xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTER - xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0001469011
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: June 22, 2015
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2008
• Case Number: F-2006-00548
• Publication Date: May 8, 2002

8 May 2002
This acknowledges receipt, on 29 April 2002, of your 29 and 30
November 2001 letters requesting records under the provisions of the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA). For identification purposes we have assigned your
request the number referenced above. Please refer to this number in future
correspondence.
As you may know, the discovery of anthrax in a letter mailed to the
United States Senate on 15 October 2001 led to a series of escalating safety
concerns about opening, handling, and even being in the proximity of mail,
especially, in government offices in Washington, D.C. These concerns, in turn,
led to disruptions in, and then total curtailments of, mail delivery service,
including Freedom of Information Act-related correspondence, at many
federal agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency.
Under such extraordinary circumstances, the administration of the
Freedom of Information Act has inevitably been delayed at all affected federal
agencies. As a matter of both common sense and legal precedent, when mail
delivery is delayed, so is the commencement of the process of FOIA
administration, regardless of the time at which a FOIA request is placed into
the mail by the requester or postmarked thereafter. Simply put, the FOIA
process cannot begin until the personnel of an agency FOIA office are able to
open any belatedly delivered item of mail.
APPROVED FOR
RELEASE^DATE:
08-Oct-2008
 As to your letters, I must advise you that the CIA is unable to process
this, or any, FOIA request from you because our records indicate you owe past-
due fees to the U.S. Government. As set forth in our regulations (32 CFR ?
1900.11), "requests ... received from members of the public who owe
outstanding fees for information services at [CIA] or other federal agencies will
not be accepted...." It will be necessary for you to substantiate that you have
paid any and all such debts before this agency will act on any request that you
may submit. Accordingly, your request has been administratively cancelled.
Sincerely,
Kathryn I. Dyer
Information and Privacy Coordinator