|
|
| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
| |
| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | RE: GISList: NIMA VMAP 1 request problems |
| Date: |
08/21/2002 08:26:03 PM |
| From: |
Dimitri Rotow |
|
|
> I wanted to relate my latest escapades with NIMA to see if anyone
> out there
> can provide some advice. For the last year-and-a-half I have been
> trying to
> get access to 4 CDs of VMAP1 data over Vietnam, Cambodia, and
> Laos through a
> Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Most of that time consisted of
> NIMA saying those data were currently available from USGS and me telling
> them that they were not.
Yes. A typical holding pattern tactic that is a constructive denial of your
FOIA request.
> This past May they acknowledged those data could
> not be released to the public because they contain foreign-owned
> source data
> over China and Thailand with the proviso that they can only be
I'd love to see a copy of that letter, to see what their exact wording was.
To date, they had avoided pinning themselves down in writing on this
assertion.
> used by U.S.
> Dept. of Defense activities. The data for Vietnam, Cambodia, and
> Laos do not
> have these restrictions but since they are on CD with restricted data the
> entire CD is restricted.
>
>
Good for you! You are to be commended for sticking with your project in the
face of a determined bureaucratic effort to evade the requirements of FOIA.
This is a typically NIMA response, in that they are
a) lying to you
and
b) using their internal bureaucratic processes as an excuse to violate
federal law (FOIA). There is no part of FOIA that says willfully stupid
agency management is a valid excuse to ignore the law.
They are lying to you on several fronts:
1) It is deceptive for them to deny you data sets under the excuse "they
contain foreign-owned source data over China and Thailand with the proviso
that they can only be used by U.S. Dept. of Defense activities." There are
strict requirements in the law to exclude data. I've been told by NIMA
insiders that these do not apply because of the way the data was acquired,
but that NIMA is using the excuse nonetheless.
2) Even if one accepts the red herring excuse above, unless they
specifically enumerate the data that is and is not covered by the claimed
exemption they are not being responsive to your FOIA request as required by
law. Vague generalities are not enough. They don't do this because they
know that once they reveal the chain of data acquistion under which they
make their exemption claim, it can be examined and determined to be a false
claim. If you want to pursue this theme, file a FOIA claim for all papers,
documents, notes, emails, logs, minutes, etc., whether electronic or in
writing, that in any way a) identify the data they claim to be excluded, b)
the transmission of it to NIMA, c) any discussion or negotiation regarding
that data, whether internal to NIMA or with the provider or with any
contractor that has ever worked on the data, d) any notices or writings of
any kind setting forth the trademark or other intellectual property status
on the data, or e) relate in any way to NIMA discussions regarding FOIA or
provision to any third parties outside of NIMA and f) any data the US has
ever provided to the supposed originator. You'll find that the data was
not, in fact, provided in compliance with all legal requirements that would
exempt it from FOIA.
3) It is a lie when they say they cannot simply separate the allegedly
poisoned data from US-origin data. In fact, using a modern GIS like
Manifold it is easy to cut out data by country outlines, choose any tiles
desired, etc.
If NIMA says some of your request is not exempt they must give you that
part. To cut out a particular country from VMAP1 takes only a few minutes
in Manifold. Even without any editing there are many "tiles" that could
easily be provided to you.
For that matter, it would be a crime for NIMA to attempt to evade the
requirements of FOIA by deliberately seeding public data with what they call
"exempt" data. Depending on what the circumstances of such seeding were,
individuals within NIMA may well have committed serious Federal crimes, such
as conspiracy. They might even be subject to prosecution under RICO
statutes, because the conspiracy it seems would have been motivated in part
by a desire to protect the purely commercial interests of their colleagues
in foreign cartographic monopolies against the economic interests of US
citizens. I have been told, in simple, bald language, by NIMA employees
that NIMA does not want to release all of VMAP1 because it would hurt the
commercial interests of their friends and that the "foreign data" strategem
was the plan to avoid FOIA disclosure.
Well, all of this is purely theoretical until enough evidence accumulates
(slowly) to force NIMA to come clean. Keep good records of all your
interactions with NIMA and don't agree to anything that is not in writing.
:-)
If Listers want to h
|
|
Sponsored by:
For information
regarding
advertising rates
Click Here!
|
