Brea Jones

Reporters use public records to expose a spike in suicides among soldiers with mental illness

Published September 2006

By Brea Jones, Pulliam/Kilgore intern

Matt Kauffman can’t remember exactly how he and reporting partner Lisa Chedekel began what would become an open government victory and a national story on the how the military ignores the mental health of combat soldiers.

What the Connecticut reporter remembers is waiting.

“It was hell,” he said.

In early 2005 or late 2004, the investigative desk of The Hartford Courant met and discussed what they knew: The armed forces were stretched thin, troops were facing multiple deployments, recruiters were lowering the bar on education and minor criminal records, and recruiters were breaking rules.

The reporters wondered if the bar was lowered for mental illness, too. Kauffman filed Freedom of Information Act requests but expected to get nothing. To his surprise, he received the records and found a spike in soldier suicides, a surge in antidepressant use among soldiers and the military failing to remove soldiers with mental illness from combat.

Military reporters such as Kauffman find FOIA time limits and federal agency compliance with the information act to be major roadblocks to research. Requests take too long — even when reporters request expedition. Reporters may never get the data, or it is redacted to the point of worthlessness. But Kauffman and Chedekel did what the new Department of Defense FOIA liaison recommends — call, follow up and don’t give up.

Kauffman wanted data on mental illness screening from a predeployment questionnaire, data about what prescription drugs were doled out to soldiers and investigative reports into soldier noncombat deaths.

The team talked to other reporters who had experience with military FOIA requests and knew it would be hard, said Chedekel, who has been reporting for 20 years. She has put in many state public records requests, but this was her first experience requesting documents from the military.

Chedekel rarely reads news stories based on public records requests. Many reporters rely on the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Government Accountability Office for data, she said. But local newspapers can file requests for reports on noncombat deaths in Iraq or pursue other human-interest stories that stem from military FOIA requests.

As Kauffman and Chedekel waited for data, they found families of soldiers who had histories of psychological problems and committed suicide within months of redeployment to Iraq.

The investigating duo would have published the series even if they never got the numbers, Kauffman said. They didn’t get everything they asked for, but they got enough.
Negotiating speeds records recovery

One part of a request can stall the whole process. So Kauffman negotiated with FOIA officers to get some records quickly while others were screened or redacted.

“A lot of executing the FOI is a negotiation because getting something today usually beats getting everything three years from now,” Kauffman said.

He recommends knowing the law better than government officials and making sure the documents are public.

“There’s a part of me that wants to be hard about this and demanding,” he said. “And as I’ve aged — if not mellowed — I see the value of compromising and settling for less, even though it kills me to do that.”

Staffing problems can also make it difficult to get documents.

“If they are understaffed, technically, that’s not my problem,” Kauffman said. “I guess they either need to reallocate resources, or push for more money or go back to Congress and change the law.”

Jim Hogan, who is the newly named FOIA liaison officer for the Department of Defense, agreed staffing is a problem.

Agencies need to recruit good people, create a training and certification program for FOIA officers, and increase their pay, he said.

Although President Bush signed an executive order in December 2005 asking agencies to evaluate and improve FOIA processing, there was no mention of much-needed funding.

In the military, not all FOIA officers are in the headquarters office. Many reporters ask for information from officers in the trenches. FOIA officers in Baghdad have to balance FOIA work with other duties.

“It’s tough to get resources — people, money — because we’re at war,” Hogan said.

FOIA offices can be a resource, he said. When a reporter asks for all documents related to a subject, a FOIA officer can help the reporter pare down a request to get records more quickly.

Hogan said reporters are used to getting information within hours or days from public affairs offices, but they shouldn’t expect a quick turnaround from a FOIA request.
Reporter: FOIA a waste of time

Sig Christenson, president and co-founder of Military Reporters and Editors, rarely submits FOIA requests.

“I think the whole system is worthless,” said Christenson, who has been a military reporter for nine years.

When a 16-year-old girl died from an overdose of antibiotics during a routine tonsillectomy performed at a military base, Christenson got a redacted copy of the report. He submitted a FOIA request to get the unredacted version, but was instead sent another copy of the redacted report.

“The trend in government for the last five years has been to stymie any attempt to get information,” Christenson said.

Although he doesn’t use FOIA requests in reporting, Christenson said some military reporters use it as a tool to deal with bullheaded sources.

“If someone is not being cooperative with you, you can FOIA them out the butt and make them wish they never heard of you,” said Christenson.

Instead of working through FOIA, Christenson recommends finding people who will talk and making phone calls. Relying on FOIA can be a waste of time, he said.

Kauffman agrees that FOIA doesn’t work all of the time, but he said reporters should file requests even if they don’t expect to get the data.

“If it’s a waste of time nine times out of 10, then the reporter who sticks it out 10 times is going to win,” he said.

Like Christenson, Kauffman doesn’t recommend filing requests.

Asking for the records is better because government officials can see FOI requests as adversarial.

“Be charitable and optimistic and assume the person denying you something doesn’t know the law.”

Also, asking for the same data from multiple agencies is helpful. Don’t be afraid of wasting someone’s time or self-censoring yourself because you don’t think you’ll get what you’re asking for.

