December 26, 2005
House Judiciary Committee Democratic staff members report that
the White House and the Departments of State and Defense have for six
months refused to comply with a request filed under the Freedom of
Information Act by 52 Congress Members – a request seeking information
on the Bush Administration's reasons for going to war.
On June 30th of this year, Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John
Conyers Jr. (Dem., Mich.) and 51 other Congress Members submitted a FOIA request
to the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Department of
State seeking documents and materials concerning the Downing Street
Minutes and the lead up to the Iraq war.
On August 11th, Conyers wrote to the Office of Counsel to the President as follows:
"On June 30, 2005, I and 51 other Members of Congress requested
access to 'all agency records, including but not limited to handwritten
notes, formal correspondence, electronic mail messages, intelligence
reports and other memoranda,' as described in five enumerated
paragraphs. A copy of the request letter is enclosed.
"The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires your office to
respond to a FOIA request within twenty business days from the date of
receipt of such a request. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A)(i). The deadline
has now elapsed without any response from your office. Because the
leaked memoranda from Great Britain raise serious questions over when
important war-related decisions were made, time is of the essence.
"I and the other Members of Congress do not wish to resort to
litigation because, at this point, a cooperative approach is better
suited to resolving the situation. I am available to assist your office
in any way possible to facilitate the prompt release of the requested
documents. If you need clarification of the request or have any
questions, please contact Stacey Dansky of the House Judiciary staff at
202-225-6906."
The State Department phoned the Judiciary Committee Democratic staff
on September 2nd asking for a clarification letter, which the Judiciary
staff sent on September 19th. This letter
limited the original request in some significant ways, as requested by
the State Department, including limiting the time period from which
certain information was sought, limiting some of the documents
requested to those originating from the public affairs department, and
eliminating some requests entirely.
On September 27th, the State Department sent back a brief note stating that the request was being processed.
That was three months ago, and the State Department has since told
the Judiciary staff, in response to various phone inquiries, only that
the request is still being processed.
The White House, meanwhile, has never even acknowledged the FOIA request.
The Department of Defense phoned the Judiciary staff on July 15th
asking for a clarification letter, which was sent on July 28th. The July 28th letter clarified various points and limited the request in response to comments from the Department of Defense.
It then took until November 30th for the Department of Defense to
send another letter to the House Judiciary Democratic staff. This new
letter -- addressed from Will Kramer, Chief, Office of Freedom of
Information, Department of Defense, to the Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
-- said that the request would take a considerable time to process. In
fact, it said processing of the request would not even begin until
Conyers sent the DOD a statement of willingness to pay applicable fees,
which the Department estimated as $110,000, not including reproduction
charges.
Conyers has introduced bills to censure President Bush and Vice
President Cheney for their refusals to respond to requests for
information.
http://www.censurebush.org
