Larry W. Bryant's UFOview

Item 2.116: Follow-up FOIA Request to NASA (See Items 2.109 and 2.114)

TO:  Ms. Jessica L. Bowen
        FOIA Officer
        U. S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
        Washington, DC  20546

FROM:  Larry W. Bryant
              3518 Martha Custis Drive
              Alexandria, VA  22302

DATE;  July 30, 2011

1.  References:

     a.  My freedom-of-information request filed as your case No. 11-HQ-F-00873/11-JPL-F-01009 (dated May 14, 2011, and posted on my blog as Item 2.109);

     b.  Your e-message to me of July 29, 2011, in which you (1) deny my request for a records-search/review fee waiver under my requester status as a "representative of the news media" (RNM); and (2) refuse to complete the processing of my request.

2.  In order for me to issue a comprehensive appeal of your adverse action in this matter, I hereby submit this letter as a new FOIA request - viz., that you send to me, via USPS mail, a photocopy of the entire contents of your agency's FOIA case files identified in reference 1a, above.

3.  In my unchanged RNM status, I hereby ask that you waive all records-search/review fees incurred by this new request, whereas I state my willingness to pay your document-duplication cost beyond the first 100 pages.  So as to provide you further evidence of my RNM status, I'm sending to you, via USPS mail, a photocopy of the table of contents from Issue No. 155 (Vol. 24, No. 2 - January 2011) of the newsstand periodical UFO Magazine, along with a photocopy of my column within that issue ("Bryant's UFO View - Tell Us More, Ms. Grafeld!").  This internationally distributed UFOnewsmagazine contains news/information about current UFO research/literature (e.g., book reviews), historical updates, UFO-encounter reports/analyses, UFO-research conferences, and commentary about public access to official-government UFO-E.T.-related policies/practices/records.  Its coverage of UFO-E.T.-related current events, milestones, research opportunities, and UFOlogical personalities provides a dynamic avenue for public inquiry and participation in addressing a perennial public issue of deep sociopolitical consequence.  Accordingly, in light of the magazine's self-defining role in catering to the public interest in such a disciplined pursuit of UFOtruth, it would be redundant for me to submit to your four-point demand for explaining, say, my support to the public's interest/understanding in pursuing official disclosure of UFO-E.T. reality.  Besides, neither the FOIA's statutory language nor that of its amending Open Government Act of 2007 applies that demand to the RNM-requester subcategory (unless the requester is seeking a waiver of all document-duplication fees in addition to all records-search/review fees).

4.  By USPS mail, I'm sending to you a signed copy of this e-formatted letter.

LARRY W. BRYANT
Columnist for UFO Magazine

Copy furnished to:  Editor, UFO Magazine

P. S.:  By his demanding, on July 13, 2011, that I agree to pay a $116.25 records-search/review fee before the Jet Propulsion Laboratory deigns to process my original request of May 14th, JPL FOIA chief Dennis B. Mahon has rendered my fee-waiver request not moot but ripe for judicial review.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

        

Item 2.115: U. S. National Archives and Records Administration Showcases UFO History

[LWB Note:  UFO researcher Paul Nahay of Silver Spring, Md., recently has posted the following essay to his blog at http://pnahay.home.sprynet.com/ufo/20110717_NationalArchives.htm .  Does the NARA action signal a softening of the official embargo on UFO-E.T. truth?  Will this outreach help put pressure on, say, the U. S. Navy's orchestration of the U. S. military role in the worldwide cover-up of the UFO-E.T. experience?  Stay tuned.]

On Sunday, July 17, 2011, I visited the United States National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.

In their public exhibitions, The National Archives Experience, I was delighted to find, in The Public Vaults section, an exhibit concerning the Archives' role in the UFO issue. This was on a touch-screen electronic display. There were a number of such displays, each with a couple of topics on them. The one devoted to UFOs also had a separate display concerning the Kent State shootings of 1970.

