Want information from the FBI? Do you really want it? Do you? Really?
Here’s how the FBI handles requests for information from the public: Wait a really long time and then ask you to forget you asked.
On Sept. 24, Watchdog sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI. The information wasn’t exactly top secret — just the budget for the Fort Worth FBI office.
That day, David P. Sobonya, a public information officer, wrote that the request “will be processed .... and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.”
From the start, the FBI’s information “freedom” system was all class. While the request was emailed in September, it wasn’t received until Oct. 6 when it was assigned a request number: 1137915.
It’s like playing the “freedom of information” lottery. You don’t win until you get a number.
So November comes. A month has come and gone. Other federal agencies are sending watchdog budget figures in a day or a couple of weeks at most.
At the FBI, weeks are like seconds, months like minutes: “...A time frame for completion (of the request) cannot be provided at this time.”
In early December, Watchdog politely inquired why the budget for a small FBI office hadn’t been provided.
Sobonya wrote: “I checked on the status of your FOIA Request #1137915 and unfortunately, that request is still in the Work Process Unit and has not been completed as of this date.”
Work Process Unit? As far as we can tell, that’s where FOIA requests disappear, like political prisoners in the old Soviet gulags.
The kicker? Sobonya asked, “Do wish the request to remain OPEN or do you want it CLOSED?”
CLOSED is apparently FBI-speak for “you have wasted your time.” We guess OPEN means “you can’t take a hint, can you?”
No, we can’t. To be continued...
— Darren Barbee
On Sept. 24, Watchdog sent a Freedom of Information Act request to the FBI. The information wasn’t exactly top secret — just the budget for the Fort Worth FBI office.
That day, David P. Sobonya, a public information officer, wrote that the request “will be processed .... and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.”
From the start, the FBI’s information “freedom” system was all class. While the request was emailed in September, it wasn’t received until Oct. 6 when it was assigned a request number: 1137915.
It’s like playing the “freedom of information” lottery. You don’t win until you get a number.
So November comes. A month has come and gone. Other federal agencies are sending watchdog budget figures in a day or a couple of weeks at most.
At the FBI, weeks are like seconds, months like minutes: “...A time frame for completion (of the request) cannot be provided at this time.”
In early December, Watchdog politely inquired why the budget for a small FBI office hadn’t been provided.
Sobonya wrote: “I checked on the status of your FOIA Request #1137915 and unfortunately, that request is still in the Work Process Unit and has not been completed as of this date.”
Work Process Unit? As far as we can tell, that’s where FOIA requests disappear, like political prisoners in the old Soviet gulags.
The kicker? Sobonya asked, “Do wish the request to remain OPEN or do you want it CLOSED?”
CLOSED is apparently FBI-speak for “you have wasted your time.” We guess OPEN means “you can’t take a hint, can you?”
No, we can’t. To be continued...
— Darren Barbee
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