A journalist filed a Freedom of Information Act Request in 2015 requesting documents about CIA assassinations, and may finally get the documents soon.
FOIA Request
The FOIA Request, filed by J.M. Porup on May 1, 2015, asked the CIA for “any and all documents relating to CIA use of poison for covert assassinations.”
According to left-wing news outlet Vice, ” The CIA responded to the request on May 21, 2015 and made clear it hadn’t even bothered to search its records for an answer to the question, suggesting that because assassinating people is illegal, it simply wouldn’t have documents on it.”
In their response, the CIA never actually denied that the agency engaged in the act of using poison for assassinations, they simply explained that the activity is illegal. “Please refer to Executive Order 12333 which describes the conduct of intelligence activities, citation 2.11, which pertains to the prohibition on assassinations,” the brief response from the CIA said.
Executive Order 12333 reads: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.”
CIA Assassinations
The CIA’s past may be coming back to haunt them. As Vice reported:
“The CIA has a long history of both developing poisons and assassinating people. The details of both activities came to light during the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s. The most famous picture from the hearings is that of Rep. Frank Church (D-Idaho) holding up a specially designed poison dart gun the CIA had developed.
The list of operations the CIA attempted in its pursuit of poisoning Fidel Castro alone could fill a book. The Agency attempted to lace Castro’s shoes with thallium salts in an attempt to make his hair fall out, developed a special hallucinogen it planned to spray on him during a live broadcast, and created a pen that concealed a hypodermic needle full of poison it planned to use against Castro. All the plots failed and America learned about them, live on TV, throughout the 1970s.
As a result of the Church Committee hearings, Presidents Ford and Carter signed Executive Orders aimed at preventing U.S. involvement in political assassinations. That proscription has weakened since 9/11.”
Suing the CIA
It’s obvious that the CIA has no interest in looking for the records, as the agency claimed that it was not required to divulge information about poisoning, because it was following CIA policy regarding FOIA Requests. Lower courts agreed with the agency.
Porup is still pursuing the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. This case may ultimately end with serious consequences for the Freedom of Information Act, and may decide what documents the American people are actually able to see.
The journalist’s legal fees were crowd-funded by MuckRock, a government transparency nonprofit that helps journalists file FOIA requests. He is being represented by Kel McClanahan, a lawyer with the National Security Counselors. McClanahan has stated that, despite what the CIA tries to claim, the law is clear and the agency is required to search for the files no matter who is requesting them, even if the information contained in the files could reflect badly on the CIA.
“If an internal investigation happened, they have operational files for it. They did not represent that they did. That, by itself, is enough to send it back for adequacy of the search over operational files,” McClanahan said.
Porup Describes His Case
“At the heart of this case is a fundamental transparency issue: Can federal agencies claim they follow an internal FOIA policy when responding to pattern-or-practice litigation, but then refuse to provide that policy? In a previous ruling, after CIA claimed that it had changed its practice to render the case moot, the lower court ruled that CIA does not have to produce a copy of its current policy, essentially letting the CIA say ‘Just Trust Us’ despite a long history of failing to actually search for requested documents,” the journalist said.
“If successful, this precedent could make it clear that federal agencies must follow the best evidence rule in FOIA lawsuits, and if they claim that they have a certain policy—as the CIA is now claiming they do— they must back that up with proof beyond a self-serving declaration cherry-picking the parts that help their case,” Porup said on MuckRock.
“The CIA lie, cheat, steal, blackmail, torture, rape, murder, and commit genocide for Wall Street. They are a disgrace to our country, and belong on trial at The Hague for their crimes against humanity,” Porup told Motherboard, an online magazine and video channel created by Vice which is dedicated to technology, science and humans.
