Ethics

The FBI's Terrible FOIA Record

By Ed Brayton

Getting information through FOIA requests can often be difficult. The government will do all it can to stall the release of anything it finds embarrassing. But this problem appears to be far worse at the FBI than other agencies:

The FBI tells two out of every three Freedom of Information Act requesters that it can't find the records they asked for -- a failure rate five times higher than other major federal agencies, a private study has found.

The FBI's performance results from an outdated and deliberately limited search process, according to the National Security Archive, a private group that publishes declassified government documents and files many FOIA requests.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 19, 2009 (boomark / email).