…If you’re in the Security-Cleared Caste, that is. Inscribed at CIA Headquarters.

On Friday September 23, 2011, the Central Intelligence Agency snuck two pages into the Federal Register –without a notice for public comment.  These two pages allowed the CIA –overnight, without informing anyone– to decree that declassification reviews would now cost requesters up to $72 per hour, even if no information is found or released.  To even submit a request –again, even if no documents are released– the public would have to agree to pay a minimum of $15.

Joseph W. Lambert, Director of CIA Information Management Services, who signed the CIA’s attack on MDR.

The Agency made this change to price the public out of submitting Mandatory Declassification Review requests because it wanted to avoid the independent accountability and oversight that the Mandatory Declassification Review process provides.  Unlike the Freedom of Information Act, adverse MDR responses are subject to review by the…