ICE Tells Reporter Its Secretive Drone Program Isn't Newsworthy 50
v3rgEz writes Wondering how Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses drones along the border? ICE says you shouldn't be, declaring the topic "isn't news" anymore. The agency rejected a FOIA request fee waiver regarding Operation Safeguard because the program, started in secret 12 years ago, is no longer new. A March 3 letter signed by an ICE lawyer defined "news" as "information that is about current events or that would be of current interest to the public." Hard to see how the government's drone program, even if it is over a decade old, doesn't hold current interest, but maybe a useful example of what happens when you let agencies dictate what is — and isn't — news.
Nothing to see here. (Score:5, Funny)
Just keep moving folks! Move along!
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Re:Fee waiver (Score:5, Insightful)
Our fee is $5 per page. We will not break down report bundles. How would you like to pay for this 300,000 page report bundle?
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Your point is taken, but that's not actually the case.
Fees are $0.10/page, search is $16 to $28/hour depending on the type. You are notified in advance if the fees will be over $25.[1]
Also, the request has to be "not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester" [1], which may or may not be the case here.
[1] http://www.dhs.gov/foia-fee-structure-and-waivers [dhs.gov]
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Defund the entire DHS, put the Border Patrol on a Basic Income funded at zero cost by the Fed, and challenge them to become decent human beings.
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"decent human beings" then perhaps you shouldn;t have named the department DHS... (Depraved Human Shits)
Something is amiss... (Score:5, Funny)
That the guy said it wasn't newsworthy immediately tells everyone it is newsworthy, any good agent would know this. So what if he's doing a triple-bluff...
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NSA: We've been doing this stuff secretly for over 50 years. Clearly it's not news anymore!
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You appear to have accidentally hit the "Post" button instead of going to the next story. Easy mistake—I totally understand.
Whoosh - for very large values of Whoosh.
read the headline....
My government at work (Score:5, Informative)
Of course it isn't newsworthy. Give it a decade. Once the entirety of the story has long since blown over, then they'll issue their official response [ap.org].
A few months ago, the Treasury Department sent us 237 pages in its latest response to our requests regarding Iran trade sanctions. Nearly all 237 pages were completely blacked out, on the basis that they contained businesses' trade secrets. When was our request? Nine years ago.
That's how the government operates now. Just when you've completely forgotten about your FOIA request, they'll finally respond with hundreds of pages of fully redacted content, because they can't endanger old corporate trade secrets. What an excuse. They don't even bother playing the National Security card anymore, they straight up admit that business trumps all.
Sorry, can't give you any insight into how the government operates, it might jeopardize corporate profits!
News does not have to be "New" (Score:2)
Not you, but TFA seems to wish to claim that nothing new can come from a program which has some age. When information is leaked, the information is "New" and might also be "News". No, I'm not surprised that a paid government officer would try to spin things. I only worry that a majority will believe them. Majority as in who Rush Limbaugh refers to as "low information voters".
Current news... (Score:2)
Has the program been covered by the media until the public is utterly sick of it?
Well then, it's current news.
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For the price where the drone sensors on offer useful for the tasks and areas covered?
How many drones contracts would have been needed for a total 24/7 look down over the entire border area of interest?
How did that flow and direction of people, vehicles spotted fit with existing data from traditional counts?
What other data was collected? Look down mapping on a small section of a state? Add in driver, passenger faces, plate number (back an
Obama (Score:2, Informative)
Today the White House shut down FOIA requests to the Office of Administration. Who might the Office of Administration be, you ask? Among other things they happen to archive emails.
Linky [usatoday.com]
Oh look, a useful idiot, still clutching to The Most Transparent Administration Evar
"The irony of this being Sunshine Week is not lost on me," said Anne Weismann of the liberal Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW. "It is completely out of step with the president's supposed commitment to transparency," she said. "That is a critical office, especially if you want to know, for example, how the White House is dealing with e-mail."
Here is to electing Hillary — let's just go full retard and do ten more years of the Clintons. It'll be fun!
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" ten more years of the Clintons" ten years?!
well its eith 8 years of clinton or 8 years of bush... pick your poison and drink it slow
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Obama turned out to be weak tea. He had a chance after the election and that euphoric campaign rhetoric we voted for, to really shake things up and change everything. But Reid and Pelosi went straight back to the tried-and-true old way of doing things, and everything went to hell. They could have at least tried, written a goddam healthcare bill that was short enough so that they didn't fuck it up with mistakes like forgetting to include subsidies for the federal site.
My theory is that the Illuminati came to
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So basically... (Score:5, Informative)
Guy files a FOIA request and asks for a fee waiver.
ICE responds and says sorry, that's about old new. No fee waiver.
Of course it's not current news. It's about a trial that started on the 29th of October 2003 and ended on the 12th of November 2003. A 15 day trial, 11 years ago.
They didn't deny the request, only denied the fee waiver.
The fees are: 10c per page, first 100 pages free.
First two hours free, then per 15 minutes it's between $7 and $10.25
Guy kicks up a fuss on his blog.
This guy has filed and had responded to over 300 FOIA requests, with the tax payer footing the bill.
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Maybe a kickstarter could fund it?
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It probably won't cost more than $50, but he's already spat the dummy.
Too Late (Score:1)
Even if they were going to make the claim that drones aren't a big deal and all the hullabaloo in the news over the new rules aren't news, then it was still moderately newsworthy as solely a border issue.
FOIA rules (Score:2)
When the government tells you what's news... (Score:2)
The real threat of a GOP-controlled WH & Congr (Score:2)
How odd... (Score:2)
I wasn't aware that the Freedom of Information Act had a "It's not news" exemption.
Lawyerspeak (Score:2)
Since when does a FOIA request have to be about something newsworthy? By that metric any FOIA request should be denied due to it not being "new".
So, pay the fee... (Score:2)
Why should news organizations not have to pay the fee anyway?
(BTW, the FOIA is available for _everyone_, not just news agencies..)