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ICE Tells Reporter Its Secretive Drone Program Isn't Newsworthy
v3rgEz writes Wondering how Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses drones along the border? ICE says you shouldn't be, declaring the topic "isn't news" anymore. The agency rejected a FOIA request fee waiver regarding Operation Safeguard because the program, started in secret 12 years ago, is no longer new. A March 3 letter signed by an ICE lawyer defined "news" as "information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public." Hard to see how the government's drone program, even if it is over a decade old, doesn't hold current interest, but maybe a useful example of what happens when you let agencies dictate what is — and isn't — news.
Just keep moving folks! Move along!
That the guy said it wasn't newsworthy immediately tells everyone it is newsworthy, any good agent would know this. So what if he's doing a triple-bluff...
I can understand concerns about agencies using artificially high fees to stymie FOIA requests, but it's unreasonable to claim that the government should provide documents for free.
I have utterly no interest in this.
Of course it isn't newsworthy. Give it a decade. Once the entirety of the story has long since blown over, then they'll issue their official response.
A few months ago, the Treasury Department sent us 237 pages in its latest response to our requests regarding Iran trade sanctions. Nearly all 237 pages were completely blacked out, on the basis that they contained businesses' trade secrets. When was our request? Nine years ago.
That's how the government operates now. Just when you've completely forgotten about your FOIA request, they'll finally respond with hundreds of pages of fully redacted content, because they can't endanger old corporate trade secrets. What an excuse. They don't even bother playing the National Security card anymore, they straight up admit that business trumps all.
Sorry, can't give you any insight into how the government operates, it might jeopardize corporate profits!
Thanks to the War on Drugs, it's easier to buy meth than it is to buy cold medicine!
Our fee is $5 per page. We will not break down report bundles. How would you like to pay for this 300,000 page report bundle?
Is it still running?
Has the program been covered by the media until the public is utterly sick of it?
Well then, it's current news.
Today the White House shut down FOIA requests to the Office of Administration. Who might the Office of Administration be, you ask? Among other things they happen to archive emails.
Linky
Oh look, a useful idiot, still clutching to The Most Transparent Administration Evar
"The irony of this being Sunshine Week is not lost on me," said Anne Weismann of the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. "It is completely out of step with the president's supposed commitment to transparency," she said. "That is a critical office, especially if you want to know, for example, how the White House is dealing with e-mail."
Here is to electing Hillary — let's just go full retard and do ten more years of the Clintons. It'll be fun!
Defund the entire DHS, put the Border Patrol on a Basic Income funded at zero cost by the Fed, and challenge them to become decent human beings.
When the year of the drones arrives, we will know. For now, there is no need to try to post stupid stories over and over like there is new news about fucking drones. There isn't, give it a rest
Our fee is $5 per page. We will not break down report bundles. How would you like to pay for this 300,000 page report bundle?
Do you take goats?
Reporter: Let me see your story.
ICE Guy: [with a small wave of his hand] You don't need to see his story.
Stormtrooper: We don't need to see his story.
ICE Guy: These aren't the drones you're looking for.
Stormtrooper: These aren't the drones we're looking for.
ICE Guy: He can go about his business.
Stormtrooper: You can go about your business.
ICE Guy: Move along.
Stormtrooper: Move along... move along.
"decent human beings" then perhaps you shouldn;t have named the department DHS... (Depraved Human Shits)
After hearing the story about how the DHS brass went out of their way to protect a DHS officer that was raping suspects that is a pretty apt description.
Guy files a FOIA request and asks for a fee waiver.
ICE responds and says sorry, that's about old new. No fee waiver.
Of course it's not current news. It's about a trial that started on the 29th of October 2003 and ended on the 12th of November 2003. A 15 day trial, 11 years ago.
They didn't deny the request, only denied the fee waiver.
The fees are: 10c per page, first 100 pages free.
First two hours free, then per 15 minutes it's between $7 and $10.25
Guy kicks up a fuss on his blog.
This guy has filed and had responded to over 300 FOIA requests, with the tax payer footing the bill.
Every four years, we elect someone to blow the lid on one government agency or official. Then, this person has unlimited subpoena power with respect to their target.
That would be fun.
Too late, it's news now!
Even if they were going to make the claim that drones aren't a big deal and all the hullabaloo in the news over the new rules aren't news, then it was still moderately newsworthy as solely a border issue.
Not you, but TFA seems to wish to claim that nothing new can come from a program which has some age. When information is leaked, the information is "New" and might also be "News". No, I'm not surprised that a paid government officer would try to spin things. I only worry that a majority will believe them. Majority as in who Rush Limbaugh refers to as "low information voters".
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Then you all should have no issues declassifying anything older than say a decade ? I mean, it's OLD news right ?
Please enlighten me: the law really requires FOIA requests to target stuff that are new?
Dafuq? Link?
When the government tells you what's news, you're in a police state.
If the GOP again controls both the White House and both houses, the first thing they will do is outright eliminate the Freedom of Information Act or make it so toothless as to be irrelevant. After all, there's an endless, profitable war on, you know.
I wasn't aware that the Freedom of Information Act had a "It's not news" exemption.
Just respond using the lawyers own definition, "with the amount of personal drone use getting media attention the manner in which drones can be used is in fact news, based on current events and relevant.
Since when does a FOIA request have to be about something newsworthy? By that metric any FOIA request should be denied due to it not being "new".
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
Your point is taken, but that's not actually the case.
Fees are $0.10/page, search is $16 to $28/hour depending on the type. You are notified in advance if the fees will be over $25.[1]
Also, the request has to be "not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester" [1], which may or may not be the case here.
[1] http://www.dhs.gov/foia-fee-structure-and-waivers
Why should news organizations not have to pay the fee anyway?
(BTW, the FOIA is available for _everyone_, not just news agencies..)
"They" are just rapidly closing all the loopholes until they can declare absolutely anything they do, or don't do, to be legal according to some obscure reading that no one will ever figure out before it's moot.