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FOIA Requests to the NSA Are Up 1,000 Percent Since the Snowden Leaks

But of course the FOIA office is closed during the shutdown.
Image: EFF

After the slow drip of Edward Snowden's NSA leaks, journalists, watchdog groups, and concerned citizens found themselves wanting more legally-attained info about the agency's surveillance programs. Since the first leaks, Freedom of Information Requests to the agency have increased 1,054 percent over the same period last year, according to internal documents released to a watchdog group.

The memo, which was attained by, you guessed it, a FOIA request by MuckRock, a group that has been busy obtaining documents relating to drone use nationwide, Beyonce's Inauguration performance, and everything in between.

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The Snowden leaks started a "veritable FOIA frenzy," Zack Sampson of MuckRock wrote in a blog post about the news Monday. Between June 6 and Sept. 4 of this year, the NSA received 3,382 public records requests. Last year during the same period, it received just 293 requests.

"The requests have leveled off somewhat from earlier in the summer when the first media leaks appeared, although they continue to be much higher than normal," Pamela Phillips, chief of the NSA's FOIA office wrote in an unclassified email. "For perspective, for all of [Fiscal Year 2012], we received only 1,809 requests."

The huge jump seems to be almost completely powered by Snowden's revelations about PRISM and other NSA spying programs: According to the Federal Government's FOIA website, the total number of FOIA requests to federal agencies has remained relatively stable over the past five years. In Fiscal Year 2012, there were 651,254 FOIA requests, up from 644,165 in 2011, which was a big jump over the 557,825 received in 2009 but not a huge increase over the 605,491 requested in 2008.

According to the official numbers, about 50 percent of all documents requested by FOIA in 2012 were released in full, 43 percent were partially released, and roughly 7 percent were completely denied.

The NSA has been fairly prompt with its handling of most FOIA requests: Many of the requests dubbed "simple" in 2012 by the agency were handled in a median of seven days according to FOIA.gov. But those dubbed "complex," which are most likely to have more interesting data, have take nearly three years on average for a response.

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The agency also denied 12 of the 17 requests for fee waivers in 2012. Fee waivers are often granted to journalists who claim that the records being requested are important for the public to know. FOIA fees can often be hundreds of dollars, with some state agencies requesting thousands of dollars for the release of more complex records. In response to a FOI request by MuckRock for its drone documents, Georgia Tech University requested $115,200 and three months to process it. At the time, Kenneth Bunting, executive director of the National Freedom of Information Coalition at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, told me that fees are often used to drive journalists and the public away from documents an agency doesn't want to release.

 "I think the citing of exorbitant costs is an unfortunate ploy to make something go away," he said.

Of course, during the government shutdown, agencies, including the NSA, have another excuse to not disclose information. Most agencies, including the NSA, CIA, EPA, and Army have deemed their FOI officers "non essential" during the shutdown.

"Due to the government shutdown, FOIA/PA requests or inquiries submitted to the FOIA/PA Office will not be addressed until the office reopens," the NSA's page on the Freedom of Information Act says.

Besides, the NSA has other things to worry about right now, like its huge data center melting down.