Wednesday, July 7, 2010

FBI Response to Bradley Manning Case FOIAs

Inspired by Glenn Greenwald's coverage of the arrest of Pfc Bradley Manning and the possible roll of Adrian Lamo and Kevin Poulsen in the matter, I had a couple of FOIA requests fired off to the FBI. Today, I received my answers.

My first request was for any contact between Wired Magazine and the FBI during the first few weeks of the Manning affair. As seen below, they came back with a "no records" response." Assuming they are being honest in both search and their reply means they had no interaction with Kevin Poulsen or any other member of the Wired staff.

FBI FOIA Letter Wired Contact

The second FOIA request was for the chat log between Adrian Lamo and Bradley Manning. This request was not even processed with the FBI invoking both men's right to privacy to justify their lack of search.

FBI FOIA Denial of Lamo Log

I intend to submit appeals on both requests. I am not sure the FBI is entire on the level or that their search was as effective as it could have been. As for the chat log, it should qualify for release as a legal record and the notoriety of both Adrian Lamo and Bradley Manning.