Blogger Sues To See If Government Kept a File on Him

Source: Wired

Blogger Sues To See If Government Kept a File on Him

By Spencer Ackerman Email Author
July 13, 2011 |

The intelligence community may have had a file on a liberal blogger and academic. Now he wants to see what, if anything, was in it.

Danger Room has learned that lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union* will file a lawsuit Wednesday morning in a federal court in Michigan to compel the government to release any information it collected on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who blogs on Mideast issues at Informed Comment.

The suit seeks disclosure of “federal government discussions of, correspondence regarding, inquiries about, and investigations of Professor Cole,” the ACLU’s filing says. That disclosure is ”urgently needed to inform the national debate about U.S. accountability with respect to the unlawful investigation and surveillance of its citizens.”

Cole’s lawsuit comes after a former CIA official, Glenn Carle, told the New York Times that his superiors at the agency asked after Cole, an American citizen, in 2005, seemingly at the instructions of the Bush White House. “What do you think we might know about him, or could find out that could discredit him?” an offended Carle remembered one of his bosses asking.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/07/blogger-sues-to-see-if-government-kept-a-file-on-him/

It could be embarrassing.

Many years ago, I filed an FOIA request to see what the FBI had on file about me. Such requests can lead to embarrassment. Aside from a page on my security clearance investigation for the USAF, none of my activist activities were recorded at all. It was an eye-opener. I was sure that they'd have a dossier listing all the things I had been involved with, but I guess I just wasn't that interesting to them.

I suspect many folks might find themselves in the same category, especially in the blog age. Be careful what you ask for. :rofl:

I'll bet I turn out as boring as Sponge Bob's girlfriend, Sandy Cheeks.

and it came back as nothing found, which I know is a bald-faced lie. You then have a short period to appeal their ruling, after which, you have no recourse.

... and that is not being talked about". (Oscar Wilde)

when that "dossier" arrived. It's OK, though. I thought it was pretty funny, too.

:rofl:

The USA and the USSR are so similar in so many ways. I wonder if this is why so many people who start to stand up against the powers that be suddenly shut up, because someone gets a file on them.

Failing that, there is always the small plane crash to silence your opponents. That is very popular against those that you can't blackmail. Hit and run on a pedestrian is not as popular as it used to be. Nobody walks anymore.

Hopefully Cole checks his brakes, looks both ways before crossing the road, and avoids anything other than last minute commercial jet travel.

:mad:

I always thought one could get this through a FOIA request?

If you don't have an aggressive Attorney (you have money), the FBI will just ignore you and tell you they have nothing.
I tried to get an Attorney. They either laughed in my face or told me they wanted their fee up-front. So, unless you have deep pockets and Balls of Brass, you're not going to get Shit from them.

So, in that case --- Pull the bandaid off! Eat your peas!!

Hahahahahaha!!!!!

Thanks for the thread, kpete.