Sunshine Week

March 16, 2005

Sunshine Week Coordinators
Various News Outlets

Dear Coordinator:

Thank you for organizing Sunshine Week, designed to call public and press attention to the Freedom of Information Act and ways in which citizens and reporters can use FOIA's to gain access to government documents.

I am a blogger who on July 6, 2004, filed a FOIA request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the agency's files on President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. I created a blog just for the correspondence between the FBI and myself, and news accounts of my efforts to obtain the dossiers on Bush and Cheney.

FOIA allows for expedited processing of requests when there is widespread media interest or a matter of crucial national importance, such as a presidential election, so I asked the FBI to make a speedy release of the files requested, but, my expedited appeal was denied.

The full text of the FBI's denial for expediting is attached below.

The progressive online news service RawStory.com reported back on October 19, 2004, that the "FBI confirmed to RAW STORY today that it had received Petrelis’ request July 28. In their letter denying an expedited release, the bureau said that the request had been placed in their regular processing queue."
RawStory discovered an interesting fact about the number of reporters who've asked for these records.

"Debbie Beatty, who works in the Historical and Executive Review Unit at the FBI and spoke for the FOIA office, stated the request was in the queue. She said that to her knowledge, no other media organization has requested Bush’s file. 'Not that I’m aware of,' Beatty said. 'I supervise all incoming mail.'"

My request to you today is to have news editors, reporters familiar with FOIA and the FBI, and news bloggers ask the FBI this question:

When will the FBI meet the full provisions of FOIA and provide its files on Bush and Cheney available to the press and public?

During this inaugural Sunshine Week, please consider writing about the president's and the vice president's FBI files, how they've not yet been released, yet thousands of pages from Sen. John Kerry's records were long ago released under FOIA.

For the history on my FBI FOIA request, please visit http://releasebushsfbifile.blogspot.com/.

Sincerely,
Michael Petrelis
San Francisco, CA
Ph: 415-621-6267
Email: MPetrelis@aol.com
Blog: http://mpetrelis.blogspot.com/