Freedom of information
Justice department 'uses aged computer system to frustrate Foia requests'
Lawsuit accuses DoJ of ‘failure by design’ through use of decades-old system
DoJ refuses to use new $425m software on freedom of information requests
A new lawsuit alleges that the US Department of Justice (DoJ) intentionally conducts inadequate searches of its records using a decades-old computer system when queried by citizens looking for records that should be available to the public.
Freedom of Information Act (Foia) researcher Ryan Shapiro alleges “failure by design” in the DoJ’s protocols for responding to public requests. The Foia law states that agencies must “make reasonable efforts to search for the records in electronic form or format”.
In an effort to demonstrate that the DoJ does not comply with this provision, Shapiro requested records of his own requests and ran up against the same roadblocks that stymied his progress in previous inquiries. A judge ruled in January that the FBI had acted in a manner “fundamentally at odds with the statute”.
Now, armed with that ruling, Shapiro hopes to change policy across the entire department. Shapiro filed his suit on the 50th anniversary of Foia’s passage this month.
Foia requests to the FBI are processed by searching the Automated Case Support system (ACS), a software program that celebrates its 21st birthday this year.
Not only are the records indexed by ACS allegedly inadequate, Shapiro told the Guardian, but the FBI refuses to search the full text of those records as a matter of policy. When few or no records are returned, Shapiro said, the FBI effectively responds “sorry, we tried” without making use of the much more sophisticated search tools at the disposal of internal requestors.
Judge rules FBI unlawfully refused to comply with information act requests
Read more
“The FBI’s assertion is akin to suggesting that a search of a limited and arbitrarily produced card catalogue at a vast library is as likely to locate book pages containing a specified search term as a full text search of database containing digitized versions of all the books in that library,” Shapiro said.
The DoJ has contended to Shapiro and others that only one of ACS’s three search functions, the Universal Name Index (Uni), is necessary to fulfill the law. The Uni search does not include the text of the files in the ACS, merely search terms entered – or not – by the FBI agent handling the case in question.
Shapiro told the Guardian that the reason the DoJ gave for refusing to use its $425m Sentinel software to process Foia requests after ACS had failed to recover records was that a Sentinel search “would be needlessly duplicative of the FBI’s default ACS UNI index-based searches and wasteful of Bureau resources”.
To Shapiro, this is both disingenuous and evidence of the well-documented resistance to this law at the DoJ. A PhD candidate at MIT, Shapiro is at work on a dissertation dealing with the conflict between perceived national security concerns and animal rights.
The Department of Justice has chafed under Foia requirements for even longer than it has used ACS. In 1981, the then FBI director, William H Webster, told the American Bar Association that the DoJ was “working with Congress to determine what corrective measures will be taken” regarding what it saw as a danger to the security of its investigations from Foia. The department never got its Foia exemption.
The FBI’s chief technology officer during the second George W Bush administration, Jack Israel, said he was unimpressed with the system in a Q&A cited in Shapiro’s complaint with the now-defunct site FierceGovernmentIT. “ACS – the Automated Case Support system – is based on old technology,” Israel said four years ago. “It’s based on an IBM mainframe with legacy database and programming technology, and I would say one of the main things that strikes you as a user of ACS is that you’re dealing with the old IBM green screens. You’re not dealing with a web-based environment, which everyone is used to from the internet.”
Not only is the interface archaic, but the way that you search data, the way you input data, all of those are archaic, wrote Shapiro in his complaint. Indeed, in 2012 a DoJ commission headed by Webster himself investigating the 2009 Fort Hood shooting called ACS “the FBI’s most outdated system”, noting that “[i]t is being phased out in favor of an impressive Web-based successor, Sentinel”.
More recently, the FBI’s own investigation into the September 11 attacks found that “[o]n September 11, 2001,
Link du jour
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... -1.2713462http://www.ammoland.com/2016/07/fbi-rev ... z4EVggX9Jjhttps://caseclosedbylewweinstein.wordpress.com/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/ene ... ge%2Fstoryhttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... -1.2713104http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/edit ... 381458.phpBonus Read
http://www.pressherald.com/2016/07/15/p ... ack-lives/July 15 2016
Eighteen arrested in Portland as group protesting police shootings blocks Commercial Street
Members of a group called the Portland Racial Justice Congress, calling for the city's police department to make changes, occupy a busy intersection in the heart of the Old Port for hours.
Shadiyo Hussain chants “hands up, don’t shoot!” with about 150 people as they march from Lincoln Park down Pearl Street to Commercial Street for a protest. Jill Brady/Staff Photographer
Portland police arrested 18 protesters late Friday who had blocked Commercial Street for most of the night.
