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 ,W
Case No. 200303827 L36
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 123 additional documents from the Office
of the Legal Adviser that appear responsive to your request,
and have grouped them as Segment L36. After reviewing these
documents, we have determined that nine may be released in
full, three may be released with excisions, and 103 must be
withheld in full. All released material is enclosed. A
decision on four documents requires interagency
coordination; we will inform you when we receive the results
of that coordination. Four documents originated with
another government agency and have been referred to that
agency for review and direct reply to you.
Material in the excised portions of the two documents
released in part and in 29 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 the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part and in 100 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).
Material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part and of one of the documents withheld in
DOS-001730
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full 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.
Material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part and in 20 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.
Material in the excised portions of one of the documents
released in part and 20 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 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.
Sincerely,
Maxie— et.
Gtr field
Director
Office of Information Programs
and Services
Enclosures:
As stated.
DOS-001731