Debunking the "FOIA Exempt" Myth in Under 17 Minutes

Transcript

if you've been around the UFO field for the past year you've heard a phrase that is gaining popularity to explain lack of evidence that phrase exempt from FOIA from mainstream media journalists to former military pilots it's now been said many times that information about the reported secret UFO study known as a tip or info an unidentified aerial phenomena or you ApS or UFOs or whatever you want to call them it's all untouchable in the eyes of the Freedom of Information Act or the FOIA but is any of that even true and what does it mean when something is FOIA exempt stay tuned you're about to take a quick journey inside the black vault with a quick blast [Music] that's right everybody as always thank you so much for tuning in and taking a short journey with me inside the black vault and this particular quick blast I'm going to be talking about the phrase that we've heard a little bit more about in the last couple of weeks it started about a year ago and that is exempt from FOIA of course I made a small presentation to help visualize exactly what all of this means so its first to lay some groundwork very quick very easy very simple what is the Freedom of Information Act we should really understand what the heck it is if we're gonna be talking about the fact that certain things don't apply to it well in short it was passed on July 4th 1966 it's gone through many revisions since then it was fully enacted on July 4th 1967 a year after it passed and here's the nutshell easy way to explain the FOIA in short any federal or military agency can accept a request from you me or anyone on the planet you don't have to be a US citizen and you can request information under the Freedom of Information Act what does that mean well the agency reviews it and sends it to you but there's a pretty big catch in there they don't always send it to you because there's a list of nine exemptions that's the catch now before I get into those exemptions I want to talk a little bit about what is the FOIA apply to now the FOIA applies to all federal regulatory agencies cabinets military departments offices commissions government controlled corporations the Executive Office of the President and other organizations within the executive branch of the federal government in other words it's pretty much anything on a federal level with a few exceptions the FOIA does not apply to the President or White House Records themselves that's covered by the presidential Records Act that's something totally different that's when that goes to a presidential library so they're off-limits at least while they're in office Congress or members of Congress they're all completely off limits can't do a FOIA on Pelosi or anyone else you gotta wait for some certain things to be made public they're all federal courts and federal judge judiciary documents all off-limits to the FOIA everything else however is fair game now those FOIA exemptions that I talked about well there are nine of them those are nine legal exemptions that have information that you requested fits into that they won't give it to you here they all are I highlighted the ones that I see most often but of course it depends on what you're actually requesting which defines what you see most often exemption one information that's classified to protect national security number two information related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency the third information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law number four trade secrets or commercial or financial information that's confidential or privileged the fifth privileged communications within or between agencies the sixth information that if disclosed would invade another individual's personal privacy number seven information compiled for law enforcement purposes number eight information that concerns the supervision of financial institutions and number nine geological information on wells those are the nine exemptions anything that you request from any of those applicable federal agencies or military branches if it fits into one of these nine they're gonna redact it or deny you fully now how the heck did this UFO story that we know as a tip often touted as the pentagon secret UFO study how did the rumor start that it is just 100% FOIA exempt in my opinion it all started in June of 2018 mr. George Knapp investigative journalists from klas TV published this article it was an i-team exclusive Nevada Senator fought to save secret UFO program within it it was the 2009 Harry Reid letter which I'll show you in a second within the story and within the video it said the letter is not classified but a footnote says it is exempt from disclosure under FOIA because of what it contains it's creating an aura about something that isn't necessarily true now is this semantics not at all its incredibly important because that aura of all of this being highly secretive and highly classified is just downright wrong and I don't say that because I disagree or have a personal vendetta against anybody involved in this story but rather I'll prove it to you with the actual official evidence to show that this is not a highly classified completely exempt untouchable program what was said to be exempt from FOIA that's actually not true the letter itself didn't have that at all it was actually within the attachment to the letter now is that playing semantics no not on a legal sense attachments are largely and and primarily considered something different than the letter that they are attached to oftentimes a letter is only classified because the attachment is classified for all my for you people out there if you use a FOIA long enough you'll sometimes see verbiage that says classified secret and less attachments are removed because the attachment is secret not the letter that language only appeared on the attachment itself I'll get to that attachment in a second but it says this document contains information exempt from mandatory disclosure under the FOIA exemptions one and five apply well we know what one in five are one being that classified five being privileged communications this was the attachment and where that language appeared now why would it appear here well the letter in short said that they that Harry Reid Senator Harry Reid wanted to request special access program status to a tip the advanced aerospace threat identification program he submitted those that would have access to the program and a list of contracted personnel that's actually very important the contracted personnel we know this to be bass or a Bigelow Aerospace subsidiary why this is important plays into this language DoD regulation 5200 dot one dash R says that anything that is sent outside the Department of Defense that considered for official use only which is not a classification but rather it is simply a designation so the Harry Reid's letter would be a furrow fishel use only it wasn't supposed to be sent to the public but because they were going to go ahead and and send it to Bigelow Aerospace or bass it says in that regulation for official use documents and material transmitted outside the DoD it must bear and expanded marking on the face of the document so that non DoD holders understand the status of the information a statement similar to this one should be used this document contains information exempt from mandatory disclosure under the FOIA exemptions blank apply blank meaning that person that wrote the document are sending out the document they input those FOIA exemptions either one through nine or all of the above or whatever now this is why it's a big deal because mr. Lewis Elizondo in July of 2018 sent in a MUFON keynote address much of a tip information remains FOIA exempt FOIA exempt what do you mean everything's FOIA able no it's not exceptions one in five he also goes on to say people say well if a tip existed I should be able to FOIA it not necessarily some of the documents that were released as a result if you take a look at a recent letter that supposedly came from Senator Reid on the very last page at the very bottom you're going to see a really interesting little word words actually it says FOIA exempt that's right we use that sometimes so he's saying that that letter said FOIA exempt here's the problem no it didn't yes he was right about the exemptions one in five but it was not the letter rather it was the attachment and we can easily explain why that language was there it was commonplace not anything special but this has caught on not only did mr. Elizondo tout that and to be blatantly honest with you this is not a shot at him it at all but I will say he should have know better he should know that anything that got sent out of the DoD should have that language it was nothing special for the a tip or any a tip related document now commander David flavor just recently appeared in October on the Joe Rogan show Joe Rogan experience podcast in this in the course of conversation he says I think it's like 13 people that were part of a tip and they were FOIA exempt so now we're taking it a step farther we're not only saying that the information was there but the entire staff I'm not sure how he got 13 people I'm interested in that we'll follow up but that being said that they were all FOIA exempt that everything that they did was FOIA exempt and going back to what mr. Elizondo said with the fact that if if if a tip existed you should be able to FOIA it and then he says not necessarily actually it's that that is not true you can FOIA it however it may be exempted through one of those nine exemptions but it has to be cited b1 is the only one that actually would apply anything else from two to nine and I'll let you guys go back to that slide and analyze each one it would not apply b1 I could buy that the problem is is that you can debunk that theory will use Senator Harry Reid to do just that in a March 21st 2018 interview with New York Magazine Harry Reid said an answer to a question about the information related to a tip most all of it 80% at least is public you know something the press has never even looked at it not once that's where we are I wanted it public it was made public and you guys have not even looked at it 80% that's not a highly classified special access program that only 13 people know about that is something that is highly available now let's say he exaggerated spoiler alert politicians often do that so let's just say it was half the information that is still not a highly classified special access program here's some more damning evidence to show why it would not just have a blanket denial for national security these are and I'll take my self away here so you can see it these are the 38 reports generated under a tip or a SAP these were requests stood by Senator John McCain I should say and the Defense Intelligence Agency sent back to him the list of 38 reports that were created under the AUSA contract also known as a tip I'm still working on whether or not that they are the same or different there are differing explanations from those who were involved in both programs so go figure on that one but that being said according to Senator McCain he sought after a tip related documents and these were created under Awesome but dia felt that they were responsive now they're here's something that you can see and that is the classification of each and every last one with the exception of one they are all unclassified now they are designated for official use only that is fairly standard but they are all unclassified the documents that have leaked out given the fact that they are true and real all lists the AUSA program within the document itself if that was highly classified just the existence of that program the document itself would actually require a classification stamp of let's say top secret if this was all heavily classified the way classification works is that you have to classify a document at the highest level of the information that it contains for example you can have a thousand page document and only a single paragraph is considered top secret what do you think that document is going to be considered top secret once that one paragraph is redacted then it can be unclassified or Declassified I should say and release to the public so this shows you as well that although it has a for official use designation every piece with the exception of one everything else though available to the public now all of this has caught on from mr.

