Appeals Court Forces CIA’s Hand In FOIA Requests For Torture Records
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and other government agencies have no right to “resist disclosure” if a requester fails to adequately describe records they are seeking in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They also must make a “good faith” attempt to define a request properly, a federal appeals court ruled.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a decision by a district court, which maintained a FOIA request for records on CIA personnel or affiliates that engaged in torture “constituted a question” instead of a legitimate request.