They were among a group of demonstrators – decrying the recent police shootings of black men – who had marched from Lincoln Park to the heart of the Old Port on Friday evening, tying up traffic after they occupied a busy intersection on Commercial Street.
After the arrests for blocking a public way, all of the police officers who had been on the scene for hours pulled out by 10:50 p.m.
Police Chief Michael Sauschuck said at a news conference early Saturday that officers targeted “ringleaders” for arrest.
“There were people who, it is obviously from Day 1, they wanted to be arrested,” he said.
But immediately after the police left, a group of about 30 protesters chanting and carrying a banner about 20 feet wide returned to Commercial Street and then moved up Market Street. Supporters of theirs accompanied them along the sidewalks.
The group, about 50 or 60 strong, turned down Middle Street and gathered in front of the police station, where they shouted, “No justice, no peace!”
They were watched over by three officers on the steps of the police station. Those officers
Also see
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/d ... -1.2714030Crime U.S. World Politics
Drunk off-duty NYPD cop plows onto Brooklyn sidewalk, killing one
Saturday, July 16, 2016, 5:45 PM
Raw: Alleged drunk driver crashes, hits several pedestrians
A drunken off-duty cop plowed his SUV into a group of friends on a Brooklyn sidewalk early Saturday, killing one and seriously injuring three others, police said.
Witnesses said Officer Nicholas Batka, whose vehicle was speeding and swerving in the seconds before impact, flashed his badge and tried to flee the scene after the 3 a.m. crash.
One victim had a leg torn off in the gruesome wreck, and another was impaled on a railing in the deadly pile-up just four hours before rookie cop Batka was due on the job, police
Also see
http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-stando ... nduct.htmlJuly 15 2016
Federal judge: Possible misconduct by FBI in LaVoy Finicum ...
OregonLive.com-
The investigation into alleged misconduct by FBI Hostage Rescue Team officers at the scene of Robert "LaVoy" Finicum's shooting in Harney County isn't ...
1.
https://www.muckrock.comCoping with rejection: a guide to federal FOIA exemptions
by JPat Brown
July 15, 2016
At the federal level, nine FOIA exemptions stand between you and records you want. Here’s what they are, what they mean, and what you can do about them.
Read More
We’re building an open guide to every state’s public records law
by Michael Morisy
July 14, 2016
With agencies increasingly using an array of exemptions to deny access to information, we want to help requesters fight back. We’re launching a project to track every public records exemption in all 50 states - and provide the information needed to successfully overcome times when information is improperly denied.
2.
http://sputniknews.com/us/20160715/1043 ... tions.htmlFBI Failed to Communicate Saudi Financial Connections with 9/11 ...
Sputnik International
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) San Diego Field Office failed to communicate information in a Central Intelligence Agency ...
3.
http://gizmodo.com/the-fbi-says-its-mal ... 1783537208The FBI Says Its Malware Isn't Malware Because the FBI Is Good
Gizmodo-
The FBI is facing accusations that malware it deployed while running Operation Playpen, a sting that infiltrated and maintained a dark web
4.
Crime U.S. World Politics
Georgia man mistaken for suspect, hit with stun gun and arrested
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/g ... -1.2713147Friday, July 15, 2016, 2:23 PM
5.
Thursday, July 15 2016
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/ ... 379448.php McALLEN — A former Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer was found guilty Thursday for his role in a drug conspiracy, federal prosecutors
6.
http://dailycaller.com/2016/07/16/saudi ... ts-reveal/Saudi Prince And Friend Of Bushes Connected To Al-Qaida, 9/11 ...
Daily Caller-
The unclassified 28 pages of the 9/11 report reveal that the FBI and CIA had evidence connecting Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, nicknamed Bandar Bush, ...
7.
https://www.fbi.gov/resources/businessesFBI MORE
RESOURCES
Law Enforcement
Businesses
Victim Assistance
More
Businesses
Protecting business is our business. Our investigations make a difference to your bottom line and the overall economy—whether it’s keeping the competitive playing field level through our antitrust cases, protecting trade secrets and intellectual property, patrolling cyberspace, or preventing financially-crippling terrorist attacks. We work with business professionals across the country every day—not just to request support for our investigations, but to provide a range of services and to join together to protect vital infrastructure.
Learn about major partnerships with the private sector, how to do business with us, the threats we investigate, and more.
Key Information-Sharing Partnerships
Learn more about these four partnerships, what they offer to the private sector, and how to join by visiting the links below.
