In March of 2005, I wrote the Defense Department seeking records related to policies for preventing and investigating suicides among military personnel.

The DoD responded that it didn't keep such records, but that individual service branches might. It sent my request on to the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

About six months later, I received a small stack of documents responsive to my request from the Army.

A year later, I received some records from the Air Force.

I never heard back from any of the other services.

Today, I got a letter from the Pentagon, letting me know that the file related to my request was being closed.

Apparently, the Navy and Marines don't have any policies for the prevention and investigation of suicides.

--mdl

Labels: DOD

There was a time, not so long ago, when you could only serve a Freedom of Information Act request via the mail.

Thank goodness those days are gone, because frustrating exchanges like the one I had today -- I was told by the Air Force's Air Combat Command that I needed to send a request to Hill Air Force Base; Hill then told me I needed to send the request to the ACC -- used to take months.

Today, via e-mail, it took only about a day to work out the problem.

At least, I think it's worked out ...

-- mdl

Labels: DOD, FOIA, Hill Air Force Base

Daniel Ellsberg, admired/notorious whiste-blower of Pentagon Papers fame, will be in Salt Lake City to speak to a gathering of ACLU members. In an interview with The Tribune, Ellberg offered advice for would-be government tattle-tales.

"Don’t wait until a new war has started before you tell the truth," he said. "When you realize that keeping promises of secrecy involves breaking your promise to protect and uphold the Constitution," it's time to leak.

-mdl

Labels: DOD, leaks, secrecy

On KSL-TV to speak about our newspaper's recent exposé on Sandy's hidden bonus program, anchor Bruce Lindsay asked me why the public should care about public records laws, since such statute mostly are utilized by journalists -- who, as he pointed out, aren't exactly breaking the mercury on the public's love-o-meter.

Here's one good reason: In Washington on Thursday a bi-partisan duo of congressmen introduced legislation that would provide healthcare to veterans who were unknowingly subjected to biological and chemical weapons tests.

Those tests, known as Project 112, were run secretly out of a Utah Army base for decades -- and denied for decades more, despite reports from participating veterans that they were being stricken with unusual diseases.

What shook loose the veil of secrecy -- and ultimately led to this proposed legislation? A Freedom of Information Request by veterans groups in support of service members who felt they'd been wronged.

-mdl

Labels: DOD, FOIA, Sandy

Under a new Freedom of Information Act reform law signed by President Bush on New Year's Eve, federal agencies that don’t respond to FOIA requests within a 20-day period will face stiffer penalties.

As a reporter who routinely uses FOIA, and one who has grown accustomed to receiving responses to requests for public documents years after I ask, I am watching closely for signs of improvement in the system.

When I hadn't hear anything back from one defense agency after sending it a request for records on April 3, I figured that it might just be business as usual. Then, on April 24, I received a phone call. An official from the agency told me that there had been some confusion regarding who in her office was going to handle my request. She apologized and said that they would be "getting to it" as soon as possible.

"So, do you still want everything you asked for in the request?" the official asked me.

I told her I did.

The next day I received an e-mail from the official, which "documents the phone conversation we had on April 24, 2008, regarding the scope of your request."

The scope of my request?

"... the beginning of the 20-day statutory time frame is April 24, 2008, the date we perfected your request."

And just like that, a 20-day response window turned into a 40-day response window.

As overworked federal FOIA offices seek to stay within the confines of the new law, I'm expecting more "do you still want everything you asked for" calls and more follow-up e-mails with language such as "the day we perfected your request."

- mdl

Labels: DOD, FOIA