FBI Chastised by Court for Lying About Existence of Surveillance Records
\nCommentary by Jennifer Lynch<\/p>\n
An order last week from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has revealed the FBI lied to the court about the existence of records requested under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), taking the position that FOIA allows it to withhold information from the court whenever it thinks this is in the interest of national security. Using the strongest possible language, the court disagreed: \u201cThe Government cannot, under any circumstance, affirmatively mislead the Court.\u201d Islamic Shura Council of S. Cal. v. FBI (\u201cShura Council I\u201d), No. 07-1088, 3 (C.D. Cal. April 27, 2011) (emphasis added).<\/p>\n
This case may prove relevant in EFF\u2019s ongoing FOIA litigation against the FBI. As discussed further below, one of the issues in Shura Council was the FBI\u2019s extensive and improper use of \u201coutside the scope\u201d redactions. The agency has also used these heavily in at least one of our current cases \u2014 in areas where it is highly unlikely the material blocked out is actually outside the scope of our FOIA request. (see example to the left from our case seeking records on the government\u2019s push to expand federal surveillance laws). We\u2019ll be writing more about that case in the coming weeks and posting the documents we received on this site soon.<\/p>\n
Shura Council started five years ago in May 2006, after widespread reporting on the FBI\u2019s programs targeting Muslims after September 11, 2001. At that time, several Muslim citizens and organizations in Southern California, including the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), submitted a broad joint FOIA request to the FBI seeking \u201c[a]ny records relating or referring\u201d to themselves, \u201cincluding . . . records that document any collection of information about monitoring, surveillance, observation, questioning, interrogation, investigation and\/or infiltration[.]\u201d Shura Council I at 4. …more<\/a><\/p>\n