Domestic Security Alliance Council
The Domestic Security Alliance Council, or DSAC, is a security and intelligence-sharing initiative between the FBI, the Department…
Counterintelligence Strategic Partnerships
Our Counterintelligence Strategic Partnerships work to determine and safeguard those technologies which, if compromised…
InfraGard
InfraGard brings together representatives from the private and public sectors to help protect our nation’s critical infrastructure…
iGuardian
With cyber threats continuing to emerge at the forefront of the FBI’s criminal and national security challenges…
Learn About Key Threats to Businesses
These are among the key threats and security risks facing businesses today. The pages and sections below include some information on protections and mitigations. More details can be found by joining one or several of the information-sharing partnerships listed above.
Terrorism
Combating terrorism is the FBI’s top investigative priority. Working closely with a range of partners, we use…
Counterintelligence
Spies might seem like a throwback to earlier days of world wars and cold wars, but they are…
Cyber Crime
The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cyber attacks by criminals, overseas adversaries, and terrorists. The…
Intellectual Property Theft/Piracy
Preventing intellectual property theft is a priority of the FBI’s criminal investigative program. It specifically focuses on…
Business E-Mail Compromise
Business e-mail compromise (BEC) is a growing financial fraud that is more sophisticated than any similar scam the…
Health Care Fraud
The FBI is the primary investigative agency involved in the fight against health care fraud, with jurisdiction over…
Active Shooter Incidents
An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated…
Workplace Violence
This booklet is aimed at prevention, intervention, threat assessment and management, crisis management and critical incident response, and…
Financial Institution/Mortgage Fraud
The FBI is committed to aggressively pursuing those who endanger the stability of our banking system and the…
Doing Business with the FBI
The FBI’s Small Business Programs Office (SBPO) advocates for small, minority, service-disabled veteran, Historically Underutilized Business Zone, and women-owned small businesses. The SBPO promotes the use of small businesses throughout the Bureau, to include its 56 field offices. As the FBI is a Department of Justice (DOJ) agency, the SBPO receives policy direction and guidance from the director of DOJ’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization.
The Finance Division is responsible for the centralized procurement activities of the Bureau. The division is organized into six buying units and the Acquisition Strategy and Planning Unit (ASAPU). The SBPO is a part of the ASAPU, which is responsible for providing strategic planning support and guidance to internal FBI customers. The buying units are organized to purchase supplies and services to meet the requirements of specific customers. The SBPO interacts with each of the six buying units to promote the use of small businesses and provide assistance in locating appropriate small businesses—ensuring that the Bureau complies with congressionally mandated procurement goals, federal acquisition regulations, and Department of Justice regulations.
The SBPO is committed to ensuring that small business consideration is given priority in each procurement and encourages small businesses to pursue FBI procurements. The FBI’s procurement forecast is a part of the consolidated DOJ forecast, which can be found at
http://www.justice.gov/jmd/osdbu/. Those interested may also attend DOJ vendor outreach sessions.
Finance Division Personnel
Section Chief
Procurement Section
Finance Division
935 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20535
Small Business Representative
Small Business Competition Coordination Unit
Room 6863
935 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20535
smallbusiness@ic.fbi.govOutreach Events
The director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) hosts vendor outreach sessions each fiscal year. Each of the Department of Justice agencies is represented at the sessions, to include the FBI’s small business program staff. You can register to attend a session by calling the OSDBU staff at (202) 616-0521 or 1-800-345-3712. Appointments will be made on a first-come, first-served basis. Scheduling begins at noon EST/EDT on the first work day of each month. Complete information about the sessions may be found at:
http://www.justice.gov/osdbu/meet-small ... specialistThe sessions are held at:
OSDBU
Two Constitution Square
145 N Street NE, Room 1W.1001
Washington, D.C. 20530
9:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m.
Products and Services Purchased by the FBI
North American Industry Classification System/Description
541519: Other computer-related services
541512: Computer systems design services
541613: Marketing consulting services
541511: Custom computer programming services
453998: All other miscellaneous store retailers (except tobacco stores)
541611: Administrative management and general management consulting services
518210: Data processing, hosting, and related services
423430: Computer and computer peripheral equipment and software merchant wholesalers
334111: Electronic computer manufacturing
531210: Office of real estate agents and brokers
236220: Commercial and institutional building construction
334119: Other computer peripheral equipment
51720: Wireless telecommunications carriers (except satellite)
443120: Computer and software stores
541618: Engineering services
541690: Other management consulting services
561110: Office administrative services
334516: Analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing
811212: Computer and office machine repair and maintenance
334220: Radio and television broadcasting and wireless communications equipment manufacturing
337214: Office furniture (except wood manufacturing)
316999: All other leather goods manufacturing
511210: Software publishers
541199: All other legal services
561210: Facilities support services
611420: Computer training