The UFO exhibit contained five documents that the user could use the touch screen to move around, make larger and smaller, and turn pages through:

  • Two pages from the 
    Status Report, Project Blue Book, Report No. 8. Formerly Project Grudge. Project No. 10073. 31 December 1952. Air Technical Intelligence Center. Wright-Patternson Air Force Base, Ohio.
     Here's the full document as a PDF (4.58 MB). The two pages shown to the user were:
    1. The very first page, the report cover page, containing the italicized text quoted above, and
    2. A page about mid-way through that report showing a graph labeled Frequency of Unidentified Flying Object Reports, June through September, 1952.
  • Two pages from the EC comic's "Flying Saucer Report Issue", of a comic titled "Saucers Over Washington, D.C.", with story by Al Feldstein and art by Reed Crandall, concerning the 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident. The first of the two pages of the comic can be seen here. The final frame of the comic was very critical of the U.S. Government's "temperature inversion explanation," and detailed how it could not explain the sightings. (More information about this, and other UFO comics, is available fromthecomicsdetective.blogspot.com.)
  • A typed document containing this text:
    7. A telephone call was also received from a Gen. Landry's secretary. She stated that the President had requested Gen. Landry to find out the details of the sighting that had occurred in Washington on Saturday night. She was advised that ATIC had the report and was working on it and that an evaluation would be forthcoming.
    Here is information about General Robert B. Landry, the Air Force Aide to President Truman, whom the document quoted above refers to.
  • A video of a Paramount News newsreel from 1952, about:
    1. A New York City resident who had a UFO sighting;
    2. The 1952 Washington D.C. UFO incident;
    3. The July 29, 1952 press conference by General John A. Samford (who was later appointed Director of the National Security Agency):

As if that weren't enough of UFOs in the U.S. National Archives, the Archives Shop (their gift shop) had on the shelf four copies of Need to Know: UFOs, the Military, and Intelligence, 2007, by Timothy Good [a long-time British researcher].

Item 2.114: NASA Chooses to Play Hardball on FOIA Processing Fees (See Item 2.109)

LWB Note:  With his July 13, 2011, response to my FOIA request of May 14, 2011, is NASA-J.P.L.'s FOIA chief trying to have his agency compete for the Y2k11 Rosemary Award for poor performance in complying with ALL provisions of the U. S. Freedom of Information Act?  For the most apt answer,  you may have to read between the lines of his e-message to me, as reprinted below my following notice to him:

[Note to NASA's Dennis B. Mahon:  your e-message to me of July 13, 2011, erroneously (and illegally) levies upon me a records-search/review fee of $116.25 preparatory to your agency's fulfilling my freedom-of-information request of May 14, 2011 (your file No. 11-JPL-F-01009).  My FOIA request expressly identifies my requester status as a "representative of the news media" (specifically as a columnist for the newsstand periodical UFO Magazine).  Accordingly to the Open Government Act of 2007, that status entitles my case to full waiver of your agency's records-search/review fees; my stated willingness to pay only for your document-reproduction costs, beginning with the threshold amount of $15, doesn't authorize you to apply that amount toward recouping any records-search/review fees.  If you insist on adhering to your fee-waiver-denial decision in this matter, this note serves as formal notice to you of my readiness to challenge that decision in U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia; the relief to be sought thereby will include court-ordered reimbursement of my attorney's fees by your agency.  Please also note that my web log at http://ufoview.posterous.com contains ample examples of my publication credits as an independent writer on national-security affairs and as a columnist for UFO Magazine -- Larry W. Bryant (July 14, 2011)]

== TEXT OF MR. MAHON's E-MESSAGE TO LWB (13 Jul 11) ==

On Wed, Jul 13, 2011 at 4:12 PM, JPL-NMO Freedom of Information Act Public Liaison Office <JPL-FOIA@nasa.gov> wrote:
LP040/NMO               July 13, 2011
 
UFO Magazine
Attn:  Mr. Larry Bryant
3518 Martha Custis Dr.
Alexandria, VA 22302-2001
 
     Re: FOIA Request 11-JPL-F-01009
 
Dear Mr. Bryant:
 
Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request referred by NASA Headquarters FOIA Office and received in our office on July 1, 2011.  You request was assigned Case File Number 11-JPL-F-01009 and placed in the complex queue for processing purposes.  Your request was for: 
 
“…(1) Any and all graphic representations of the Martian surface structures described by McMoneagle base on his RV perception of the geographical coordinates listed by the involved NASA personnel;
 
(2) Any and all correspondence, memoranda for record, memoranda of telephone conversations, tasking documents, minutes of minutes, action-officer notes, temporary-duty reports, electronic-tracking data, photographic-interpretation/analysis reports, and case-study reports deriving from an NASA employee’s participation in the RV session in question.
 
