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Osama Bin Who?

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from: Timothy Noah

Posted Thursday, June 1, 2006, at 5:35 PM ET

On April 1, 2005, the National Security Archive, a nonprofit group in Washington that procures and publishes on its Web site documents about United States foreign policy, queried the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The letter, written by Barbara Elias, the Archive's Freedom of Information coordinator, asked for documents pertaining to al-Qaida and its relationship to various charitable organizations.

Scroll down below to see how, on Jan. 12, 2006, the FBI answered Elias' letter. To read the footnote, roll your mouse over the portion highlighted in yellow.

If you have a document you'd like to suggest for this column, please e-mail me at . Please indicate whether you'd like to be mentioned by name.

Since this is a little hard to read, here's the text: "No records responsive to your FOIA request regarding AL QAEDA or in connections [sic.] to any other organizations were located by a search of the automated and manual indices." Not, "No, you can't have them" but rather, "No we ain't got 'em." Isn't that confidence inspiring?
hot document
entries
12
from: Timothy Noah

Posted Thursday, June 1, 2006, at 5:35 PM ET
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Timothy Noah is a senior writer at Slate.
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