I filed a freedom of information request with the NSA about me.. they answered

[Ichingcarpenter]

]NSA: Responding To This FOIA Request Would Help 'Our Adversaries



Shortly after the Guardian and Washington Post published their Verizon and PRISM stories, I filed a freedom of information request with the NSA seeking any personal data the agency has about me. I didn't expect an answer, but yesterday I received a letter signed by Pamela Phillips, the Chief FOIA Officer at the agency (which really freaked out my wife when she picked up our mail).

The letter, a denial, includes what is known as a Glomar response -- neither a confirmation nor a denial that the agency has my metadata. It also warns that any response would help "our adversaries":

Any positive or negative response on a request-by-request basis would allow our adversaries to accumulate information and draw conclusions about the NSA's technical capabilities, sources, and methods.

Our adversaries are likely to evaluate all public responses related to these programs.

Were we to provide positive or negative responses to requests such as yours, our adversaries' compilation of the information provided would reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/nsa-foia_n_3498749.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[Fuddnik]

1. Makes sense, if you consider they regard the citizenry as "adversaries".

All us dirty hippies.

I filed one about 5 years ago with the FBI, and never heard a word. Actually I did. They said I had to file another paper, which I did, and heard nothing.

[Coyotl]

2. Good to know our highly paid beaurocrats can bullshit with the best of them!

"our adversaries"

[xtraxritical]

3. Really?

[MannyGoldstein]

4. An astonishing load o' crap

Ugh.

[OilemFirchen]

5. Golly. A bureaucracy refuses a FOIA request with boilerplate.

Bet that's never happened before.

Dunno why the author penned this, as it isn't newsworthy, nor does it add anything to the conversation. But it does offer up a bit more ad space, so there's that.

BTW, there is legal redress:

FOIA Appeals & Litigation

Maybe Jeff Larson will write a bit about that as well.

[librechik]

7. thanks for the info

but no thanks for the snotty attitude. Please keep it off my forum. Just asking.

[librechik]

6. yikes--FST has arrived (Fascist Surveillance State)

actually, it arrived a long time ago. Just a lot of people became aware of it all at once.

Maybe now we can get a real discussion going. Unfortunately Our Dear Leaders have had all the time they needed to make it impossible to reverse here in the States.

[NoPasaran]

8. Back in the old days

We figured if you asked the FBI for your file and they didn't have one already, they would start one.

[arely staircase]

9. yeah, no kidding

they make a file and put the letter in it.

[L0oniX]

10. Well we don't want Occupy to find out about what we are doing about them.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. "Our adversaries" are obviously the American people.

[siligut]

13. "The letter helpfully states that there are "no assessable fees for the request."'

No really, they need to start charging us for wasting their time as we inquire about how our privacy is being invaded. Who are we to make demands on them?

And they must keep repeating this about the metadata:

It also contains a paragraph about the ways in which the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has authorized the NSA to "acquire telephone metadata, such as the telephone numbers dialed and length of calls, but not the content of [sic] call or the names of the communicants." The court was created in 1978, as we recently laid out in our surveillance timeline.

Of course the response excludes anything about National Defense Authorization Act of 2014, which will in fact allow analysis of any and all metadata.

On May 22, 2013 the Subcommittee on Intelligence, Emerging Threats and Capabilities, one of several Armed Services Committees, met to discuss the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2014. The main subject of the hearing was Sec. 1061, otherwise known as Enhancement of Capacity of the United States Government to Analyze Captured Records. This enhancement provision of NDAA 2014 would effectively create a new intelligence agency, one with the authority to analyze information gained under the Patriot Act, FISA, and known spying programs such as PRISM.
http://truth-out.org/news/item/17070-indefinite-surveillance-say-hello-to-the-national-defense-authorization-act-of-2014

More here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023057822

[mike_c]

14. we have always been at war with Eastasia....

Our "adversaries." Entrenched power paranoia sees them everywhere. Have you checked under your bed this hour, citizen?

[Ichingcarpenter]

17. redacted

He didn't even get a redacted page.. Actually the censorship on FOIA is atrocious since almost everything is secret now. Believe me I've tried.

[Catherina]

15. They don't care. Jacob Appelbaum found out he had a file from a WSJ article

Jacob Appelbaum found out a National Security Letter had been issued to investigate him from a WSJ article. This is a short excerpt of a dismissive answer about a citizen's right to know that he was able to force out of the FBI during a hearing.

You're not supposed to know you're under investigation and you're not supposed to know what they have on you. These people are unbelievable.

Jacob Appelbaum Questions FBI on National Security Letters

[DirkGently]

16. They can't tell you how they're screwing with you, because

... that might cause people to object to the screwing, which might interfere with the screwing.

Got it.

Jesus.

[TheKentuckian]

18. Might as well reply with a box of cow turds

[yalcindor]

19. USA Today Request

Hi,

I'm Yamiche Alcindor, a reporter with USA Today. I'm interested in speaking with people who have filed FOIA requests with the NSA. I would be interested in speaking about your experience. Is it possible for you to email me and talk about your request?

Thanks,
Yamiche Alcindor

National Reporter, USA Today
Email: [email protected]

[gopiscrap]

20. welcome to DU