Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) & Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR)
| I use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Mandatory
Declassification Review (MDR) to declassify and obtain documents
from various entities of the US government in order to
understand how these entities perceived a given situation at a
specific time or over several years. I also make FOIA and MDR
requests at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland, USA
(NARA II) for documents that have been withheld. FOIA and MDR
outside the National Archives involves a slightly different process which I will
describe in detail below. FOIA & MDR as an adjunct to research at NARA: When searching through the boxes of records held at NARA II, especially those created after World War II, it is not uncommon to find pages stating the a document that would normally be in the particular folder you are examining has been "withheld" or "withdrawn". If this record is important to your research and you will still need the record in a year or more, a FOIA request is in order. When I am working for clients and I run into this kind of situation, I usually take a smartphone image of the "withdrawal" page and immediately email it to the client who can decide whether or not it should be requested using the MDR or FOIA. To make a FOIA request at NARA I fill out the FOIA request form, make a photocopy and then scan a copy for my digital files. The request is then given to an archivist to initiate processing. The next step is to set up both a hard copy filing system for all correspondence regarding the request - mirrored by a digital version on my home-office computer (which is backed up on a regular basis to an external hard drive). Any communications are scanned into PDF documents and both hardcopies and digital versions are placed in easily-retrievable files. If the responsive document(s) is released via mail to me, I scan it and send it as a PDF to the client. If it is released back into the archives and no copy is sent to me, I order the correct box in order to copy it. FOIA & MDR research outside of the NARA system: I have been doing research outside of the NARA system through the FOIA and the MDR for more than a decade now. I have been doing this work for my own research and also with those academics and authors who cite my contribution. The FOIA can be a very long process - usually taking at least six months to a year to obtain the first responsive documents from the government. In some cases, FOIA requests have gone unanswered for more than a decade. MDR is a faster process and there is a slightly better chance of success, although one needs to be specific in describing the records one is seeking (sometimes impossible) - and if the responsive record is withheld, there is no possibility of going to court for judicial review. Making the FOIA or MDR request itself is the easy part - and is usually just the beginning of the process. More difficult is the back and forth communication that takes place between the requester and the government agency during the process, which can take years. A simple change in the requestor's address can easily gum up the works. A stable hardcopy filing infrastructure accompanied by its soft digital mirror image is absolutely necessary for successful FOIA and MDR research. I can provide such stability. The down side is that like most requesters, I receive responsive records in less than ten percent of the FOIA and MDR requests made outside the NARA system. The more relevant the request is to a current situation, the more likely the records are to be withheld. Because of this, it is usually necessary to make several requests to several government entities to obtain the desired records. This requires a lot of time and organization. Even given the difficulties of the FOIA, all in all it is worth it. I have received some very informative responses that have been written about in the New York Times, the Washington Post and many other media and cited in dozens of academic publications. And I have cited many FOIA responses in many of my own articles - which often could not have been written without the FOIA. I work with individuals, such as academics and authors, and/or news media with an aim to widely and publicly disseminate the records so obtained. FOIA work cannot be considered "work for hire," as I must be part of the decision-making process in both strategic and tactical aspects. As such, I must be credited in any resulting publications. |