Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi
| Tracking # |
CBP-FO-2024-072437 |
| Submitted | March 8, 2024 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Matthew Petti
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
Records of travel (including any border crossings, records of referral to secondary screening, etc.) as well as any and Customs declarations for Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi (31 January 1935 – 1 January 2021). His name, which may also be transliterated Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi Giwachi, is spelled in Persian as follows:
محمد تقی مصباح یزدی
Mesbah Yazdi visited the United States at least once for The Multicultural Intellectual Traditions of Africa, Greece, and The Middle East seminar in October 1992. See page 4 of the attached program for your reference. He also served on Iran's Assembly of Experts, a government body, and later became famous for his aggressive backing of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
His death is widely-known and widely reported; as such, privacy concerns under FOIA Exemptions 6 and 7 are voided, as are any concerns under the Privacy Act. For example, you may find his obituary at the U.S. government supported Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty here: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-death-mesbah-yazdi/31030166.html
If any part of these documents are exempt from disclosure, please be sure to review and release all reasonably segregable nonexempt portions of responsive documents, as the FOIA requires.
I request that I be properly classified as a media requester. I am an assistant editor at Reason Magazine who has also written numerous articles on topics of public interest for the Intercept, the Daily Beast, the Asia Times, Responsible Statecraft, the National Interest, America Magazine and the Armenian Weekly; and I am requesting these documents in an journalistic capacity. Please contact me if you have any questions about my media status.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Matthew Petti
From: United States Customs and Border Protection
Matthew Petti
N/A
MuckRock News DEPT MR 160078
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
03/11/2024
CBP-FO-2024-072437
Dear Matthew Petti:
This notice acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received on 3/10/2024. Please use the following unique FOIA tracking number CBP-FO-2024-072437 to track the status of your request.
Provisions of the Act allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS FOIA regulations outlined on the DHS website, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/22/2016-28095/freedom-of-information-act-regulations. By submitting your request, you have agreed to pay up to $25.00 in applicable processing fees, if any fees associated with your request exceed this amount, CBP shall contact you; however, the first 100 pages are free.
Consistent with 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, CBP processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although CBP’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, FOIA does permit a 10-day extension of this time period in certain circumstances pursuant to 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c). Please note that due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, and a current backlog, it may take 6-9 months to receive a response to your FOIA request. We are diligently working to process each request as quickly as possible, in the order they were received. We appreciate your patience during this time.
For additional information please consult CBP FOIA website please click on FOIA Act Resources or visit http://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia.
Please note that this message has been sent from an unmonitored e-mail account. Any messages sent to this account will not be read.
Sincerely,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
From: United States Customs and Border Protection
Matthew Petti
N/A
MuckRock News DEPT MR 160078
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
03/11/2024
CBP-FO-2024-072437
Dear Matthew Petti:
This notice acknowledges receipt of your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) received on 3/10/2024. Please use the following unique FOIA tracking number CBP-FO-2024-072437 to track the status of your request.
Provisions of the Act allow us to recover part of the cost of complying with your request. We shall charge you for records in accordance with the DHS FOIA regulations outlined on the DHS website, https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/11/22/2016-28095/freedom-of-information-act-regulations. By submitting your request, you have agreed to pay up to $25.00 in applicable processing fees, if any fees associated with your request exceed this amount, CBP shall contact you; however, the first 100 pages are free.
Consistent with 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(a) of the DHS FOIA regulations, CBP processes FOIA requests according to their order of receipt. Although CBP’s goal is to respond within 20 business days of receipt of your request, FOIA does permit a 10-day extension of this time period in certain circumstances pursuant to 6 C.F.R. Part 5 § 5.5(c). Please note that due to the increasing number of FOIA requests received by this office, and a current backlog, it may take 6-9 months to receive a response to your FOIA request. We are diligently working to process each request as quickly as possible, in the order they were received. We appreciate your patience during this time.
For additional information please consult CBP FOIA website please click on FOIA Act Resources or visit http://www.cbp.gov/site-policy-notices/foia.
Please note that this message has been sent from an unmonitored e-mail account. Any messages sent to this account will not be read.
Sincerely,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on March 11, 2024. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response. You had assigned it reference number #CBP-FO-2024-072437.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: United States Customs and Border Protection
Matthew Petti
N/A
MuckRock News DEPT MR 160078
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
06/11/2024
CBP-FO-2024-072437
Dear Matthew Petti,
This is a final response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) requesting CBP maintained records. Specifically, you requested, "Records of travel (including any border crossings, records of referral to secondary screening, etc.) as well as any and Customs declarations for Mohammad Taghi Mesbah-Yazdi (31 January 1935 – 1 January 2021). His name, which may also be transliterated Muhammad Taqi Misbah Yazdi Giwachi, is spelled in Persian as follows:
محمد تقی مصباح یزدی"
We conducted a comprehensive search of files within the CBP databases for records that would be responsive to your request. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate or identify any responsive records, based upon the information you provided in your request.
Note: CBP does not have complete records of apprehensions made by Border Patrol before 2000. Records of apprehensions made by Border Patrol before 2000 may be available in the A-File maintained by USCIS.
This completes the CBP response to your request. You may contact CBP's FOIA Public Liaison, Charlyse Hoskins, by sending an email via your SecureRelease account, mailing a letter to 90 K St, NE MS 1181, Washington DC, 20229 or by calling 202-325-0150. (If you need telecommunication relay service (TRS) assistance to communicate with the CBP FOIA Office and you are in the United States, please dial 711 to obtain TRS assistance and notify the Communications Assistant that you want to contact the CBP FOIA Office at the telephone number (202) 325-0150). The FOIA Public Liaison is able to assist in advising on the requirements for submitting a request, assist with narrowing the scope of a request, assist in reducing delays by advising the requester on the type of records to request, suggesting agency offices that may have responsive records and receive questions or concerns about the agency’s FOIA process. Please notate file number CBP-FO-2024-072437 on any future correspondence to CBP related to this request.
For your information, Congress excluded three discrete categories of law enforcement and national security records from the requirements of the FOIA. See 5 U.S.C. 552(c). This response is limited to those records that are subject to the requirements of the FOIA. This is a standard notification that is given to all our requesters and should not be taken as an indication that excluded records do, or do not, exist.
If you are not satisfied with the response to this request, you have a right to appeal the final disposition. Should you wish to do so, you must file your appeal within 90 days of the date of this letter following the procedures outlined in the DHS regulations at Title 6 C.F.R. §5.8. Please include as much information as possible to help us understand the grounds for your appeal. You should submit your appeal via SecureRelease. If you do not have computer access, you may send your appeal and a copy of this letter to: FOIA Appeals, Policy and Litigation Branch, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 90 K Street, NE, 10th Floor, Washington, DC 20229-1177. Your envelope and letter should be marked "FOIA Appeal." Copies of the FOIA and DHS regulations are available at www.dhs.gov/foia. Additional information can be found at the following link https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2019-Dec/definitions-exemptions-foia_0.pdf.
Additionally, you have a right to seek dispute resolution services from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) which mediates disputes between FOIA requesters and Federal agencies as a non-exclusive alternative to litigation. If you are requesting access to your own records (which is considered a Privacy Act request), you should know that OGIS does not have the authority to handle requests made under the Privacy Act of 1974. You may contact OGIS as follows: Office of Government Information Services, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS, College Park, Maryland 20740-6001, e-mail at ogis@nara.gov; telephone at 202-741-5770; toll free at 1-877-684-6448; or facsimile at 202-741-5769.
Please note that this message has been sent from an unmonitored e-mail account. Any messages sent to this account will not be read.
Sincerely,
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
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