Long-time readers here may recall that I filed my own FOIA with the US Department of state asking for records of passports issued to Stanley Ann Dunham. I filed it in January of 2009, over 16 months ago. The DoS accepted the request, assigned a case number to it last April (improper requests do not get a case assigned). And I have been sitting for a very long time waiting for an answer.
I’ve called the DoS 4 times and emailed them once. The email received no reply and the phone calls yielded no useful information except that it had be referred to the Passport section.
I called again today and the fellow I talked to at the DoS FOIA Hot Line was a little more forthcoming than the folks I talked to before. Here are some things I picked up from the call:
- Passport information requests are normally “pretty quick”.
- The fellow I talked to was aware of litigation by others over requests overlapping mine. That is, he knew exactly what was going on in the wider context.
- My request had been responded to by the passport section.
- For some reason the FOIA sent it back to Passport for further research.
- My request was now being looked at by the DoS “Legal advisor.” Continue Reading →