Notice-of-Intent Addressed to the CIA General Counsel re FOIA Case No. F-2012-00126 (Item 2.138)
TO: General Counsel
U. S. Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505
FROM: Larry W. Bryant
3518 Martha Custis Drive
Alexandria, VA 22302
DATE: November 12, 2011
1. Reference: My enclosed FOIA appeal letter (Item 2.136) of November 11, 2011, by which I appeal CIA freedom-of-information coordinator Susan Viscuso's Nov. 7th adverse action in her processing of my FOIA request of October 12, 2011 (her case No. F-2012-00126; my blog Item 2.131).
2. Upon scrutinizing the language of paragraph 4(A)(ii)(II) of the FOIA-amending Open Government Act of 2007 ("fees shall be limited to reasonable standard charges for document duplication when . . . the request is made by . . . a representative of the news media"), I conclude that this provision expressly forbids any agency's assessing any records-search/review fees upon any representative of the news media (RNM)'s FOIA request. In short, Ms. Viscuso's application of partially obsolete CIA-FOIA regulatory standards violates the Open Government Act. This direct violation leaves me no recourse but to file suit in U. S. District Court to (1) compel her fully lawful compliance in her processing of my current and future FOIA cases and (2) to enjoin her from applying her unlawful decisionmaking to other RNM-originated requests in the future. If you prefer to avoid this prospective litigation, I ask that you direct, in writing, Ms. Viscuso to immediately withdraw her adverse action and to agree, in writing, to refrain from any such unlawfulness in any current/future FOIA-request processing. If, during the succeeding 20 working days from the date of your receipt of this letter, you refuse to take this remedial action (or to otherwise choose to subvert my interests in this case), this letter will serve as formal notice of my intent to seek adequate judicial relief.
3. By USPS certified mail, I'm sending to you a signed printout of this e-formatted letter.
LARRY W. BRYANT
Columnist for UFO Magazine
Copies furnished to:
Editor, UFO Magazine
Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U. S. House of Representatives
