Among the exceptions likely to be cited would be privacy, national security, ongoing litigation, etc.
On 2019-11-24 03:06, Douglas Lucas wrote: > Via MuckRock I've filed nearly 100 requests: > https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/profile/douglaslucas/ > > Several of my requests have returned documents, and a few have formed > the basis of articles by me, e.g this one regarding our gentlehearted > friends at Stratfor -- > https://web.archive.org/web/20160414073752/https://revolution-news.com/stratfor-wheres-truck/ > -- or this one involving our scholarly friends at the Border Security > Operations Center in Texas > https://whowhatwhy.org/2014/07/16/exclusive-the-counterinsurgency-war-on-and-inside-our-borders/ > > Because corporations have a few times repeated me in watered down form, > i.e. because Vice and Salon have published me, echolalia or whatever, I > usually have success in getting agencies to waive or minimize fees, > saying the usual stuff about muh journalismszz. Not always though. A > while back, I asked the Texas state police for certain Stratfor g00dz > and they wanted a zillion dollars or something. > > In the next 24-48 hours I'm working on a bunch of other FOIA requests, > including appeals... so I could send requests regarding Cypherpunks off > as well, if the list clarifies what agencies/offices are wanted. > > Because, what agencies do you suspect might have long ago collections of > Cypherpunk emails? FOIAs have to go somewhere, to some agency or office. > Where, Jim and others, were y'all thinking of submitting FOIAs? > > As far as I know, the raw data vacuumed up by federal spy agencies > haven't and won't be handed out to the public via FOIA. They'll cite any > one of multiple exceptions. I assume, but do not know for certain, that > other people have tried such open records requests for laughs, like > "From the NSA, I hereby request my photos I accidentally deleted back, I > emailed them to myself 10 years ago, does Joseph Maguire at the ODNI > have a copy please?" > > It might be good to limit the request to the time frame from and > including 1 Jan 1995 to and including 31 Dec 1996, because the smaller > the scope of the request, the slightly less likely it is that the > gub'ment will delay forever, charge fees, say they don't have anything, > use some exception, ignore me much like my crushes, etc. > > As I suggested above, I think it would be difficult/impossible to obtain > cypherpunk emails through FOIA from some agency's covert or clandestine > or otherwise shady program or other. Agencies usually use exceptions to > block such requests. > > However, I wonder if there were any overt programs, agencies, offices, > bureaus, whatever that happened to keep an archive of the cypherpunks > email list. Maybe some program was liaising with a university for some > reason regarding computer-y internet-y technical crap. And that program > housed a bunch of email lists for scientific or advertising or > educational purposes. > > In other words, don't think spies and covert shit. Maybe there's some > really overt, goofy program from back then that collected cypherpunks > emails as part of some straightforward educational or scientific or some > other mundane thing...? > > Also, regarding to which agencies these open record requests shoudl go, > don't just limit imagination to the federal government. Many > agencies/offices/bureaus/etc. at the state, local, county, and other > levels of government will take open records requests as well. > > Doug > > > On 2019-11-22 21:35, jim bell wrote: >> To Ryan Carboni, >> It looks like you are familiar with the practice of writing and filing >> Freedom of Information Act requests. >> https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/profile/ryaz/ >> >> Given that these requests can take a long time, I think it would be >> appropriate to make such a filing for any Cyperpunks mailing list >> emails, especially but not limited to those from 1995-1996. Naturally, >> we will want the output on a computer readable format, such as writable >> CD, writable DVD, or some other downloadable file system. >> >> We will probably want to compare these emails from those that will be >> obtained by other sources. What do you think? Would you help this >> process? Can you write the FOIA request? Thank you. >> >> Jim Bell >> e
