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
3 The deliberative process privilege is intended to protect the decision-making process of government agencies and to encourage frank discussion of legal and policy issues. The scope of the privilege covers documents reflecting advisory opinions, recommendations, and deliberations comprising part of a process by which government decisions and policies are formulated. To qualify for the deliberative process privilege, a document must be both “pre- decisional” and “deliberative.” Documents are pre-decisional when they precede an agency decision and are prepared in order to assist an agency in arriving at its decision. Documents are deliberative when they comprise part of the process by which government decisions are made. The types of records/information NASA withheld under this exemption consists of draft documents, and recommendations and/or opinions expressed by NASA employees. NASA considered the foreseeable harm that would result from the release of this information and determined that its release would hinder the decision-making process, create a chilling effect on internal deliberations, lead to uninformed decision-making, and public confusion. 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, the identity of third parties, and any information that could reasonably be expected to identify those individuals. Referral Additionally, we referred 13 pages to the Civil Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ). That entity will process those pages under the FOIA and respond to you directly. Should you wish to contact DOJ’s Civil Division, their information is available at the following website: https://www.justice.gov/oip/find-foia-contact-doj/list. Fees Provisions of the FOIA allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. Because these records fall below the $50 minimum, however, there is no charge. Appeal You have the right to appeal my action regarding your request. Your appeal must be received within 90 days of the date of our final response. Please send your appeal to: Administrator NASA Headquarters Executive Secretariat ATTN: FOIA Appeals MS 9R17 300 E Street S.W.
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.