Issue #10 History of the FOIA

John Lennon was just murdered. There is a wall in between East and West Germany. Fear of the atom bomb is still real. Ronald Reagan is newly elected, and will soon be taking office. This is the world we lived in at the close of 1980, when over the course of three days, events took place that became known as the best documented UFO case since Roswell, the Rendlesham Forest incident.

This is the topic of the new book by Nick Pope, "Encounter In Rendlesham Forest". We were very fortunate to have Nick as our guest speaker at this months Northern California MUFON meeting in San Jose, hosted by Ruben Uriarte. The house was packed to listen as Nick recounted events of the three nights, and I must take a moment here to thank Nick again for coming...this man is so gracious that he showed up and spoke for about three hours before even going home from the airport! So, thanks Nick, from all of us! I also want to make a really good point about this case in general. Jim Penniston, I know you're reading this, and your reaction is going to be, "He did what?!!!", but trust me it worked out to demonstrate a point. Nick got so involved in the story, and of course being pressed for time, "the code" sort of got shuffled aside. No, really. The story was so fascinating as it was, but the during Q & A we re-visited the code downloaded by Jim Penniston when he touched the symbols on the craft! If you are not familiar with the Rendlesham Forest incident, I strongly recommend that you buy his book.

Nick Pope and I in San Jose for NorCal MUFON

For anyone wishing to read further about the Rendlesham Forest incident, there is also a great book by Larry Warren and Peter Robbins, "Left At East Gate".

Now to move on to this month's topic; the history of the FOIA. The Freedom Of Information Act was signed into law on July 4th, 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson (you can bet it burnt his biscuits to sign it!), but we have California Congressman John Moss to thank for it's existence. Unfortunately for him, because of his passion for making information public, his F.B.I. file grew to be over two inches thick! Remember what I said in the last issue about filing a FOIA request electronically, and how that is considered as permission for you to be monitored? Something to keep in mind. In 1974 the FOIA was amended to force greater agency compliance with requests. The General Accounting Office reported in 1991 over 1.9 million requests!

So where does this leave me with my FOIA request regarding the SLO UFO? The request has to be directed to the correct agency, in the correct format, and ask for the specific information. As there are probably a few places I should ask for the files, I am still compiling exactly where I am going to file the requests, and trying to determine what the charge will be for the searches. Yes, you heard me right, charge. Some of these requests can be a little pricey, thus making them prohibitive to most people. I'm hoping this search is fairly reasonable.

I hope you all enjoyed this weeks issue! Please share with everyone! Come back next week for something new, and an FOIA SLO UFO update!