Elizondo to commander flavor all of those touting the FOIA exempt lines now with that we know that it's not true it's caught on these are just a couple of tweets here that I've quickly found where it is catching on that people just think wow you're never going to touch anything because it's all FOIA exam they reference commander flavor they come reference mr. lewis Elizondo because all of that has an effect it has an effect when you start explaining certain things a certain way whether or not it's accurate or not people start to believe it so that makes investigations much harder for people like me when you're trying to fact-check or when you're trying to give out information to the public they just think you're a government shill and they think that you're never gonna get anything anyway because it's all FOIA exempt well the law says otherwise and information says otherwise these are documents just a couple examples I can show you thousands that all have that exact or near exact FOIA exempt or exempt from mandatory disclosure or so on language on documents released under the Freedom of Information Act of course there are going to be redactions if they fit in one of those nine categories but other than that everything is FOIA able so don't listen otherwise not everything is what it seems now I want to believe in this topic just as much as anyone else and UFOs demand attention they demand a heavier scrutiny but with an emphasis on truth now I've said it before and I'll say it again the black vault aims to give you guys information that I can verify there are other organizations out there now selling items to you saying we can't verify what's in this but here you go well that doesn't really sound like they have an emphasis on truth and so that is what I try and do for you guys some of this is dry some of it is boring I get it but we have to understand it to realize that sometimes we may be fed a line that isn't true so exempt from FOIA nah it's not all untouchable it may be exempt from release but that is a completely different thing and like I said not everything is like it seems this is John Greenwald jr. signing off we'll see you next time [Music] you [Music]