My First Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) Request

I came home from work a few Fridays ago to find a paper slip from the post office on my door.  It’s one of those slips that says you have to come by the post office to pick something up because they won’t leave it on your front step for some reason (check the box).  In the sender box it said Justice Department.  Huh?  Justice Department?  I haven’t hung out with lobbiests in a long time.  Did Jack Abramoff name me in his guilty plea?  For a good fifteen minutes I couldn’t think of what it could possibly be.  I tried to think of every vaguely not quite legal thing I had done in my life.  None seemed to qualify for a federal Justice Department package.  Then I remembered.  Last year, in April, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI. 

My request was rather simple.  I wanted every document the FBI had on my grandfather who had passed away last year.  He was a medical doctor and hospital administrator by training, but he also worked for the FBI during World War II.  My request was sent in early April.  The FBI sent me an acknowledgement of my request in late April.  Then silence.  Eight months later my package arrived – approximately 300 pages of unbound photocopied copy paper. 

Interpreting A FOIA File

The cover page acknowledges that the enclosed documents have been sent to you subject to the FOIA rules.  A series of boxes are checked that indicate which exemptions have been used to withhold information.  For my documents, b2, b3, b6, b7c, b7d, and b7e are checked.  A separate page called the “explanation of exemptions” details what these actually mean.  After the check boxes is a section explaining that I can appeal the withholding of any information within sixty days.  The last paragraph of the cover page falls under the category of “additional information.”  For me, this information is my bill.  The first 100 pages were free.  The last 200 were not.  So I owe the FBI $20.00.  The check is on its way. 

As I flip through the papers I notice white strips covering sentences, paragraphs, and forms.  I had expected big black blocks from a Sharpie, but instead I see relatively clean pages.  Next to each white box are the neatly typed letter/number combinations from the cover page.  For example, in a background check a neighbor’s name is redacted and B2 is typed next to the name.  Their comments and other background information is still there, but the name is gone.  Some pages are deleted in their entirety.  When that’s the case, it is noted on a special page just behind the cover pages.  In my case, twelve pages have been held in their entirety.  The openness surprised me.  I had expected to simply get what I could get and not know what was missing.  Instead, somebody in the FBI took the whole file and very methodically blocked out names and events – documenting the entire process in a simple decipherable code.  Several documents were stamped “Declassifed Nov 2005”.  Did my request prompt the declassification of some of his files?  Curious. 

More to come…

Next Up:  The FBI’s View of My Grandfather