Who's on the Intelligence Oversight Board? Government Won't Say

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September 27th, 2011

Federal Officials Withhold Records on Obama Appointments

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit today against the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) demanding records of who is on the Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) -- the presidentially appointed, civilian panel in charge of reviewing all misconduct reports for American intelligence agencies.

The IOB is supposed to alert the president and attorney general when it spots behavior that is unlawful or contrary to executive order. However, in his nearly three years in office, President Obama has not yet announced any appointments to the IOB. EFF's suit comes after the ODNI refused to respond to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for membership, vacancies, and other information about the IOB made earlier this year.

"The IOB has a critically important mission – civilian oversight of America's intelligence activities. The board exists to make sure government agencies are not overstepping their authority and abusing citizens' rights," said EFF Open Government Legal Fellow Mark Rumold. "History has shown that intelligence agencies overseeing their own behavior is like the fox guarding the henhouse. If the IOB is ineffective, impaired, or short-staffed, that's information Americans need to know."

EFF's ongoing FOIA litigation work has already uncovered widespread violations in intelligence investigations. Most recently, EFF revealed that the U.S. Army issued three National Security Letters (NSLs) for phone records, even though the law authorizes only the FBI to make these extraordinary requests for information. EFF also obtained documents detailing how the Army improperly attempted to investigate participants at a law school conference on Islamic law.

"We're trying to create a picture of the federal government's intelligence violations as Congress considers updates and changes to current surveillance law and oversight," said EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch. "Part of that picture is who is on the IOB. We're asking the government to follow the law and release the records on IOB membership."

For the full complaint in EFF v. ODNI:

title="https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/FOIA_IOB/ODNIIOBComplaint_92711.pdf">https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/FOIA_IOB/ODNIIOBComplaint_92711.pdf

For more on the Defense Department intelligence violations:

title="https://www.eff.org/foia/intelligence-agencies-misconduct">https://www.eff.org/foia/intelligence-agencies-misconduct

Contacts:

Mark Rumold
Open Government Legal Fellow
Electronic Frontier Foundation

mark@eff.org

Jennifer Lynch
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation

jlynch@eff.org

Related Issues: FOIA Litigation for Accountable Government, Privacy, Transparency

Related Cases: FOIA: Who's on the Intelligence Oversight Board?

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