Initial Request

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005363308
• Release Decision: IPPUB U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: June 23, 2015
• Document Release Date: September 17, 2010
• Case Number: F-2010-00781
• Publication Date: February 9, 2009

APPROVED FOR RELEASED
DATE: 12-May-2010
[phone]
[phone] fax
E-Mail: FOIA((1JamesMadisonProiect.ora
http:// vwwn-.TamesMadisonProiect.ora
Delores M. Nelson
Central Intelligence Agency
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Washington, DC 20505
This is a request on behalf of the James Madison Project ("JMP") under the Freedom of
Information Act, 5 U.S.C. ? 552, et seq., for copies of all Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA")
records, including cross-references, from the time period 1/1/88 - 12/31/93, pertaining to:
a) Testimony by CIA officials delivered verbally or submitted in writing to
Congressional Committees or Subcommittees with oversight over national
security activities (hereinafter "national security oversight committees"),
including but not limited to the House Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence ("HPSCI"), the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
("SSCI"), and the former CIA Oversight Subcommittees of the Senate and
House Armed Services and Appropriations Committees;
Transcripts of hearings and meetings of any national security oversight
committees, including but not limited to the HPSCI or SSCI; and
Correspondence and e-mails between DIA and i) any national security
oversight committee or ii) any Member of Congress, Senator, or
Congressional staffer acting in an official capacity as representative of any
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national security oversight committee. For purposes of this subparagraph
you may limit your searches to the Offices of the Director, Deputy Director,
Congressional Affairs, General Counsel, Inspector General, and their
predecessors.
When processing this request, please note that the D.C. Circuit has previously held that
agencies have a duty to construe the subject material of FOIA requests liberally to ensure
responsive records are not overlooked. See Nation Magazine, Washington Bureau v. U.S.
Customs Service, 71 F. 3d 885, 890 (D.C. Cir. 1995). Accordingly, you are hereby instructed that
the term "record" includes, but is not limited to: 1) all email communications to or from any
individual within your agency; 2) memoranda; 3) inter-agency communications; 4) sound
recordings; 5) tape recordings: 6) video or film recordings; 7) photographs; 8) notes; 9)
notebooks; 10) indices; 11) jottings; 12) message slips; 13) letters or correspondence; 14)
telexes; 15) telegrams; 16) facsimile transmissions; 17) statements; 18) policies; 19) manuals or
binders; 20) books; 21) handbooks; 22) business records; 23) personnel records; 24) ledgers; 25)
notices; 26) warnings; 27) affidavits; 28) declarations tinder penalty of perjury; 29) unworn
statements; 30) reports: 31) diaries: or 32) calendars, regardless of whether they are handwritten,
printed, typed, mechanically or electronically recorded or reproduced on any medium capable of
conveying an image, such as paper, CDs, DVDs, or diskettes. Furthermore, in line with the
,guidance issued by the DOJ on 9 September 2008 to all federal agencies with records subject to
FOIA, agency records that are currently in the possession of a U.S. Government contractor for
purposes of records management remain subject to FOIA. Please ensure that your search
complies with this clarification on the effect of Section 9 of the OPEN Government Act of 2007
of the definition of a "record" for purposes of FOIA. Please also consider this letter an
affirmative rejection of any limitation of your search to CIA-originated records.
If you deny all or part of this request, please cite the specific exemptions you believe
justify your refusal to release the information or permit the review and notify its of your appeal
procedures available under the law. In excising material, please "black out" rather than "White
out" or "cut out." In addition, we draw your attention to President Obama's 21 January 2009
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, directing federal agencies
to adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure and stating that government information should not
be kept confidential "merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure,
because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears."
We are hereby requesting a waiver of all fees in accordance with our status as a
representative of the news media. JMP is a non-profit organization tinder the laws of the District
of Columbia, has the ability to disseminate information on a wide scale, and intends to use
 information obtained through FOIA in original works. Stories concerning our activities have
received prominent mention in many publications including, but not limited to, the Washington
Post, Washington Times, St. Petersburg Tribune, San Diego Union Tribune, European Stars &
Stripes, Christian Science Monitor, US. News and World Report, Mother Jones, and Salon
Magazine. Our website, where much of the information received through our FOIA requests is or
will be posted for all to review, can be accessed at htty rhs>tmsa jamesmadisonproectora, and
information published there has previously been used by third parties in published works. In
addition, we also intend to use information obtained through FOIA in our own published opinion
editorials, journal articles, and the lik as
already published information received through FOIA in this manner. Therefore, according to the
ruling of National Security Archive v. Department ofDefense, 800 F2d 1381 (D.C. Cir. 1989),
codified by the 2008 FOIA amendments, defining a representative of the news media as "a
person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its
editorial skills to turn the raw materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an
audience," JMP should be considered a representative of the news media according to 5 U.S.C. ?
552(a)(4)(A)(ii)(II). Similarly, our request for a public interest fee waiver should be granted.
Most prior requests submitted by our organization have received fee waivers.
There can be no question that the information sought would contribute to the public's
understanding of government operations or activities and is in the public interest. The question of
proper Congressional oversight of the Intelligence Community in general and the CIA
specifically is an ongoing debate in the public realm. Indeed, for much of the history of the CIA
there has been little to no oversight from the Legislative Branch, which is not to say efforts were
never undertaken. See, e.g., Loch Johnson, A Season of Inquiry: The Senate Intelligence
Investigation (1985); .Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders: An Interim Report
of the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities, Together with Additional Supplemental, and Separate Dens (1976).
Recent years have seen the public disclosure of several controversial intelligence
programs, ranging from the Terrorist Surveillance program to "extraordinary rendition" of
foreign nationals to unidentified overseas prisons. Such programs have raised public concern
regarding whether the U.S. Intelligence Community ("USIC") is operating outside of the law.
Indeed, for the first time in six years, the Government Accountability Office ("GAO") was asked
last year by a congressional intelligence committee to perform an intelligence oversight-related
function. On I I March 2008, Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), the HPSCI chairman, and Rep. Anna
Eshoo (D-CA), a subcommittee chairwoman, called upon the GAO to review security clearance
processes in the intelligence community and to examine the Director of National Intelligence's
("DNI") pilot project on security clearance reform. See
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 http://www?cv.fas.org/itp/news12008/03/eshoo.html. The potential role of the GAO in intelligence
oversight was also addressed in a 29 February 2008 hearing of the Senate Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Senator Daniel Akaka. See
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Disclosure of responsive records pertaining to CIA's interaction with Congressional
national security oversight committees will demonstrate both the exact relationship between the
USIC and its legislative watchdogs and the extent to which the USIC has been complying with
Congressionally-mandated oversight of its activities, and thereby would contribute to the public's
understanding of government operations and activities.
The CIA is required by law to respond to this request within 20 working days. Failure to
timely comply may result in the filing of a civil action against your agency in the United States
District Court for the District of Columbia.
We request that any documents or records produced in response to this request be
provided in electronic (soft-copy) form wherever possible. Acceptable formats are pdf, .jpg, gif,
.tif. Please provide soft-copy records by email or on a CD if email is not feasible.
Your cooperation in this matter would be appreciated. If you wish to discuss in
please do not hesitate to contact my at
Mark S. Zaid
Executive Directo
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