SECRECY NEWS from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy Volume 2002, Issue No. 109 October 31, 2002

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND "IMAGINARY CONSPIRACIES" CRITIQUE OF THE CIA CODEWORD COMPARTMENT ELLSBERG'S "SECRETS" UK PRO RELEASES

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AND "IMAGINARY CONSPIRACIES" In the climax to one of the most bizarre chapters in the history of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation, a federal judge issued a ruling last month not only on what the law requires but on what is real, and rebuked a requester for "seeking information about an imaginary conspiracy."

The requester, Barbara Schwarz, a resident of Salt Lake City, has become a figure of almost mythical proportions among government freedom of information officers because of her relentless pursuit of nonexistent information and her astonishing litigiousness.

In one lawsuit last year, she named 3,087 defendants in a complaint that was 2,370 pages long. The judge observed that she had sued "what appears to be every federal department, independent federal agency and office or component thereof and each agency's FOIA officers."

That case was dismissed as frivolous and malicious and, in a most unusual step, the court enjoined Ms. Schwarz from further filings. But at least two related cases of hers remained pending, until last month's dismissal of one of them.

"The premise of plaintiff's FOIA requests," as summarized by the Court, "is that a German Nazi conspiracy has infiltrated the United States Government, that [her husband] is being held secretly having been falsely convicted, that one purpose of the conspiracy is to prevent plaintiff from locating [her husband] or his parents or attorneys so that she can testify on his behalf, and that an independent or special counsel may be trying unsuccessfully to reach plaintiff to obtain her testimony."

"The Court concludes that this premise is fanciful and has no basis in fact," wrote D.C. District Judge John D. Bates in his September 24 ruling.

"The Freedom of Information Act is designed to provide requesters with real information about how the government works," Judge Bates continued. "Its admirable purpose is abused when misguided individuals are allowed (in this case, repeatedly) to submit requests to every agency and subdivision of the government, seeking information about an imaginary conspiracy."

It is a source of frustration for other FOIA requesters to have to wait in line while Ms. Schwarz demands, for example, documents proving that L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, is the unacknowledged son of President Dwight Eisenhower (Ms. Schwarz asserts that she herself is the unacknowledged daughter of Hubbard.); or CIA records "relating to a village in Utah named Chattanooga"; or any records referring to her "under code name 'Cindy'."

From a greater distance, however, the Schwarz litigation illustrates just how far the FOIA system will go to accommodate individual requesters, no matter how peculiar, idiosyncratic, or demented they may be.

"Courts are here to grant justice to anyone not only to certain people," Ms. Schwarz wrote last year (all in CAPS).

Though she does not recognize it, justice is what she has received.

A copy of Judge Bates' September 24 ruling dismissing Schwarz v. FBI, et al, obtained from the DC District Court Clerk's office, is posted here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/foia/schwarz.html

Undeterred by the adverse decision, Ms. Schwarz has filed notice of appeal.

Schwarz lost the appeal, too.

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