--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 17:40:42 -0500 (EST) To: ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com From: softwar@us.net (CharlesSmith) Subject: IP: Commerce FOIA Fails - Department Orders New Search Sender: owner-ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: softwar@us.net (CharlesSmith) Softwar is pleased to announce the successful challenge and appeal of a failed U.S. Commerce Department Freedom of Information request. On Oct. 13, 1998 the Commerce Department returned materials responsive to a request on the Computer Systems Policy Project or CSPP. The material returned included a note from the Commerce Department stating that this was the "final" and "complete" response. However, the Commerce Department did not include several documents previously obtained from both Commerce and the National Security Council (NSC) on the CSPP. Thus, the Commerce Department response was neither "final" nor "complete. Commerce officials who reviewed the Softwar appeal have agreed the search was incomplete and did violate the Freedom of Information Act. Commerce officials have notified me that they are now ordering the entire agency re-do the search. In fact, all materials from 1994 and 1995 on the CSPP were missing from the Commerce response, including public domain reports written by the CSPP. The public domain reports were discovered in a previous unrelated FOIA search of Ron Brown's files. The 1994 and 1995 reports included the name and address of Podesta Associates as the official contact for CSPP. In 1995 Bill Reinsch wrote a memo to Ron Brown detailing a secret meeting with the CSPP, a group of computer CEOs, consisting of Apple, AT&T, Compaq, Cray, Silicon Graphics, Digital Equipment Corporation, Tandem, Sun and Unisys. You can see parts of that secret meeting memo at http://www.softwar.net/cspp.html In 1995 the CSPP lobby group was led by Ken Kay, an employee of Tony Podesta, the brother of White House advisor John Podesta. In 1995, John Podesta worked at the White House running encryption and super computer policy. During the same period of time, the CSPP and Clinton officials began holding a series of classified briefings on encryption and super computer export policy. Part of the classified materials given to CSPP members included secret designs for software and hardware products containing "back-doors" to allow unrestricted monitoring by the government. John Podesta is now Clinton's Chief of Staff. ================================================================== FOIA appeal as follows - SOFTWAR 7707 Whirlaway Drive Midlothian, VA 23112 October 16, 1998 ASSISTANT GENERAL COUNSEL FOR ADMINISTRATION ROOM 5898-C U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE 14TH AND CONSTITUTION AVE. N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. 20230 RE: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT APPEAL - CRRIF 98-166 Dear Sir/Madam: Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, and to the regulations of the Commerce Department, CDR (citation to departmental regulations, obtainable from committee print index), I hereby appeal the Commerce Department denial of my FOIA request dated February 10, 1998 for all information on "the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP)" (Please see example #1 - FOIA request of February 10, 1998.) 1. The Commerce Department denial stated in the reply dated, October 13, 1998, that it has completed all searches and returned the "FINAL response" for the FOIA request dated February 10, 1998 for all information on "the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP)". (Please see example #2 Commerce response dated Oct. 13, 1998). The Commerce Department statement that it has completed all searches and returned a "FINAL" result is incorrect because responsive documents from the Commerce Department were NOT RETURNED. 2. Several U.S. Commerce Department documents previously obtained through the Freedom of Information Act were NOT returned by the Commerce Department in response to the specific FOIA request dated February 10, 1998 for all information on "the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP)". 3. I have attached part of one such example, two pages from a U.S. Commerce Department memo for Secretary Ron Brown This document is clearly responsive to my FOIA request of Feb. 10, 1998 because the subject material is a meeting between the Secretary of the Commerce and CSPP members. (Please see example #3, Memo from William Reinsch to Ron Brown dated June 1, 1995 - CSPP MEETING). 4. I have obtained several responsive documents that are sourced from the U.S. Commerce Department and were NOT discovered nor returned by the Department. The document cited in item #3 above is only a single example. 5. The Commerce Department has performed an INCOMPLETE search and is in violation of the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552. The Commerce Department has not complied with the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, because it is unable or unwilling to perform complete FOIA requests. Please reply by November 10, 1998. If the appeal is denied, please specify the section of the Freedom of Information Act which is being relied on as a legal basis for the denial. Thank you. Charles R. Smith ================================================================ 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. Paul Revere - encryption 1775 Charles R. Smith SOFTWAR http://www.softwar.net softwar@softwar.net Pcyphered SIGNATURE: BCD2F14ABC8673D9A29401CC86277FA620FE6A979B822B3120EEFA251BD8CB76 2AA47721F2F9ADAC14A0E2D38AB43FADD718819DB7D9874A50724ACB0B0E7E7C 6D7A633ED076B31B ================================================================ SOFTWAR EMAIL NEWSLETTER 10/28/1998 *** to unsubscribe reply with "unsubscribe" as subject *** ================================================================ **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo@majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **************************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'