A FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUESTS

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Requester Service is established to comply with Executive Order 13392. The FOIA is a federal statute which generally provides that any person has a right to request federal agency records, except to the extent the records are protected from disclosure by any of the nine exemptions contained in the law or by one of three special law enforcement exclusions.

The information obtained herein is not intended to be definitive or exhaustive. The FOIA, which is known by its legal cite as Title 5 U.S.C. § 552, along with the Department of Defense (DOD) Regulation 5400.7-R, and Army Regulation (AR) 25-55, governs how requests will be processed within the United States Army Cyber Command (ARCYBER).  Because ARCYBER must comply with national security laws, some documents or portions thereof may be exempt from release.

Your rights under the Freedom of Information Act:

• You have the right to request records under the Freedom of Information Act.
• You have the right to appeal any denial of records under the Freedom of Information Act.
• You have the right to request a "fee waiver" if you can demonstrate that the requested record(s) is in the public interest and not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
• Under Executive Order 13526, you have the right to request a review of specific documents for declassification and release to the public.

Making a Freedom of Information Act request

• Click here to open a request form that can be completed and submitted
• Submit a letter including your full name and address, phone number, e-mail address, a reasonable description of the record(s) requested, and a statement of your fee category and your willingness to pay applicable fees (see the sample). Submit the letter to usarmy.knox.usarec.mbx.hq-g6-foia@army.mil.

Fees

Fee categories:

1. Educational and Scientific: Any accredited U.S. educational or research institution or instructor/researcher of such an institution using the information in a scholarly or analytical work contributing to public knowledge and disseminated to the public.
2. Commercial: Increases the commercial interest of the requester -- for example, book publishers, and authors.
3. U.S. News Media: Representatives of U.S. newspapers, television stations, radio stations, and freelancers (if publishing through one of these news organizations) disseminating current events of interest to the general public to enhance its understanding of the operation or activities of the U.S. Government.
4. All Others: Requests from individuals who do not fit into the previous three categories.

The FOIA provides for the collection of fees for:

• Searches: Time spent in looking for and retrieving material, either paper or electronic files, that may be responsive to the request, including personnel hours (clerical and professional) or computer time.
• Reviews: Time spent to determine if the record is releasable under legal guidelines, excluding the resolution of legal or policy issues. This includes blacking out or redaction of text.
• Reproduction: Generating a copy of a requested record in the appropriate medium, for example paper or computer disk.

FOIA exemptions

Records that meet the FOIA exemption criteria may be withheld from public disclosure and do not have to be published in the Federal Register, made available in a library reading room, or provided in response to a FOIA request. The following types of records may be withheld in whole or in part from public disclosure under the FOIA:

Exemption # 1: Those properly and currently classified in the interest of national defense/security or foreign policy.   If the information qualifies as exemption 1, there is no-discretion regarding its release.
Exemption # 2: Those related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of the Department of Defense or any of its components.
Exemption # 3: Those concerning matters that a statute specifically exempts from disclosure by terms that permit no discretion on the issue. A few examples of such statues are: Patent secrecy, restricted data, communication intelligence, confidentiality of medical quality, contractor proposals, etc.
Exemption # 4: Those containing trade secrets or commercial or financial information that a DoD component receives from a person or organization outside the government. The disclosure of such records will likely cause substantial harm to the competitive position of the source providing the information.
Exemption # 5: Those containing information considered privileged in litigation, primarily under the deliberative process privilege.
Exemption # 6: Information of personnel and medical files, as well as similar personal information in other files, that would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy. 
Exemption # 7: Records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes; i.e., civil criminal, or military law, including the implementation of Executive Orders or regulations issued pursuant to law. 
Exemption # 8: Records pertaining to the regulation or supervision of financial institutions. 
Exemption # 9: Those records containing geological and geophysical information and data (including maps) concerning wells.

Army FOIA Office

The Army Freedom of Information Act Office is responsible for management oversight of the Army-wide implementation of FOIA programs in accordance with Title 5 U.S.C. § 552, and Public Law 106-554. To visit the Army FOIA office website, click here.

For more information and instructions for making a FOIA request for Army IG records please go to https://www.daig.pentagon.mil/foia.aspx.