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
JAN 1 2 am
Case No. 200303827
Segment L0041
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 24 additional documents from the Office of
the Legal Adviser and other sources that appear responsive
to your request, and have grouped them as Segment L0041.
After reviewing these documents, we have determined that ten
may be released with excisions and nine must be withheld in
full. All released material is enclosed. A decision on two
documents requires interagency coordination; we will inform
you when we receive the results of that coordination. Three
documents originated with other government agencies and have
been referred to those agencies for review and direct reply
to you.
Material in the excised porticns of nine of the documents
released in part 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 five of the documents
released in part and in the nine 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 is of such a nature that its release would
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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 three 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.
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.
This concludes our review of documents retrieved from the
records of the Department of State in response to your
request. With respect to documents originating in the
Department of State, but referred to other agencies for
their opinion, further information will be provided when
available.
Sincerely
T./Margaret P. Grafeld
Director
Office of Information Programs
and Services
Enclosures:
As stated.
DOS 002904