Despite his success, Kauffman gives FOIA mixed grades.

“Maybe we got lucky,” he said. “But to some extent you make your own luck.”

Brea Jones, a 2006 graduate of California State University in Chico, is the Society of Professional Journalists’ Pulliam/Kilgore intern at the Society’s headquarters in Indianapolis. She recently accepted a job at The Record in Stockton, Calif.

Note: The story can be accessed by members of the Society of Professional Journalists at www.spj.org.

Four decades after the federal open records law was signed, some say government is more secretive than ever

Published September 2006

By Brea Jones, Pulliam/Kilgore intern

Offices throughout Washington, D.C., house a league of Freedom of Information Act activists who have been fighting for government transparency for decades — some since FOIA’s inception 40 years ago.

In honor of the act’s birthday, the experts graded federal agencies and found that public records aren’t as available as they should be, there is little funding for staffing and supplies, and backlogs are a growing problem in some agencies.

Following an executive order in December 2005, federal agencies reviewed how long it takes to process requests, the costs of FOIA and how agencies use information technology.

But most agencies disappointed access activists by not reviewing the way materials are classified.

Agencies often label materials “sensitive but unclassified.” The classification has been used to withhold records that should be public, said Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org.

Classifications were set up decades ago, but they were resurrected following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, she said.

“Of course under the classification system, agencies are barred from using it to protect embarrassing information,” said McDermott, who has been following access issues since 1994.

But it happens anyway.

The Washington Post obtained a memo in June, classified as SBU, with the subject “Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs Staff Shows Strains of Social Discord.” Every paragraph of the six-page memo from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq is marked SBU.

The memo included concerns from Iraqi employees. Women said they were increasingly harassed about attire. Men no longer wear shorts or jeans in public. Some staff won’t take home their American cell phones or tell their families they work for the embassy due to rising fears. Further, the public affairs office has been unable to use local staff to translate for on-camera media events for at least six months.

Five days after this was published, the State Department’s Information Systems and Services Office reminded agencies that the SBU designation does not alone prevent a records release under FOIA, according to The Post.

The use of SBU designations differs from agency to agency, but the White House has asked that federal offices standardize their classifications.

McDermott isn’t sure if this will help or hurt journalists.

Some agencies that typically release records might withhold more information if classifications are standardized. However, standardizing could also create a process for challenging and appealing information that isn’t released.

Bills aim to boost open government, FOIA

Because the December 2005 order has no funding or enforcement, McDermott doesn’t think the executive order is going to do much for the access community.

Furthermore, the order may be enough appease the public and sidestep legislative reforms proposed by U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. and John Cornyn, R-Texas.

“At least legislation would have teeth,” McDermott said.

The OPEN Government Act was introduced Feb. 16, 2005, and applies penalties to agencies that do not meet deadlines.

If an agency doesn’t respond to a requester within 20 days without evidence of a reason for the delay, it cannot withhold information for any exemption other than privacy or national security.

“This puts the burden on the agency,” said Pete Weitzel, Coalition of Journalists for Open Government coordinator.

The senators’ Faster FOIA Act of 2005 would establish a commission on FOIA processing delays. This bill was introduced in March 2005.

But legislative reforms haven’t always worked.

The 1996 Electronic FOIA amendments were supposed to open databases to public inspection and give the public access to information on the Web.

“The requesters have become more sophisticated as a whole about asking for useful records and pinpointing more electronic records, and the agencies have become more skilled in citing reasons about why they are unable to provide those records,” said Michael Ravnitzky, who has been following FOIA for 20 years.

The amendments also require agencies to post frequently requested information on the Web.

But 10 years later, compliance is on an agency-to-agency level.

“It’s been put on the back burner,” Ravnitzky said.

Some of the E-FOIA problems could be administrative, he said.

The people who process FOIA requests and the people who post files on the Web are often in different offices.

Backlogs grow in agencies

The agencies that hold records of public interest — FBI, Central Intelligence Agency, Food and Drug Administration — have the worst backlogs, said Harry Hammitt, who has been following FOIA since 1976 and has been editing Access Reports (www.accessreports.com) since 1985.

“It’s with agencies that get a substantial number of requests and don’t have the resources to deal with it,” Hammitt said.

Public reporting of the backlog began in 1998, but backlogs have been a problem since the law began.

The backlog increased from 20 percent in 2004 to 31 percent in 2005, according to a Coalition of Journalists for Open Government survey of 22 agencies and departments.

Coordinator Weitzel said the survey showed requesters are getting less information from the agencies, they are responding favorably less and it’s taking longer to get a response than in 2004.

“There’s no question that this administration has been much more controlling of information and much less prone to make information public,” he said.

Before FOIA, each agency decided on its own what was public. Weitzel said that attitude is becoming pervasive in federal agencies without the public noticing.

“Washington is a long way from most people and most people’s lives and the necessities people need from government on a daily or ongoing basis.”

Brea Jones, a 2006 graduate of California State University in Chico, is the Society of Professional Journalists’ Pulliam/Kilgore intern at the Society’s headquarters in Indianapolis. She recently accepted a job at The Record in Stockton, Calif.

Note: The story can be accessed by members of the Society of Professional Journalists at www.spj.org.