Help End the CIA's Illegal Denial of Records-Search-Fee Waivers to Journalistic FOIA Requesters

We, the undersigned People, hereby (1) declare our collective and individual support for all those "representatives of the news media" (including journalists, independent writers, online "bloggers," and public-interest-group content providers) who have incurred the U. S. Central Intelligence Agency's illegal denial of their applications for records-search-fee waivers in the course of submitting various freedom-of-information requests to the Agency; (2) urge the U. S. Congress to swiftly pass remedial legislation for countering and preventing the Agency's abuse of regulatory authority in this matter; and (3) tender this petition as affirmation of the public's stakeholdership in any related current/future litigation occurring within the federal court system.

BACKGROUND: Since its inception 40 years ago, the U. S. Freedom of Information Act has remained a thorn in the side of such federal agencies as the Central Intelligence Agency, which recently has taken it upon itself to defy the Act's sharply defined provision that "representatives of the news media" are entitled to have their various FOIA requests receive a waiver of all processing fees (other than those for the cost of duplicating records).

On June 14, 2006, a principal, serial victim of the CIA defiance -- the George Washington University-based National Security Archive in Washington, D. C. -- filed suit in U. S. District Court for the District of Columbia to reverse and enjoin the Agency's unfair, illegal, and dangerous policy/practice (see: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20060614/index.htm ).

Another recent victim -- petitioner Larry W. Bryant, a columnist for the monthly newsstand periodical "UFO magazine" ( http://www.ufomag.com ) -- is retaining legal counsel to assure his FOIA rights as an independent writer, along with his freedom-of-the-press right and equal-protection-of-the-laws right under the U. S. Constitution. In CIA FOIA chief Scott Koch's July 19, 2006, fee-waiver-denial letter to Bryant, the Agency singles out the UFO press for disdain and disregard, using these words: "The July 1947 crash [near Roswell, N. M.] is not a current event, and the UFO press is not the general public."

WHEREAS, the CIA FOIA chief has a statutory obligation not to apply arbitrary and capricious rules for granting records-search-fee waivers to "representatives of the news media";

WHEREAS, such independent writers like Larry W. Bryant are being discriminated against by this illegal, hostile CIA scheme of non-compliance with established FOIA/constitutional ideals, principles, case law, and the stated intent of Congress; and

WHEREAS, in a FOIA-released, UFO-research-related memorandum dated Aug. 14, 1973, a CIA official stated the Agency's self-fulfilling prophecy that "[censored], in their telephone conversation, suggested that we had not heard the last from Mr. Bryant" --

We hereby intend that our signatures (1) affirm Mr. Bryant's FOIA-requester status as a "representative of the news media" and (2) demand immediate, permanent cessation of any and all CIA interference with his and with other similarly classed requesters' statutory and constitutional rights. Our demand fully and unequivocally endorses Mr. Bryant's and others' quest for prompt and wide-ranging remedial action -- whether that remedy be legislative, litigative, or both.