Letter from Margaret P. Grafeld, DOS to Amrit Singh, ACLU re: the ACLU's FOIA Request. The letter states that the document production requested is being complied with in some parts and denied or withheld in part.
United States Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520 www.state.gov
DEC 2 8 20N
Case No. 200303827 L7
Mr. Amrit Singh
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation
125 Broad Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10004 2400
Dear Mr. Singh:
I refer to our previous correspondence regarding the release
of certain Department of State material you had requested
under the Freedom of Information Act (Title 5 USC Section
552) in your letters of October 7, 2003 and May 25, 2004.
We have retrieved 295 additional documents from the Office
of the Legal Adviser that we have grouped as Segment L7.
After reviewing these documents, we have determined that 23
may be released, 21 may be released with excisions, and 166
may not be released. The released documents are enclosed.
A decision on three documents requires interagency or intraagency coordination. We will inform you when we receive the
results of that coordination. Eighty-two documents
originated with other government agencies and have been
referred to them for review and direct reply to you.
The material in the excised portions of 13 of the documents
released in part and in 97 of the documents withheld in full
is currently and properly classified under Executive Order
12958 in the interest of national defense or foreign
relations. As such, it is exempt from release under
subsection (b)(1) of the Freedom of Information Act.
Information in 81 of the documents withheld in full is
exempt from release under subsection (b)(5) of the Freedom
of Information Act because it is protected by the
deliberative process privilege, attorney client privilege,
attorney work product privilege, and/or another privilege
incorporated by subsection (b)(5).
The material in the excised portions of three of the
documents released in part is of such a nature that its
DOS-000681
- 2 -
release would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of
personal privacy. As such, it is exempt from release under
subsection (b)(6) of the Freedom of Information Act.
The material in the excised portions of seven of the
documents released in part and in six of the documents
withheld in full is information compiled for law enforcement
purposes which, if produced, could reasonably be expected to
interfere with enforcement proceedings. As such, it is
exempt from release under subsection (b)(7)(A) of the
Freedom of Information Act.
The material in the excised portions of two of the documents
released in part and in four of the documents withheld in
full is information compiled for law enforcement purposes
which, if produced, could reasonably be expected to
constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. As
such, it is exempt from release under subsection (b)(7)(C)
of the Freedom of Information Act.
In some cases, two or more exemptions apply to the same
document.
In the case of a document released in part, all non-exempt
material that is reasonably segregable from the exempt
material has been released.
Sinceiely,
\-pe=
Margaret P. qrafeld
Director
Office of Information Programs
and Services
Enclosures:
As stated.
DOS-000682