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The FOI Advocate is a compendium of ideas, edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites, as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be provided whenever possible. The blog relies on the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. We will correct errors and inaccuracies when we become aware of them.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Nice use of FOI....

The AP used FOIA to grab a copy of Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter, and found scarcely a mention of the "I" word....

The word "Iraq" doesn't appear in former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation letter. Neither does the word "war." In fact, the deadly and much-criticized conflict that eventually drummed him out of office, comes up only in vague references, such as "a critical time in our history" and "challenging time for our country," in the four-paragraph, 148-word letter he wrote to President Bush a day before the Nov. 7, 2006 election.

According to a stamp on the letter, Bush's office acknowledged receipt the next day, as voters were going to the polls. Bush announced Rumsfeld's departure a day later, after the massive anti-war vote that swept Democrats into control of the House and Senate.

The elusive letter — which the Pentagon denied existed as recently as April — surfaced this week in response to multiple Freedom of Information Act requests by The Associated Press.

More here...

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