Documents / FOIA release
This is a July 27, 2021 FOIA response from NASA's Office of Communications to John Greenewald, Jr. It covers records from Leslie Kean's lawsuit against NASA seeking Kecksburg documents. NASA released 207 pages in full, 7 in part and withheld 31, noting that most of the lawsuit case files had been destroyed under records retention rules. The enclosures include court declarations, a 2003 appeal decision ordering a broader search, a 2019 FOIA response, and Stan Gordon's account of the missing NASA fragology files.
“Headquarters”17 pages
2 3302-3303, Federal agency heads work with the Archivist of the United States, the head of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), to create records schedules. Records schedules provide agencies with mandatory instructions (“disposition instructions”) for all agencies’ staff regarding how to maintain the agencies’ operational records and what to do with them when the agencies no longer needs them for current business. The disposition instructions state whether groups, or series, of records are “permanent” or “temporary,” and dictates how long to retain them. Records with historical value, identified as “permanent,” are transferred to NARA. All other records are identified as “temporary” and are eventually destroyed in accordance with the records schedule. Agencies may not implement records schedules until NARA approves them. Once approved by NARA, retention periods in the schedules are mandatory and authorize the systematic removal of unneeded records from Federal offices. For your reference we are enclosing the NASA records retention policy approved by NARA for FOIA case files. As you will note, the FOIA case files can be destroyed 6 years after the initial determination is issued, or 3 years after final adjudication of a FOIA lawsuit. Since the FOIA lawsuit concluded in 2006, its associated case file and any other responses issued for it have all been destroyed with the exception of the one folder discussed above. The documents in that folder were reviewed under the FOIA to determine whether they may be disclosed to you. Based on that review, this office is providing the following: 72 page(s) are released in full (RIF);1 5 page(s) are released in part (RIP); page(s) are withheld in full (WIF); 13 page(s) are duplicate copies of material already processed and produced; 139 page(s) not provided were referred to another entity. NASA redacted from the enclosed documents certain information pursuant to the following FOIA exemption: Exemption 6, 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6) Exemption 6 allows withholding of “personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6)(emphasis added). NASA invokes exemption 6 to protect the identities of departed/retired employees and other third parties mentioned or referenced in these records and any information that could reasonably be expected to identify such individuals. Referral Additionally, we referred 139 pages to the U.S. Department of State. That government agency will process those pages under the FOIA and respond to you directly. Should you wish to contact that entity, their information is available at the following website: https://foia.state.gov/Contact/Default.aspx. 1 All page counts are approximate numbers.
FOIA release, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 223 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.