I filed most of the FOIA requests in October 2011. They went to the U.S. Agency for International De

I filed most of the FOIA requests in October 2011. They went to the U.S. Agency for International Development and the State Department. In terms of documents, I ve gotten little in return: A 33-page grant proposal  and a  10-page report on a $1.47 million audit of USAID s Cuba programs. Both documents are so heavily redacted that they are practically useless and devoid of information.
I have filed four FOIA appeals so far. See details hotel motel brokers here . But I haven t had much to appeal because most of the FOIA requests I have made are being processed. The oldest pending Cuba Money Project request is more than 300 days old.
I think that it s important to go through the exercise of trying to get these documents, exhausting all administrative channels for obtaining this information. These agencies are not voluntarily providing information to the public beyond scattered disclosures of grant amounts and general program descriptions. hotel motel brokers I am convinced that someone, somewhere in the federal bureaucracy will eventually agree that there should be a greater degree of transparency and disclosure.
I have seen that USAID has been much more responsive than the State Department. USAID made an effort to give me a quick initial response to my requests, as required by law, after I filed a flurry of FOIAs in October. The State Department hotel motel brokers has been much slower to respond.
It took the State Department from eight to 12 weeks to give initial responses to 15 of the three dozen or so FOIAs I filed with State in October. The department has not yet responded to more than half the requests. I plan to ask the State Department later this week why it has delayed longer than 20 working days to give initial responses.
You have not reasonably described the records you seek in a way that someone hotel motel brokers familiar with Department records and programs could locate them. Accordingly, your request is invalid and your case has been closed.
The letters this one  dated Jan. 6, for instance - say they need a contract, solicitation or requisition number to search for the records I have requested. It is not enough for me to provide the name of the program, the contractor and the year. So when I asked for the contract that Freedom House received for its Cuba Youth Program in 2008, or the contract that the Pan American Development Foundation received in 2009 for its Cuba Youth Program, the State Department said I failed to provide enough information. hotel motel brokers I need to find the contract numbers.
hotel motel brokers If I can find the contract numbers, then I ll resubmit the FOIAs. But I plan to study the State Department s responses to see if it would be worth appealing any of its rulings. In an appeal, I would argue that the State Department didn t look hard enough for the records.
In the State Department s remaining nine responses to my October FOIAs, officials did not classify my FOIAs as news media requests. They are asking that I submit evidence that these requests belong in the news media category. So I ll do that later this week.
USAID took a similar approach, asking me to provide such evidence. I did that and USAID put my requests in the news media category. That is important because falling outside the news media category could allow the government to charge search and copy fees that I can t afford.
I was skeptical of this project when it first started, but I have come to believe it may be of some worth. I am trying hotel motel brokers to get as much information as I can about Yoani Sanchez since I am sure she is a complete fraud, and I have documented hotel motel brokers much of what she says as frauds especially her claims about being beaten . What we really need is to find out who is supporting her blog in Germany, hotel motel brokers and who actually translates her blogs into English. The translations are never signed, and I believe they are being done either at the USIS in Cuba or at the NSA in Maryland. One thing is abundently clear: Yoani is not maintaining server, and is not paying the cost that runs into several thousands a month. Everyone should also write the State Department to ask why Bisa Williams was able to get Yoani a credt card and Pay Pal account when the Treasury Department specifically hotel motel brokers says that Cubans, where ever they are in the world, cannot have a Pay Pal Account or any other means of transferring money through credit cards or Pay Pal. Any information one has that can help unravel hotel motel brokers the many mysteries surrounding Yoani will help. I assume everyone saw the interview with Michael Promly, the former hotel motel brokers director of USIS that he did not want the many conversations he had with Yoani revealed.
FOIA requests filed with USAID - and still pending - for information on Cuba programs run by the Pan American Development Foundation, the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute, Plantados hasta la Libertad y la Democracia en Cuba, Grupo de Apoyo a la Democracia and Cuba Online. :
USAID in the blogosphere ALBA Expels USAID from Member Countries | nsnbc June 24, 2012 nsnbc ALBA Political Council Requests Immediate Expulsion of USAID ... June 22, 2012 cubasol Will ALBA oust USAID? June 22, 2012 Tim Rogers Along the Malecón: What did USAID do with the money? June 22, 2012 Tracey Eaton Along the Malecón: The Cuba-Costa Rica connection, hotel motel brokers again June 13, 2012 Tracey Eaton Tag cloud 2012
Karen Lee Wald: "What's hotel motel brokers interesting is that Tracey Eaton, whose project this is, is no great fan of Cuba's revolutionary government. But he's even less of a fan of spending our money in an attempt to topple it."
Miami Herald: … the details of Radio/TV Martí's effort came to light only after the contract for the computerized SMS services hotel motel brokers was published in Cuba Money Project, a Web page that tracks U.S. government spending on Cuba-related programs.