NASA FOIA 21-HQ-F-00500

CFi, however, was prepared to show NASA that documents did exist in its files. This resulted in a
successful administrative appeal on a particularly difficult FOIA issue. Most F01A practitioners
steer clear of pursuing "no records" responses. Since winning the administrative appeal, CFi has
waited patiently for four months for NASA to realize on its promise for an "expedited" response.
Responses like these are not atypical and certainly do not capture the full extent of the FOIA run-
a-round. Thus, even if you know document's title, author and location, bureaucratic roadblocks
still abound and FOIA officers spend an inordinate amount of time looking for ways to deny the
public access to documents that they concede exist. The Justice Department's "Overview"
manual on application of FOIA exemptions by federal agencies is over 980 pages long and two
Inches thick. A handy supplement is its 560 page case list.
Through its research, CFi knew that earlier attempts to access documents related to the "UFO
phenomenon" had been denied based "national security" classificatior:e; a somewhat odd
classification for material related to a subject which the government formally declared in 1969
did not pose a threat to national security. In an exercise of common sense, the Clinton
Administration issued an ExeOJtive Order in 1996, which was intended to open for public review
older classified records. The following year, a congressional commission Issued a report finding
that not much declassification had yet occurred, which was at least in part due to many years of
rubber stamping classifications on documents that posed little if any threat other than
embarrassment. The Bush Administration, of course, has tightened the classification program -
still, documents as old as those relating to Kecksburg remain presumptively open.
But even if you can escape the classification "tug of war", there is still the "needle in the
haystack". All over the country there are government warehouses filled with tons of boxes of
history, the volume of which Increases every year. What is legitimately classified today may be
lost in the black hole of the federal records management system. In short, access delayed may
very well be access denied. Indeed, one of the warehoused boxes that CFi identified as
containing "UFO" material is listed on the offICial warehouse index as "lost.'" It was lost after a
FOIA request by Kecksburg resident. This isn't fiction, its fact - and any speculation therefrom is
solely the responsibility of government secrecy, aided and abetted by record management
disarray and bureaucratic inertia .
In short, the government's FOIA process is a game of attrition. For those with patience and a
pocketbook - like CFi - playing the litigation card has become a necessary evil. Moreover, more
and more litigation is not aimed at ending the game, but is simply a strategic phase aimed at
putting pressure on a bureaucracy that views FOIA requesters as the "enemy" or a "nuisance".
In my opinion, this Is not what Congress intended In 1966- judicial review was supposed to be
the exception, not the rule. But then again, Congress also Intended public disclosure to be the
rule, not the exception. The public should not have to litigate over its history.
For forty years, we lived with the Cold War and all the fear it engendered. Indeed, one of the
most noted "UFO de-bunkers" has theorized that the Soviet Union had a vested interest in
maintaining the "UFO myth" in order to cover up military and "space race" mistakes of the
1960s. What our institutional incentives were remain hidden. The UFO phenomenon - whether
it coincided with that War or was a product of It - is as an important chapter in our government's
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