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
DEC 2 9 2004
Case No. 200303827 L20
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 98 additional documents from the Office of
the Legal Adviser that appear responsive to your request,
and have grouped them as Segment L20. After reviewing these
documents, we have determined that eight may be released in
full, four may be released with excisions and 25 must be
withheld in full. All released material is enclosed. A
decision on 19 documents requires interagency coordination;
we will inform you when we receive the results of that
coordination. Additionally, forty-two documents originated
with other government agencies and have been referred to
those agencies for review and direct reply to you.
Material in the excised portions of two of the documents
released in part and 11 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 one document released in part and 20 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).
DOS-001333
The material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part is of such a nature that its 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 search of the other files has been completed, and we
will let you know as the review of the various segments has
been accomplished.
Sincerely,
Margaret P. Grafeld
Director
Office of Information Programs
and Services
Enclosures:
As stated.
DOS-001334