USAF Nuclear Weapon Safety Journal (AFRP 122-1)

To Whom It May Concern:

THIS IS A FOIA REQUEST
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request copies of the following records:

All copies of the Air Force Recurring Periodical "USAF Nuclear Safety" (AFRP 122-1). You may exclude Volume 65 (part 2) 1970 as it is available through DTIC.

To assist you in locating these records please note that Volume 65 (part 2) (1970) of USAF Nuclear Safety lists the following address for communication with the editor of this publication: "The Editor, USAF NUCLEAR SAFETY, Directorate of Nuclear Safety (AFINST), Kirtland AFB, NM, 87117."

As the FOIA requires, please release all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of documents. If you withhold records or parts of records then please indicate through which exemption you do so and advise me of my options for appeal under the law.

FEES AND FEE STATUS
I am a PhD student at the University of New Mexico and the information requested is for academic and public education purposes, including my PhD dissertation project, and not primarily for commercial use. Furthermore, I will make responsive records available to the public via my academic publications and presentations; on social media (I have over 13,000 Twitter followers); and through the News Site MuckRock.com. Please note that you can access my UNM student profile page at the following url: https://anthropology.unm.edu/people/grad-students/profile/martin-pfeiffer.html.

Therefore, as per Sack v. DOD (2016) I qualify for educational institution fee status and ask that you process my request accordingly. In your response please confirm that you will be processing my request under the educational institution fee status.

If fees are assessed then I agree to pay fees up to $30 without additional notice. In the event that there are fees exceeding $30 then please inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request.

RECORDS AND COMMUNICATIONS
I hereby request that all records generated by this request be delivered in electronic format via email or, if that is not possible, on CD-ROM if available.

Please do not hesitate to contact me (preferably via email) with any questions or information. You may, and I request that you do so if convenient, engage in rolling release of responsive documents.

CONCLUSION
I look forward to receiving your response within the twenty day statutory period. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation and time in this matter.

Regards,

Martin Pfeiffer

Hi,

I am writing to request a status update and estimated date of completion for this FOIA.

Regards,
-marty-
Martin Pfeiffer

To Whom it May Concern,

The FOIA PAL is byzantine, unwieldy, and largely unusable. For the purposes of this and my other FOIAs lets communicate not using it please.

Please tell me what the status and expected completion date of my request is.

Regards,
-marty-
Martin Pfeiffer

Hello,

May I ask the status of this FOIA please?

Thank you.

Regards,
-marty-
Martin Pfeiffer

Dear Ms. Gonzalez,

Thank you for your message.

I am somewhat confused and, with all due respect, I believe that this is an incorrect application of my fee status and an inappropriate levying of fees given that this request has long exceeded the statutory 20 day period without having made reference to extraordinary circumstances.

A) Educational fee status users do not pay search or review fees. Please refer to page 10 of the FBI's guide to the FOIA (as altered by judicial precedent including Sack v. DOD 2016) and available here: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/oip/legacy/2014/07/23/fees-feewaivers.pdf. Given as you have stressed the time consuming nature of the review process it seems these fees are the major bulk of the amount you cited. Please recalculate the amount having properly

B) I protest the charging of duplication costs in this instance on two grounds. First, I protest the charging of fees, at the professional government rate to scan documents (although I accept responsibility for paying for the CDs). Second, this request has taken, and will continue to take, longer than the 20 day statutory period provided for in the FOIA and therefore, as per FBI Office of Information Policy and Section 6 of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, it is inappropriate to charge me fees. Please refer to the FBI's OIP discussion of this issue here: https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-post-2008-oip-guidance-new-limitations-assessing-fees.

In your response please provide the following information:
1) A recalculation of your estimate of the amounts involved in this FOIA given:
-I do not pay search or review costs because of my educational institution fee status
-It is inappropriate to charge the professional government rate to scan documents
-It is inappropriate to charge me any fees due to this request having exceeded statutory time lines

2) Furthermore, assuming that the amounts involved no longer exceed $30 (which I argue they should not), please confirm that my request will be proceeding under the terms set forth above OR inform me of my newly calculated amount and my options for appealing any aspect of the above that you are unable or unwilling to grant me.

Thank you for your help with this and I look forward to your response.

Regards,
-marty-
Martin Pfeiffer

Mr. Gonzalez,

As you can see from the thread in this email chain I responded to your incorrect effort to charge me fees on July 7, 2019. You can also check my Muckrock.com page for this request to see the date stamp.

Please find the beginning of that message attached as a screenshot to help you locate it.

I Am,

Martin Pfeiffer
Please respond that you have received it; please respond to it as you have not yet done so; and confirm you will continue my request.

Martin Pfeiffer

Mr. Gonzalez,

To further follow up my prior message, please find attached screenshots of my message of July 7th in which I argued your effort to charge me fees was inappropriate and to which you never responded.

Please respond and confirm that my request will continue under my proper fee status and without charging me inappropriate fees as per my message of July 7.

I am,

Martin Pfeiffer

To whom it may concern:

This is an appeal under the Freedom of Information Act regarding Case # 2019-02082-F

Mr. Gonzalez claims that I did not respond to his message on or about July 7th attempting to assess me fees for my request and has thus closed my request.

As an examination of the dates on the thread of my correspondence with Mr. Gonzalez clearly shows, I responded on or about July 7th, 2019 challenging Mr. Gonzalez’s effort to levy inappropriate fees. Mr. Gonzalez then messaged me on or about July 18th closing my request.

You can review our correspondence at the following link as I used Muckrock.com to file this request and keep track of associated documents and messages: https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/usaf-nuclear-weapon-safety-journal-afrp-122-1-68533/

I can provide a PDF of said correspondence if desired.

Relief sought:
1) my request continue
2) USAF be prohibited from charging any fees regarding this request. Quite frankly, it is not my job to train USAF’s, or any other agencies’, FOIA analysts about fee statuses and appropriate fees to charge, much less how to use email. Therefore, forbidding the charging of fees in this request would be an act of justice considering the unnecessary time, effort, anxiety, and vexation inappropriately imposed upon me as I seek to access records I have a right to under the FOIA.
3) alternately, my request continue and Mr. Gonzalez respond to my email of on or about July 7th, 2019 (also attached here as screenshots).

I appreciate your effort and consideration on this matter. Please reply to me at the email or mail address provided by Muckrock. Email is my preferred mode of communication.

Regards,
Martin Pfeiffer