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 9 2004
Case No. 200303827 L28
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 119 additional documents from the Office
of the Legal Adviser that appear responsive to your request,
and have grouped them as Segment L0028. After reviewing
these documents, we have determined that 21 may be released
in full, five may be released with excisions, and 64 must be
withheld in full. All released material is enclosed.
A decision on 15 documents requires interagency
coordination; we will inform you when we receive the results
of that coordination. Fourteen documents originated with
other government agencies and have been referred to those
agencies for review and direct reply to you.
The material in 22 of the documents denied 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 the excised portions of four of the documents
released in part and in 55 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).
DOS-001451
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Material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part 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.
Material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part 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 may 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.
Sincere
Margar t P. rafe
Director
Office of Information Programs
and Services
Enclosures:
As stated.
DOS-001452