Background The following was released by the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) on July 27, 2016. Today we are releasing a report on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) program at the United States Secret Service (USSS), the fifth in our series of assessments of FOIA programs at components of the Department of Homeland Security. Like other OGIS reports on agency FOIA program assessments, the report includes findings and recommendations about the USSS FOIA Program. USSS’s FOIA Program is centralized; program offices search for responsive records and the FOIA office processes them and responds to the requester. USSS accepts requests…
Author: John Greenewald
Background In April of 2014, I filed a request to the Executive Office of the President – Office of Science and Technology Policy – for all emails/communications to/from Google. It took more than two years to process, and eventually got an email stating that about 1,500 pages of material was released, and if I wanted that as responsive to my request. I agreed, and received the below package. The document is scanned in the document order it was received. Eventually, there will be a planned indexing of the material, but for now, I wanted to add it to The Black Vault…
Background Candidates for President or Vice President must file an annual Office of Government Ethics (OGE) Public Financial Disclosure Report with the FEC within 30 days after becoming a candidate, or by May 15 of that calendar year, whichever is later, but at least 30 days before the election. After a candidate has filed his or her initial public financial disclosure report, the candidate must file an annual OGE Public Financial Disclosure Report with the FEC on or before May 15th each successive year in which the individual continues to be a candidate. A presidential or vice-presidential candidate may request…
Background Abstract As the leader of the DoD’s scientific and technical information (STINFO) program, DTIC has the responsibility to develop, coordinate and enable a strong STINFO program for the Assistant Secretary of Defense, Research and Engineering (ASD(R&E)) and the DoD Scientific & Technical (S&T) enterprise. Our aim is to maximize the availability and use of technical information and products resulting from defense-funded technical activities while ensuring restrictions in national security, export control and intellectual property rights are safeguarded. It is DoD policy to establish and maintain a coordinated and comprehensive program to document the results and outcomes of DoD-sponsored and performed research and engineering (R&E) studies…
Background Abstract: When the blind seek to leak the blind, a cautionary note is in order. This report is written in blissful ignorance of whatever systematic efforts the United States Government has made to construct a counter-deception capability, designed to detect, neutralize and undermine those foreign deception operations that degrade governmental performance through U.S. intelligence channels. To the extent that such a capability exists, what follows may be superfluous. Neither the public literature on intelligence activities nor the public record of intelligence predictions confirms the existence of such a counter-deception capability, but the public record is notoriously murky and subject…