The Federal Freedom of Information Act
Do you actually have to file a request?
Try the informal approach first
Expedited processing and fast-tracking your request
Exemptions to disclosure under FOIA
Major U.S. Supreme Court FOIA cases
Sidebars:
Mandatory declassification review
The Federal Advisory Committee Act
The Government in the Sunshine Act
How to enforce the Sunshine Act
Exemptions to open meetings under the Sunshine Act
How Privacy Act lawsuits affect journalists
Sample materials
Request letter for your own files under FOIA and the Privacy Act
A tale of two releases
During the Bush administration, millions of pages of information was classified or re-classified. The National Security Archive, a nonprofit research facility that files hundreds of FOIA requests each year, discovered that a 1975 Defense Intelligence Agency document on former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet had been declassified in full and released in 1999 but re-classified in part in 2003 with major redactions. Within that four-year period, the agency apparently realized it had let out major "secrets" including the image of Pinochet as well as his tendency toward modest living and his affinity for scotch and pisco sours. Defense Intelligence Agency Secret Biographic Data on General Augusto Pinochet, January 1975, provided by the National Security Archive.
1999 release: |
2003 release: |
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