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couple of weeks ago or actually at this point it's probably closer to three or
four weeks ago
I mention that I had finally is filed some for your requests Freedom of
Information Act request with a bunch of different government agencies
asking for my file so this was something that we read about a lot of people doing
a lot of people are getting letters back saying we're not gonna give you any
information
and by the way any information we obtain secretly
is secret and therefore we don't even need to tell you that we have it so I
said you know what
I'm gonna send in some for your requests let's see what I get
they started rolling in and I thought we would go through them now Lewis I have
three envelopes here
one is from the FBI one is from the Department of Defense Defense
Intelligence Agency who I also asked for my file from
and another one is from the Department of Justice
you at the US Marshals Service which presumably would have information about
me related to you
possibly but flying or whatever the case may be
let's start with the Department of Justice letter I glance that he's
quickly but we'll take a look at them in more detail now
if I'm a Louis and ya be my guest so
let's see this is from the US Marshals Derick Western the US Marshal Service is
responding to your request for any records in our agencies files relating
to you
pursuant to your request we conducted a search of our records
%uh we conducted a search of our records this doesn't even make grammatical sense
we could the USMS conducted a search %uh
records our justice detainee information system I guess they mean
in our justice detainee information system and located no records index to
your name
there's another paragraph which says for your information
congress excluded three categories
have law enforcement and national security records from the requirements
up for a a
and it tells me where I can look for that this is a standard notification and
should not be taken as an indication that excluded record to do or do not
exist so nothing from the US Marshal Service
their notifying me by the way there are some records that
if they existed would be exempt from us telling you
but that doesn't mean that those exist that letter number one your reaction
Louis
no surprise there at all I i'm sure if that is the
exactly the point of getting rid of all those omitting all those records from
what they can search
next the Department of Defense Defense Intelligence
agency SM edit submitted a request to then let's see what they say
dated July 23rd dear mister pac-man
this response to your request under the Privacy Act in Freedom of Information
Act dated July 8th
there in you requested copies have all files correspondence or other records
concerning yourself
based on the information concern to contain your request the Defense
Intelligence Agency search its system of records for any response at documents
despite a thorough search no documents responsive to your request
were founded in at tells me that I can appeal this now something very
interesting about this
is that the envelope as interestingly enough
under the flap okay so somebody wrote this on the envelope
before sealing it so you actually have to lift up at the flap
there's like a file number in there and I can only assume Louis
that if I did not have a file prior to requesting these documents
I probably now do maybe
I don't know feat make sense for them to keep track of all the people making
please request but I guess considering everything else
why wouldn't they yeah absolutely and then lastly this is from the FBI this is
the one that some consider to be kind of like the big one
I will take that out of the envelope let's take a look here
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to mister David Pakman
okay this one is not even a letter it's just a list of stuff
and a check of the boxes that apply to what they wanna tell me and they've said
we have received your request were searching the indices to our central
record system
please check the status of your request online
um I did that this morning and it is still pending
as a right now so a I guess this was not really
as productive as I would have hoped I don't know if I should be happy that
there are no files on me
or concerned that I'm being told that there are no files on me and I
will never really no I'm not sure what what should be my point of view here
well you have to take you look at this from the point of view
the government would you want to be bothered by all these people sending
your request for information that you never wanted to tell them in the first
place i mean it seems like this is just something
it just seems fake is just not real the no one can achieve anything by asking
for these requests
licence Inc when there are different investigations in Utah and yet you do
for your requests
who involving local police departments you actually do get information but I
kinda agree with you Louis
that this entire system seems completely adversarial there are rules which say
that certain types of information just doesn't fall under four ya
anyway so I don't know if I should feel that this is anything more than a ruse
to make people think they can access information about themselves when really
anything the government wants can be shielded from actually having to tell
you about it
by these clauses that are mentioned here which say
by the way there's a bunch of information that we wouldn't be have to
tell you about anyway even if it existed
right it really does just seem like a a PR stunt alright I'll keep you posted
about anymore
documents that I receive in the mail there I think three or four more
agencies I contacted including the CIA and we'll see I when I get back from
them I would not hold my breath for too too much