Glomar Response

choi

Joseph Goldstein, Court Permits Police to Use a CIA Deflection on File Request. New York Times, Mar 31, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/ ... nfirm-nor-deny.html

Quote:

(a) "For decades, it has been the federal government's famous non-answers:

" ' We can neither confirm nor deny * * * '

"It emerged in 1975 with the CIA's response to questions about the agency's efforts to recover a sunken Soviet submarine in the Pacific. And in the decades since then, it has been used countless times by the CIA, FBI and other federal agencies.

"On Thursday [Mar 29], New York State's highest court told the New York Police Department that it was free to use the phrase in response to inquiries from citizens who want access to their police files to learn if they have been the subject of surveillance.

"The ruling, by the state Court of Appeals, carves out a new exemption in the state's Freedom of Information Law, which has been understood to require local agencies to at least acknowledge the existence of records, even if they were not required to release them.

"But the ruling for the first time allows the New York Police Department to avoid even answering whether such files exist * * *

(b) "The case before the court involved public-record requests filed in 2012 by two men to get records relating to any surveillance of them by the police. The men, who are both Muslim, filed the requests after a series of articles by The Associated Press described a secretive Police Department counterterrorism program that conducted extensive surveillance of Muslim organizations and mosques. One of the men, Talib Abdur-Rashid, is the imam of a Harlem mosque. The other man, Samir Hashmi, was a student at Rutgers University and active in its Muslim Student Association. After the Police Department refused to confirm or deny the existence of the records they were requesting, the men sued.

Note:

(a) There is no need to read the rest of this report.
(b) Matter of Abdur-Rashid v New York City Police Dept. New York State Court of Appeals, Mar 29, 2018
("The federal courts have long permitted federal agencies responding to Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) requests to neither confirm nor deny the existence of responsive
documents – a so-called Glomar response -- when the agency’s acknowledgement that it
possesses responsive documents would itself reveal information protected from disclosure
under a FOIA exemption")
https://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2018/Mar18/Mar18.html
(i) There is no need to read the rest of the court opinion, either.
(ii) Glomar response
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_response
(section 1 Origin of the term)
(A) Howard Hughes directed Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Co to build the ship (Hughes Glomar Explorer), for use by his company (Global Marine Development Inc). Glomar came from Global Marine.  en.wikipedia.org for the ship (it is true, but the Wiki page does not clearly indicate CIA asked Hughes to build the ship. See(b)(iii)).
(B) United States Naval Ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Naval_Ship
(USNS)
(iii)
(A) John Miller, CIA Spy Ship Built to Raise Soviet Sub Becomes Victim of Oil Slump. Reuters, Sept 3, 2015
https://www.reuters.com/article/ ... USKCN0R322420150903
(sold for scrap)
(B) Project AZORIAN. CIA, undated,
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/ci ... roject-azorian.html
("Almost immediately after the disappointing recovery effort, planning began for a second mission to recover the lost section. A bizarre and totally unforeseen occurrence, however, had already started a chain of events that would ultimately expose the Glomar Explorer’s true purpose and make another mission impossible. In June 1974, just before the Glomar set sail [to recovery site near Hawaii], thieves had broken into the offices of the Summa Corporation and stolen secret documents, one tying Howard Hughes to CIA and the Glomar Explorer. Desperate to recover this document, CIA called in the FBI, which in turn enlisted the Los Angeles Police Department. The search drew attention, and by the autumn of 1974 the media began to pick up rumors of a sensational story")
(C) Azorian
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Azorian
(D) Neither Reuters nor CIA talked about more recovery efforts on the part of CIA. A documentary reveals CIA recovered a lot: Michael White, Azorian: The Raising of the K-129. (2010; length: 1h 45min).