It was my great pleasure to work on a special edition of Newsweek featuring documents declassified in 2015. The whole team was fantastic to work with and has done a great job producing a high quality edition that document hounds and novices alike will speedily turn the pages of. As the introduction to the edition states:
Americans take justifiable pride in having a government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people.’ But officials and bureaucrats sometimes carry out illegal or immoral acts, then hide the evidence in plain sight, burying it under a mound of public records. Fortunately, a group of dedicated patriots doggedly utilize one of the most powerful tools at their disposal –the Freedom of Information Act– to bring these misdeeds to light. Over the past 25 years, more than 10 million pages of previously classified documents from more than 200 agencies have been made public thanks to the efforts of a handful of individuals, who tirelessly comb through reams of documents and analyze the information they contain. Sometimes shocking, sometimes scandalous and occasionally strange, these are the secrets your government kept from you –out in the open for anyone curious to learn.
But beyond this excellent print edition, I wanted to publish my rough draft of the copy I provided for Newsweek to readers of Unredacted. First, because space constraints required much of the background to these fascinating declassified stories had to be cut; and second, so that our document hound readers can now click the links and read the entire featured documents themselves and see how they were presented by the “dedicated patriots” who actually filed the FOIAs and brought these government secrets into the public domain.
Again, the below is a rough draft so please treat it as such.
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Spying on Black Lives Matter
The Department of Homeland Security has been routinely surveying the Black Lives Matter movement, according to documents released by the DHS in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The redacted documents show that the DHS has been watching and providing minute-by-minute reports on protests by the movement, which began after retired Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot teenager Michael Brown. The documents show that the DHS, ostensibly created to protect the United States against terrorist attacks, is now monitoring First Amendment protected assemblies. Its Watch Desk regularly tracks Black Lives Matter social media hashtags on twitter, facebook, and vine, and has circulated near-real-time Google Maps updates of protesters’ movements. The documents show that DHS has also surveilled peaceful events in Washington D.C. such as a funk parade and the Avon Walk to End Breast Cancer.
Document: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2178938/6-2015-4-28-pre-dc-protest-justification.pdf
Document mentioning Funk Parade and Breast Cancer Walk: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2178942/10-2015-4-29-dc-hsema.pdf
Credit: George Joseph, The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2015/07/24/documents-show-department-homeland-security-monitoring-black-lives-matter-since-ferguson/
Petraeus and Broadwell Revealed
A US District Court Plea Agreement signed by the former Director of the CIA and Commander of CENTCOM, David Petraeus, confirms that he lied to FBI investigators about providing access to his classified “black books” to his biographer and mistress Paula Broadwell. Petraeus gave the “black books” – five by eight inch–notebooks filled with classified notes about “identities of covert officers, war strategy, intelligence capabilities and mechanisms, diplomatic discussions,” and notes from National Security Council meetings and discussions with the President of the United States. Petraeus’s illegal disclosure of classified information was revealed after Broadwell became jealous of Petraeus’s relationship with Tampa socialite Jill Kelley and derided Kelly in anonymous emails to military officials. These emails sparked an FBI investigation that eventually led to Petraeus’s forced retirement and guilty plea for mishandling classified materials.
Best document: http://www.washingtonpost.com/r/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2015/03/03/National-Security/Graphics/FILED.FACTUAL%20BASIS..pdf
Best quotes on Page 9; Good quotes on pages 11 and 13; his “guilty signature” on page 15.
Inside Tom Brady’s Inbox
As part of the National Football League Players Association’s lawsuit that overturned Tom Brady’s 2015 suspension for allegedly deflating balls, Brady submitted over 1,000 pages of his personal emails (selected after a search for terms that could plausibly relate to deflating balls). No deflating ball turned up, but we learned that he wasn’t happy about having to pay $8,540 for a new pool cover (“why can’t we use the same cover we have on now?”). He also predicted he’d long outlast his rival Peyton Manning: “I’ve got another 7 or 8 years. He has 2. That’s the final chapter.” Once the email was made public, Brady texted an apology to Manning. Said Manning, “Everybody has been speculating on that for a long time, so I guess he’s joining the list.”
Documents: On pool cover: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2202046/emails6.pdf pg 106/107
On Manning: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2202050/emails8.pdf page 126
Credit: Boston Globe
The FBI’s Aerial Surveillance Program Uncovered
The FBI has a fleet of over 50 low-flying aircraft, registered to at least 13 fake companies which are used for “ongoing investigations,” usually without a judge’s approval. An Associated Press investigation uncovered the program, with planes registered to fake companies called “FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation, and PXW Services” and registered to PO Boxes in Bristow, Virginia – one of which is also a DOJ PO box. A Detroit News investigation followed one secret FBI Cessna as it repeatedly made nineteen identical slow, counterclockwise loops over Dearborn, Michigan. The planes contain high-tech cameras, and possibly “Sting Ray” cell phone tracking equipment.
Documents: http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/MMS_results.aspx?Mmstxt=2072703&Statetxt=VA&conVal=0&PageNo=1 (Control F for “Bristow VA” for the lists of fake companies)
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2090186-fbi-surveillance-plane-documents.html (Registration documents with fake company.)
Video of Dearborn loop: http://bcove.me/3umncdon
More background: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/02/fbi-surveillance-flights/28347299/
Credit: Jack Gillum, Eileen Sullivan and Eric Tucker, Associated Press; Robert Snell, The Detroit News
FOIAed Dox Show Climate Change Denying Scientist Secretly Got $1.2 Million from Fossil Fuel Industry; Promised them “Deliverables”
For years, Wei-Hock Soon, a Scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, has been an oft-cited scientist who denies that greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global warming, instead claiming that variations in the sun’s energy explain most global warming. But a recent FOIA release by the Smithsonian (a federal government institution covered by the Freedom of Information Act) shows that Soon received $1.2 million in funding from the fossil fuel industry over the past decade. Soon failed to cite this potential conflict of interest in his papers, appearing to violate the ethical guidelines of the journals which published his work in at least eight cases; he also described many of his papers, as well as his Congressional testimony, as “deliverables” to his funders.
Document: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/1672782/climate.pdf “deliverables” on page 11.
Credit for the FOIA: Greenpeace
DEA Agents Not Fired for Selling Drugs
Drug Enforcement Administration agents who sold drugs, attended “sex parties,” and committed other serious misdeeds were not fired, according to an internal affairs log released in response to a FOIA request. Since 2010, the DEA’s Board of Professional Conduct recommended that a DEA employee be fired in 50 instances. In only thirteen instances were the employees actually terminated –and even some of those were reinstated! The DEA did not fire agents who attended cartel-funded “sex parties” in Colombia. Nor were agents who lost firearms, committed fraud, drove while intoxicated, used drugs, or sold drugs.
Document: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2434230/150824164300-0001.pdf
Credit: Brad Heath and Meghan Hoyer, USA Today.
UNREDACTED: The National Security Archive Blog 