FBI anti-surveillance/Technical Security Surveys

Dear Mr. Best,

The FBI has received your Freedom of Information Act/Privacy (FOIPA) request and it will be forwarded to Initial Processing for review. Your request will be processed under the provisions of FOIPA and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.

Requests for fee waivers and expedited processing will be addressed once your request has been assigned an FOIPA request number. You will receive written notification of the FBI's decision.

Information regarding the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy is available at http://www.fbi.gov<http://www.fbi.gov>/, http://www.fbi.gov/foia/ or http://www.justice.gov/oip. If you require additional assistance please contact us at foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov.

Thank you,

David P. Sobonya
Public Information Officer/GIS
Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS)
FBI-Records Management Division
170 Marcel Drive, Winchester, VA 22602-4843
Ofc: (540) 868-4593
Direct: (540) 868-4286
Fax: (540) 868-4391/4997

An acknowledgement letter, stating the request is being processed.

Good morning,

Due to the voluminous requests that the FBI receives on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis, requesters are encouraged to utilize the online option to Check the Status of Your FOIPA Request by following the instructions in the attached sample. The last status update was performed on June 8, 2016. Your FOIPA Request Number is 1350715-000.

Upon entering your FOIPA Request Number, the requester will be provided "ONE" of the following STATUS RESULTS:

The FBI's FOI/PA Program is processing your request in accordance to the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act guidelines. *The Disclosure analyst is making a line by line, page by page review of the records to determine if any redactions are required pursuant to subsections of Title 5, U. S. Code, Section 552 and 552a. Upon completion, the records are forwarded to a supervisor for review, if approved, a release will be forthcoming.

The FBI's FOI/PA Program is searching the FBI's indices for potentially responsive documents. You may be contacted via form letter for all fees and/or negotiation issues that may apply. *Requests are received by Initial Processing (IP) where they are opened, assigned a FOIPA Request Number and correspondence mailed to the requester. The IP analyst searches for, retrieves and reviews potentially responsive records. If responsive records are located, they are forwarded to Disclosure for processing.

The FBI's FOIPA Program has identified potential responsive information to your request and awaits assignment to a Government Information Specialist (GIS) for further processing. *Responsive information was located and has been forwarded to the "Backlog" where the request awaits assignment to a GIS for processing.

The information you have requested is part of a previously requested subject matter and will be preprocessed in accordance to the prior releasable information. *A previous request has already been made for the subject matter.

The request is currently in appeal status with the Office of Information Policy (OIP). *The FBI is not involved in the appeals process so please contact OIP's Customer Service regarding appeal matters at (202) 514-3642.

The request is currently in litigation with Federal Court

The FOIPA number entered has been closed, and appropriate correspondence has been sent to the address on file. *Correspondence and/or a release of records were recently mailed. If you recently had a change of address please contact us at foiparequest@ic.fbi.gov<mailto:foiparequest@ic.fbi.gov>.

Please contact me if you require further assistance.

Thank you,

*Material is provided for information purposes

Thank you,
Kimberly L. Deutsch
Management and Program Analyst/ Public Information Officer
Record/Information Dissemination Section Front Office
Records Management Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation
170 Marcel Drive Winchester, VA 22602
Public Information Desk: (540) 868-4593
Fax: (540) 868-4391/4997

June 13, 2016
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Attn: FOI/PA Request
Record/Information Dissemination Section
170 Marcel Drive
Winchester, VA 22602-4843

This is a follow up to a previous request:

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on May 11, 2016. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.

---

On May 12, 2016:
Dear Mr. Best,

The FBI has received your Freedom of Information Act/Privacy (FOIPA) request and it will be forwarded to Initial Processing for review. Your request will be processed under the provisions of FOIPA and a response will be mailed to you at a later date.

Requests for fee waivers and expedited processing will be addressed once your request has been assigned an FOIPA request number. You will receive written notification of the FBI's decision.

Information regarding the Freedom of Information Act/Privacy is available at http://www.fbi.gov<http://www.fbi.gov>/, http://www.fbi.gov/foia/ or http://www.justice.gov/oip. If you require additional assistance please contact us at foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov.

Thank you,

David P. Sobonya
Public Information Officer/GIS
Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS)
FBI-Records Management Division
170 Marcel Drive, Winchester, VA 22602-4843
Ofc: (540) 868-4593
Direct: (540) 868-4286
Fax: (540) 868-4391/4997
---

On May 11, 2016:
To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

FBI File Number 62-HQ-97308, a ~2,082 page file about Technical Security Surveys, the process of checking locations for bugging and other surveillance devices. I agree to duplication fees for those pages.

I am a member of the news media and request classification as such. 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 additional 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,

Michael Best

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Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com

For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock
DEPT MR 25683
411A Highland Ave
Somerville, MA 02144-2516

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.
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[Image removed by sender.]

