On Dec. 20th, I made a formal request to the NSA "...for any records, including electronic intercepts, that include or are related to the following names, screen names, e-mail addresses and/or phone numbers...", those being all the ones I have used in the last 10 or so years. This was done at the same time I wrote a comment urging others to do so, as can be seen here
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Today I received a letter from one Louis F. Giles, Suite 6248, NSA, Fort Meade, MD 20755-6000. Mr. Giles is the Director of Policy for the Central Security Service of the National Security Agency.
Mr. Giles denied in full my request.
More on the flip...
From Mr. Giles letter:
As you know, the President of the United States "authorized the National Security Agency [(NSA)], consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations." The President also noted that, "[t]his is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security."
Rest assured that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of U.S. citizens. However, because of the highly classified nature of the program, we can neither confirm or deny the existence of records responsive to your request. The fact of the existence or the non-existence of responsive records is a currently and properly classified matter in accordance with Executive Order 12958, as amended. Thus your request is denied pursuant to the first exemption of the FOIA, which provides that the FOIA does not apply to matters that are specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive Order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign relations and are properly classified pursuant to such Executive Order.
Moreover, the third exemption of the FOIA provides for the withholding of information specifically protected from disclosure by statute. Thus, your request is also denied because the fact of the existence or non-existence of the information is exempted from disclosure pursuant to the third exemption. The specific statutes applicable in this case are Title 18 U.S. Code 798; Title 50 U.S. Code 403-1(i); and Section 6, Public Law 86-36 (50 U.S. Code 402 note).
Mr. Giles goes on to advise me of my right appeal within 60 calendar days, which I most assuredly will do.
First, tomorrow, I will fax this letter to my Senators and my Representative and ask them if this is their vision of a representative government. And ask them if Judge Alito would support their vision of said government if elevated to the Supreme Court.
So what we have here is a citizen, a voter, being denied any knowledge of records concerning himself due to Executive Order 12958 regarding national security. Along with three laws, those being: 18,798. Disclosure of classified information; 50,403-1. Central Intelligence Agency; and 50,402. National Security Council.
Note, this is not a request for cryptanalysis information, as in Gilmore vs. NSA, in which this memo states
First, Public Law 86-36, NSA's authorizing statute, provides that "nothing in this Act or any other law . . . shall be construed to require the disclosure of the organization or any function of [NSA, or] of any information with respect to the activities thereof . . ."
No, this is a simple FOIA request to see if my fucking name has been vacuumed up in BushCo's computerized wiretapping efforts of the last several years. After all I have sold my Exerscape software in several foreign countries, such as Britain, Brazil, Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain and Israel. I've been e-mailing and telephoning them multiple times. Plus I've been participating in discussions with a progressive attitude, all over the Internet.
And BushCo's answer is: we don't have to tell you.
WE DON'T HAVE TO FUCKING TELL YOU IF WE HAVE ANY RECORDS PERTAINING TO YOU IN OUR GIANT DATABASE. PERIOD. UNDERLINED.
So tell me, how in the fuck would the fact that they had a record of any of my conversations somehow disclose a capability of the NSA? Of course, I have no and have never had any contact with anyone remotely related to al Qaeda, so maybe its because if they do, they've been vacuuming.
But what's truly amazing is that sentence The fact of the existence or the non-existence of responsive records is a currently and properly classified matter in accordance with Executive Order 12958, as amended. Bush has decided, unilaterally, that any record the NSA has of me, an US citizen, is classified. So go fuck yourself.
I've about fucking had enough of this bullshit. It's going too far.
How about you?
UPDATE--after a rather short, restless night, I am determined to follow this further. So you will hear more, I'm sure. To help me do this, to cover paperwork costs, research time, and, maybe, even some legal advice, I've set up a Paypal account for donations. I'm just a poor, starving entrepreneur with this fitness product line I call Exerscape, that is stubbornly trying to hit it big, as my wife reminds me when she catches me on DKos ;)
Anyway, if you feel so inclined, you can make a donation to bewertlegalfund@gmail.com via Paypal.
Thanks for all the tips, comments and recommends. Now I've got some research to do, and I saw that some late night reader has already made a good start on it in down their in the comments.
Keep looking over your shoulder--BushCo may want to more about you, yet another evil Kossack!