Thursday, May 24, 2018

"DHS Fusion Center Gets Request For Documents On Extremists, Decides To Hand Over Mind Control Docs Instead"

Techdirt, May 24:

from the here's-the-thing-you-didn't-ask-for-but-will-probably-enjoy-reading dept
Once you release a document to a public records requesters, it's a public record, whether you meant to release it or not. The person handling FOIA requests for the Washington State Fusion Center (a DHS/local law enforcement collaboration known more for its failures than successes) sent Curtis Waltman something unexpected back in April. Waltman asked the Fusion Center for records pertaining to Antifa and white supremacy groups. He did get those records. But he also got something titled "EM effects on human body.zip."

Instead of intel and assessments on local Antifa/white supremacists, Waltman found things like this
https://i.imgur.com/UeBGydn.jpg
And this:
The files did not appear to have been generated by any government agency, but rather collected from other sources who thought there might be some way the government could control minds using electronic stimulation or "remote brain mapping." Why the Fusion Center had them on hand remains a mystery, as does their attachment to a FOIA request containing nothing about electronic mind manipulation.

This inadvertent disclosure has led to more requests for the same documents. Only this time, requesters -- like Joshua Eaton of ThinkProgress -- are asking specifically for government mind control files. It appears the Fusion Center first thought about withholding some mind control docs, but somewhere along the line decided it couldn't pretend the documents that weren't supposed to be released hadn't actually been released.

An email chain in the release [PDF] to Eaton contains an apology from the staffer who accidentally sent Waltman the mind control files....MORE