See url: http://cryptome.org/2015/03/epic-wl-040-042.pdf Quote<<< * See url: EPIC Partially Prevails in FOIA Case, Wikileaks Investigation Ongoing: A federal judge has granted in part <https://epic.org/foia/doj/wikileaks/EPIC-v-DOJ-Wikileaks-Opinion.pdf> EPIC's motion for summary judgment <https://epic.org/foia/EPIC%20v.%20DOJ-wikileaks-OPPcross%20FINAL.pdf> in a FOIA case <https://epic.org/foia/doj/wikileaks/> about the government's surveillance of Wikileaks supporters. Three divisions of the Justice Department - the FBI, the National Security Division, and the Criminal Division - failed to provide any documents in response to EPIC's FOIA request. <https://epic.org/foia/EPIC-DOJ-WikileaksFOIA.PDF> The FBI stated that there was no surveillance of supporters and that an investigation was ongoing. Judge Rothstein sided with the FBI and the Criminal Division, but held that the National Security Division had failed to justify its withholdings. (Mar. 5, 2015)>>>end of quote. Wikileaks leak revealed that tabs were being kept on Appelbaum etc by US law enforcement agencies. Appelbaum and other John Does weren't suspected as criminals In this legal contest between EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Centre) as the plaintiff and Department of Justice as defendant. EPIC was complaining that a file search on Wikileaks and its supporters under Freedom of Information Act wasn't carried out properly by the appropriate authorities i.e. F.B.I. The state said it did, but it didn't find much and what it did find was one file on Wikileaks which, on further investigation with the case officers was either subject to an ongoing criminal investigation, or withheld for national security reasons. What EPIC was trying to do was to get access to records held by the US state on people or their organisations, who or which have not committed any crimes or were being investigated for any crimes of a federal nature. To do such a thing is an illegal violation of individual rights to privacy under the US constitution. And, as we all know, the state does its best to protect individual privacy, at great cost to itself. It really does take such things as personal privacy and privacy of communicaitons seriously, and therefore wouldn't even dream of doing such a thing. My conclusion: If the state doesn't keep records on individuals who haven't committed any crime, then it isn't going to find them! It's a bit like trying to find WMDs in Iraq when they haven't got any...:-). Enjoy, ATB Dougie.