Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Guess Who Is In The Freedom Of Information Act Business



Folks, I don't claim to be a journalist, though I give unsolicited advice to them on Twitter. I know I shouldn't. I'm supposed to be in my lane. However, I do recognize when they go about using the law to get official documents about things the government likes to keep secret. I respect this so much that I began doing the same a while back through MuckRock.com. MuckRock is a Freedom of Information Act request clearinghouse where journalists, bloggers, and fellow netizens use FOIA to gain access to documents. I do this mainly to educate myself on physical security issues. I've decided to begin sharing my requests and those of others I find worth following.

Here are a few of my pending requests:

Here are a few of the requests where I was successful in getting information:
You can sign up for an account at MuckRock and submit your own FOIA requests through them. The only caveat is whatever you find or get from the government, MuckRock will publish on their site. So exercise due caution with phone numbers, SSN information, etc. Also, as you will learn, if it's a really good secret, the government will fight you "tooth and nail". Luckily, MuckRock has a pretty good team that will work with you. Also, don't worry about staying on top of the government with requests, MuckRock has a nag feature wherein they bug the government almost bi-weekly with respect to your requests. These folks are great at what they do.

You can use MuckRock via the link below


Or you can do your own requests via the official US government FOIA requests. Just be aware, your state and local jurisdictions have their own sites as well. Try them for a more localized search. 


I will continue to post more documents and updates regarding what I find. Stay tuned.

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