Dear Mr. Best,

Please check the status of your FOIPA Request at http://www.fbi.gov and access the (Freedom of Information Act) link at the bottom of the page, or http://www.fbi.gov/foia, or https://vault.fbi.gov/fdps-1/@@search-fdps, and follow the instructions below.

Check the Status of Your FOIPA Request

If your FOIPA Number is [1195846-0] please enter [1195846-000] into the system. If your FOIPA Number is [1195846-1] please enter [1195846-001] into the system. If you have any questions about the status of your FOIPA request, please e-mail foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov>.

FIND STATUS OF FOIPA- LAST UPDATED ON July 13, 2016

Please enter the whole FOIPA number-Example: [1234567-000]

FOIPA:

Results will show the Request Number, Case Type and Process Description shown below:

FOIPA:

1234567-000

Case Type:

FOIPA

Process Description (Will display the current progress of the request)

The FBI's FOIPA Program is searching the FBI's indices for potentially responsive documents.

You may be contacted via formal letter for all fees and/or negotiation issues that may apply.
NOTE: Recent requests are entered into the FOIPA database in the order that they are received. Before you can check the status, you must have received correspondence assigning a FOIPA request number and the information transferred to the online database. Status information is updated weekly. If a request has been closed within the last six months the online database will display the following: The FOIPA number entered has been closed, and appropriate correspondence has been sent to the address on file.

Thank you,

Holly Early
Government Information Specialist
Record/Information Dissemination Section (RIDS)
FBI-Records Management Division
170 Marcel Drive, Winchester, VA 22602-4843
PIO: (540) 868-4593
Direct: (540) 868-4854
Fax: (540) 868-4391/4997
E-mail: foiparequest@ic.fbi.gov<mailto:foiparequest@ic.fbi.gov>
Questions E-mail: foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov<mailto:foipaquestions@ic.fbi.gov>

Do you have further questions about the FOI/PA process? Visit us at http://www.fbi.gov/foia

Please check the status of your request online at http://www.fbi.gov/foia by clicking on the CHECK STATUS OF YOUR FOI/PA REQUEST under the FOIA INDEX located on the right side of the page. Status updates are performed on a weekly basis.

A copy of documents responsive to the request.

01/04/2018 02:20 PM FOIA Request: DOJ-AP-2018-001736

Good afternoon Ms. Best,

I am reviewing an administrative appeal you filed with regards to FOIA Request No. 1350715-000. You appealed the FBI's determination to provide a copy of a preprocessed file. Can you confirm whether your administrative appeal was challenging the adequacy of the search for responsive records or whether your appeal included withholdings made by the FBI in the preprocessed set of records, or both?

Thank you for your time and assistance,

Patrick

_____________________
Patrick J. Austin
Attorney-Advisor
Office of Information Policy
U.S. Department of Justice

Good morning Ms. Best,

I am touching base on my July 18, 2018 email below. Can you confirm whether your administrative appeal was challenging the adequacy of the search for responsive records or whether your appeal included withholdings made by the FBI in the preprocessed set of records, or both?

Thanks very much,

Patrick

_____________________
Patrick J. Austin
Attorney-Advisor
Office of Information Policy
U.S. Department of Justice
Phone: 202.305.0384

DOJ-AP-2018-001736 has been processed with the following final disposition: Partially Affirmed & Partially Reversed/Remanded

This message is to notify you of a new appeal submission to the FOIAonline application. Appeal information is as follows:
* Appeal Tracking Number: DOJ-AP-2018-008512
* Request Tracking Number: 1350715
* Requester Name: Michael Best
* Date Submitted: 09/19/2018
* Appeal Status: Submitted
* Description: DRC Appeal No. DOJ-AP-2018-001736

Mrs. Best,

By letter dated September 19, 2018, you were notified that the Office of Information Policy was referring the above Freedom of Information Privacy Act (FOIPA) request to the Department of Justice's Department Review Committee (DRC) to determine if the appealed information should remain classified under Executive Order 13526 and 5 U.S.C. §552(b)(1).

Due to a substantial backlog of pending appeals and with the passage of time, we would like to know if you are still interested in receiving this information. Please review your records and notify our office within 30 days from the date of this electronic communication. Please feel free to contact me for questions you may have regarding the above appeal. The FOIPA/DRC Appeal numbers listed above have been assigned to the request. Please use these numbers in all correspondence concerning this appeal.

Thanks so much for your time and have a dynamic day.

Christine D. Gordon Lawson, J. D.
Appeal Liaison - Department Review Committee
Federal Bureau of Investigation
IMD - National Security Unit
CRC/240-220
540.678.7875