FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT AND PRIVACY ACT APPEAL

                                   

   Robert Clarkson  
515 Concord Ave 
Anderson,SC 29621
(864) 225-3061

     

David M. Hardy, Section Chief, Record 
Information Dissemination Section, FBI 
170 Marcel Drive
Winchester,  VA 226002-4843 

Dear Mr. Hardy:

I sent the FBI Office in Greensboro, NC my Privacy Act for Documents dated May 28, 2007. On July 23, 2007 you responded on their behalf by sending me your form letter asking me for certain information.

My Privacy Act request was all you needed. It was filled out correctly, in good order and has been used in thousands of cases without a problem. This request form is acceptable to the courts and all administrative agencies. In fact, most of the federal agencies now use a variation of this form and provide it to many people. My form is the standard of most federal agencies and has all the information you need. Incidentally, this form was first drawn up in 1977 by me. Since that time this form has been adopted by other organizations and many agencies.

Your response to my legitimate request constitutes harassment, stonewalling, and a cheap attempt to thwart or dissuade me from exercising my statutory right under the Privacy Act. You attempted to frighten me from excising my legal rights or burden me.

You are not required to obtain the information you demanded. It is not needed for any useful purpose for you to honor my request. My request form was clearly adequate. You are not entitled to this information under the law.

However, I will not allow you to delay me from receiving documents which I requested and force me into endless appeals. Therefore I will furnish this information to you: My date of birth is June 4, 1947 and my place of birth is Camden, SC.

Attached is your form letter harassing me with the request for unneeded information, along with a copy of my Privacy Act request dated May 28, 2007.

Further, this is also an FOIA-PA appeal:

1. This is an appeal made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, and the Privacy Act 5 USC 552a, for disclosure of certain documents contained in the systems of your agency.

2. A copy of my PA Request of May 28, and your response dated July 3, 2007 is attached to this letter. This is the subject of this appeal.

3. The statements that are checked below describe the facts of your agency's refusal to disclose the requested information and the determination which I hereby appeal.

A.  X The agency responded with a nonsensical pretext for its failure to comply with my request and listed several ridiculous excuses which are clearly harassments or "stonewalling."

B. ____ I have not received a response of any sort from your agency as of the date of this appeal, whereas the statute requires that the requested documents be disclosed in ten days under FOIA or thirty days under PA.

C. _X_ A copy of the agency's response that I have received is attached to this letter, and the response contains an unjustified refusal to disclose some or all of the requested documents.

D. _X_ The denial was improper and the claimed exemptions were improper, illegal, unreasonable, and unfair.

E. _X_ I requested that an indexing, itemization, and detailed justification be provided about any documents withheld from disclosure, but none was supplied.

F.  X_ I requested that an accounting of other disclosures of the requested documents be made, and none was provided.

G.  X_ I requested in my letter that certain documents or parts thereof be expunged from my records pursuant to the Privacy Act, §e, but the agency refused to comply.

H.  X_ I was charged an excessive amount on printed material, i.e. published documents which did not need to be photocopied and should have been charged only the smaller, printed-material cost. Also, one charge was for copies of envelopes, blank pages, etc.

I. _X_ Many of the actual documents and types of documents have been disclosed to others but denied to me!

J._X_ I requested that the cost of searching, printing and copying the requested documents be waived, which was denied. I herein appeal for excessive and unreasonable cost that has been charged for the documents disclosed and I request the charges be reduced or eliminated. The reason's) for my request for the waiver of fees included: (1) my request was in a public interest; (2) I am a person of limited funds; or (3) I am a person entitled to the federal benefits.

K. _X_ Other reasons: The FBI used a fake exemption for not producing the documents that I requested. The law enforcement expectation can only be used for lawful, legal law enforcement investigations/purposes. The courts have already ruled that the COINTELPRO type activities are illegal. The FBI has no authority to harass and dismantle political organizations.

The FBI Dismantlement program against the Patriot Network is illegal and unauthorized.  Therefore, the law enforcement from the FOIA does not apply and was wrongfully asserted.

4. The disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest, and your institution's refusal to comply with my request is a violation of law. A prompt hearing and resolution of this Appeal is therefore requested for the public's interest and my own.

Yours,                                                 Date:    July 24, 2007

Robert Clarkson