Presentation by Tom Nash of Muckrock on making public records requests to research drone surveillance and warfare, in webinar sponsored by Fellowship of Reconciliation. See: http://forusa.org/militarism-watch

1. Drones and
Public Records
what to look for / how to get it
MuckRock

2. FOIA
- Enacted July 4, 1966 by
LBJ
- Everything that isn't
exempted is open, but...
- Privacy, secrecy
exemptions
- White House and
Congress are exempt

3. Exemptions
Privacy Act
National security
Statutory exemptions
Jenny Holzer,
Redaction Paintings

4. Redactions
Secretive agencies are usually secretive. Redactions are common in most
documents from the Department of Defense and CIA, if they give anything at all

5. FOIA is not optional
- Agencies have 20 business days to reply.
- They’re able to charge for search fees and
duplication unless they miss that 20 day
window without prior warning.

6. What about state laws?
- They are mostly in line with the
Freedom of Information Act
- Generally more expensive,
quicker
- Applies to all localities within state

8. What does this mean for drone
research?
Documents available range
from Federal Aviation
Administration drone usage
authorizations all the way
down to local sheriff
department budgets.

9. MuckRock
- Until very recently, the government did
not even pretend to care about using
the power of the Web to give access to
information.
- FOIA is the law, and agencies'
responsiveness was not trackable.
- We're here to help everyone get
access to FOIA and hold government

11. Tracking progress
- Acknowledgment letter usually followed by fee
estimate or request for clarification
- Process can take from one day to years
- Each jurisdiction/agency is trackable
One day's
mail

13. Results
-Download from our site, share
- MuckRock hosts
thousands of
pages of
government
documents

14. Drones and FOIA
There are (basically) two angles to FOIA'ing
drone usage:
-Domestic usage
-Foreign usage

15. Census
- MuckRock has filed 204 requests to federal,
state and local government agencies about
their use or proposed use of drones.
- 70 came from an authorized agency list EFF
received from the FAA.
- 134 leads came from MuckRock users.

16. The request
We asked for:
- Proposals put forward involving drones
- Any records concerning the use of drones
- Policies, guidelines, manuals about use of
drones and images taken from them
- Technical capabilities of drones in use

17. What we've received
Of the 204 requests:
- 67 are awaiting response
- 85 agencies said they have no
responsive documents
- 20 have sent responsive documents

18. Where there's trouble
-10 agencies rejected the request on a
variety of grounds
- 11 require payment, ranging from
$115,000.00 requested by Georgia Tech to
Nicholls State University wanting $13.
-Negotiation is possible (narrowing request,
digital copies)

19. Drones abroad
- Secrecy dominates
- Direct acknowledgment would be a huge step
forward
- FOIA is an opportunity to call attention to the
secrecy

20. FOIA for Civilian Deaths
"Any documents estimating the number of
civilians killed by unarmed aerial vehicle (UAV),
unarmed aerial system (UAS), or drone strikes
in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, the Philippines,
or any other country where the United States
has carried out strikes of this kind."

21. So far:
CIA: Will neither confirm nor deny having the
information.
State Department: Waiting
CentCom: Waiting

22. I want to file a request about drone use
- What is the most local agency somehow
connected to the request?
(A drone manufacturer wants to take over an
old airfield. They may need to work it out with
Town Hall -- public documents)
- Check available databases: FAA
authorizations being the most important, EFF,
Document Cloud, MuckRock

23. FOIA and Advocacy
- Appeal exemptions
- Publicize government stonewalling
- Lobby lawmakers for less restrictive FOIA law
- There are groups who can help: NFOIC

24. More about MuckRock
- Will launch in all 50 states
(plus DC) by January
- Five requests cost $20
-Except for our Drone Census,
which is free
Twitter: @MuckRockNews