Freedom of Information Act

• Author: International Law Group

According to an article published in the New York Times, U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright informed the Security Council, in a closed-door session on August 10, 1995, that there was evidence that Bosnian Serbs in the town of Srebrenica may have murdered 2,000 to 2,700 missing Bosnian Muslims the preceding month. Ambassador Albright allegedly documented the charges by showing classified spy satellite and spy plane photographs reportedly showed freshly dug mounds of earth where Bosnian Serbs had collected and killed Muslim families.

In October of 1995, Students Against Genocide (hereinafter SAGE), requested the Department of State (DOS) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to produce four types of records pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The categories included:

(1) all satellite photos taken in the Srebrenica area of Bosnia after July 11, 1995; (2) documents shared with the Security Council on August 10, 1995; (3) any documents pertaining to war crimes, genocide and atrocities committed in Bosnia beginning in 1993; and (4) information concerning rape and other violations of the Geneva Conventions.

When the DOS and CIA declined to turn over the requested documents, SAGE filed a FOIA complaint with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 1996. The district court gave summary judgment to the DOS and CIA and SAGE noted an appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirms.

SAGE made several arguments regarding its Category 1 request. SAGE first urged that because the agencies initially released numerous photos regarding the alleged massacre, releasing the other pertinent images would not further harm national security. The Court disagrees with this argument pointing out that the assessment of harm to intelligence sources and national security is "entrusted to the Director of the Central Intelligence, not to the courts." Fitzgibbon v. CIA, 286 U.S. App. D.C. 13, 911 F.2d 755, 766 (D.C. Cir. 1990).

SAGE further contended that, by displaying the images during the Security Council meeting, Ambassador Albright had waived the government's...