F-2005-01185 APPEAL

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 01226321
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: August 23, 2024
• Document Release Date: July 5, 2024
• Case Number: F-2022-00198
• Publication Date: July 4, 2005

Approved for Release: 2024/07/01 C01226321
7(135 JUL 2 1 A 0
Mr. Scott Koch
Information and Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC 20505
Reference: F-2005-01185 (Jozef Swiatlo)
Dear Mr. Koch:
Yale University
Department of History
Box 208324
New Haven, CT 06520-8324
4 July 2005
This is an appeal pursuant to subsection (a)(6) of the Freedom of Information Act as
amended (5 U.S.C. 552). Your letter of 1 June notes a search of a computerized system
of previously released material, which produced material which, by its nature, confirms
the generally known fact that the CIA had substantial contact with Mr. Swiatlo, but which
is of no further interest. As to further materials, you refer generally to exemptions b(1)
and b(3).
The CIA has in effect withheld all material relevant to my request. Even if some relevant
material were indeed covered by these exemptions (a point which I do not concede), the
CIA is obligated by law to search and segregate materials. The FOIA provides that "any
reasonably segregable portion of a record shall be provide to any person requesting such
record after deletion of the portions which are exempt. There must be segregable
portions which do not fall within the FOIA exemptions and which must be released.
Mr. Swiatlo, according to encyclopedias, died in May 1983, more than twenty years ago.
His significance to US or other intelligence agencies dates the early years of the Cold
War, the 1950s, a half century ago. These are now matters of historical rather than
national security interest, hence my request. Mr. Swiatlo and those who handled him are
no longer active, sources and methods relevant in the 1950s are no longer so at the
present moment. Should there be exceptions, documents can, according to the FOIA,
may be segregated or portions can be deleted.
Approved for Release: 2024/07/01 C01226321
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Please reconsider these exemptions and your determination. Should you not supply me
with the material requested, I would ask that you provide me a list of such, material,
together with the justification for the denial of each withheld item.
Understand that I am not fencing with you about the nature of the Act. Its major purpose,
as we both know, is to allow and further the public discussion of significant events. The
history of the early Cold War, one of the most important moments of American history, is
now being rewritten, largely on the basis of sources from the former Soviet Union and
onetime allies. As a historian, it is my disciplinary obligation to seek as balanced a
source base as possible. But I would note that it may not be in the interest of the United
States for history to be revised predominantly on the basis of communist sources.
Yours sincerely,
Timothy'Snyder
Associate Professor
Approved for Release: 2024/07/01 C01226321
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