(3) Any and all contracts (past and current) between NASA and the Monroe Institute as regards any RV experiments, applications, protocols, projects, studies, consultations, and plans;
 
(4) Any and all other NASA-documented activity (past and current) pertaining to RV plans, operations, processes, principals (e.g., participants, observers, recorders), and funding.”
 
Your request has been assigned a FOIA tracking number, as listed above, and is being processed in chronological order based upon the date it was received.  All requests are maintained within a multi-track processing system, based upon the date of receipt, the complexity of work, and the processing time involved.  During this process, we will coordinate a search within our internal directorates and offices for responsive records pertaining directly to your request.  Upon receipt of those responsive records, we will conduct our initial release determination.  Although at this time I anticipate your request to be answered within the statutory time limits, it should be noted that your request may take longer to complete and therefore an extension of time may be necessary. 
 
Per NASA Regulations [14 CFR Sec 1206.700], I estimate the fee to process your request will be approximately $116.25 ($105.00 for 3.5 hours of professional search and review at $30.00 per hour, plus $11.25 for 1/4 hour of legal review time at $45.00 per hour).  Since your original request only mentioned your willingness to pay fees in the amount of $15.00, you must agree to pay fees in the amount of $116.25 for us to proceed with processing your request.  However, if you wish, you may narrow your request which may result in a reduction of fees assessed, or you may agree to a lesser amount than what I have estimated and we will proceed with your request, providing records to you in the order you specify until the fee amount you agree to is reached.  
   
At this time, I cannot tell you exactly what records may be released to you; however, it is likely that some of the records may be withheld or redacted according to one or more FOIA Exemptions while other records may be considered Contractor Records in the control of our Contractor, California Institute of Technology, and beyond the reach of FOIA.  Also, the fee amount may change.  I won’t know the exact amount until your request is completed. 
 
Once you receive my initial determination and any released records, you will be billed for the balance of the processing cost of your request.  If you fail to pay the assessed fee, interest will be charged on the amount billed starting with the 31st day following the day on which the billing was sent.  Interest will be at the rate prescribed in Sec. 3717 of Title 31 USC.  You may remit your payment to the following address:
 
NSSC-FMD Accounts Receivable-JPL
Bldg 1111, C Road
Stennis Space Center, MS 39529-0001
 
Please respond to me by July 18, 2011 stating your willingness to pay fees so we may proceed with your request.  You may respond to me, by e-mail at jpl-foia@nasa.gov, by fax at 818-393-3160, or by mail at National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Office of Program and Institutional Integration, RC000/NMO, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 180-200K, Pasadena, CA 91109-8001.  Thank you.
 
Your request will be held in abeyance until July 18, 2011 to receive your fee agreement or after that date we will administratively close out your file.  Please contact me as soon as possible if you need additional time.
 
Questions regarding this action should be in writing to this center at the address shown on the letterhead.  You may also e-mail correspondence to jpl-foia@nasa.gov or reach me by telephone at 818-393-6779 and fax at 818-393-3160.
 
You have appeal rights concerning these actions.
 
You may appeal to the NASA Administrator.  Your appeal must: (1) be addressed to the Administrator (Attn: FOIA Appeals), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Mail Stop: FOIA, Room 9R17, 300 E Street, SW, Washington, DC 20546-0005, (2) be identified clearly on the envelope and in the letter as an “Appeal under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA); (3) include a copy of the request for the agency record, and a copy of the adverse initial determination; (4) state, to the extent possible, the reasons why you believe the initial determination should be reversed; and (5) be sent to the Administrator with thirty (30) calendar days of the date of the receipt of this correspondence.
 
I trust this will be of assistance to you.  Thank you.
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Dennis B. Mahon 
Freedom of Information Act 
  Public Liaison Officer,
   Records Manager,
    Center Privacy Manager and
      Audit Liaison Representative 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory 
Suite LP040 
NASA Management Office 
4800 Oak Grove Drive, MS 180-200K 
Pasadena, CA 91109-8001 
http://nmo.nasa.gov/cfm_nasa/foia.cfm 
Phone:  (818) 393-6779 
Fax:  (818) 393-3160