CIA: John Paul II 1999 Tbilisi visit

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

Records produced between November 8th 1999 and December 31st 1999 pertaining to CIA review of security and preparation for, analysis of, and/or the collection of press coverage of: Pope John Paul II's visit to Tbilisi, Georgia. John Paul II visited Georgia between November 8th and 9th 1999. Please include searches for mentions of the visit in any "National Intelligence Daily" documents published on November 8th, 9th, and 10th of 1999.

This event was widely covered in the news media:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-nov-10-mn-32096-story.html

If the agency cannot fulfill certain parts of this request or if certain portions must be redacted, please provide any reasonable segregable portion of a requested record after removing or redacting those portions claimed to be exempt, explain in writing the justification for redacting the record, indicate the extent of any redactions on the portion of the record which is made available or published and where technically feasible indicate on the redacted portion itself the specific exemption(s) claimed.

Thank you for the commitment to transparency, and I look forward to working towards having this request resolved.

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,

Robert Delaware

Mr. Stephen Glenn -

Respectfully, I would like to appeal this decision. Your agency's response to my request omitted a key sentence. The original request specifically stated, "Please include searches for mentions of the (Pope John Paul's) visit in any "National Intelligence Daily" documents published on November 8th, 9th, and 10th of 1999." Please review the original request, which specifically asked for searches of those documents related to John Paul II's visit.

Members of the public have routinely requested, and often received, documents from the National Intelligence Daily.

In addition, other, even broader requests to the agency about international events have been granted by the agency. An older request, F-2020-00933 about the 1991 Pan-American games in Cuba resulted in the release of 50 pages of documents. John Paul II, a public figure who has long been deceased, had previously survived an assassination attempt. It strains credulity to accept the proposition that the CIA is able use a GLOMAR response to this request. There are clearly documents about the visit, and the request was broad enough to enable the agency to find something that could be released.

A quick review of government documents online show that requests to the CIA for National Intelligence Daily documents have been routinely released publicly following an appeals process:

https://www.archives.gov/declassification/iscap/decision-table

Please submit this appeal to the Agency Release Panel specified in your letter. I look forward to engaging in the review process.

Robert Delaware