Web Link Wednesday #3: No Main File Records

On November 20 of last year, I filed a FIOA request with the FBI. It stated, in part:

"Under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. subsection 552, I am requesting information or records on this Agency’s investigation of the West Nile virus outbreak of 1999 in the U.S., the possibility its existence in the Western Hemisphere may have been a biological attack (possibly originating from Iraq or Cuba)..."

I received an email confirmation the following day (which was kind of odd) and a written response dated November 23 (which was extremely odd). I can't say that I have ever received such a prompt response in my ten plus years of filing FOIA requests. Apparently there was a reason for the prompt processing:

This was not my first "unable to identify main file records" response, and I believe it won't be my last. According to Jason Leopold of Truthout, this course of action by the FBI is far from unique.

"Have you ever filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FBI and received a written response from the agency stating that it could not locate records responsive to your request?

If so, there's a chance the FBI may have found some documents, but for unknown reasons, the agency's FOIA analysts determined it was not responsive and "blackballed" the file, crucial information the FBI withholds from a requester when it issues a "no records" response..."

Continued at http://www.truth-out.org/revealed-fbis-secretive-practice-blackballing-files/1326811421.

Read the article and leave your thoughts in the comments below.