describe appears to be responsive to this request, and as the FOIA permits agencies to redact information such as names and cell phone numbers as you describe, based on your description I would consider this acceptable. I appreciate your responding to this request and will look forward to receiving this document at your earliest convenience.

Sincerely,

Dr. Remington Nevin