A FOIA Request to the Defense Intelligence Agency

From: Paul Merrell <ZZZZZZ@XXXXX.XXX>

Date: Sat, Sep 16, 2023 at 1:13 PM
Subject: Paul Merrell Freedom of Information Act Request
To: <foia1@dodiis.mil>

FOIA Requester Service Center       VIA E-MAIL
Telephone: (301) 394-6253
Email: foia1@dodiis.mil
Defense Intelligence Agency
ATTN: IMO-2 (FOIA)
7400 Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-7400

Dear Sir or Madame:

On September 13, 2023, noted investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh reported, inter alia:

"Blinken’s wrong-headed confidence and his acceptance of a significant escalation in the Ukraine war defies belief, given the reality on the ground today in the war. But it also could be based on insanely optimistic assessments supplied by the Defense Intelligence Agency. The DIA’s assessments, as I have reported, are now the intelligence of choice inside the White House." [1]

One such assessment is reported by Anon. (2023), Ukraine on the Verge of Breaking Through Russian Defenses,  Retrieved by September 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3rbkY1np9jY.  

I request a copy of that assessment, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552. (2023). 

I am willing to pay up to $25.00 for providing that copy. However, I request that the Agency waive all fees because I am a member of the media/press s and this request is made as part of news gathering and not for commercial use. I seek the record in order to publish and critique that record on my website and distribute the record to other interested journalists via the Relatively Free Press, https://relativelyfreepress.blogspot.com/. Disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in my commercial interest.

I thank you in advance for your attention to this matter.

Best regards,

Paul E. "Marbux" Merrell, J.D.

[1] Hersh, S. (2023). When the Intelligence Is Inconvenient, Seymour Hersh Substack, Retrieved 16 September 2023, from https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/when-the-intelligence-is-inconvenient.