[cryptome] EPIC v DOJ Case: Search and release of documents kept by the state pertaining to innocent individuals

  • From: "Douglas Rankine" <douglasrankine2001@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <cryptome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 9 Mar 2015 12:23:00 -0000

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.

 

 

 


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