Sunday, March 20, 2005
If the notes on the plaintiff's website are to be believed, he actually believes the fedgov's outlandish story about a "Flight 77" Boeing 757 hitting the Pentagon. Nevertheless, this lawsuit is an interesting development.
From Flight77.info 3/14/5: the department of justice's appeal response and the full lawsuit. you can see them posted ...
i'm excited about the judge assigned to the case. based on my research, it appears he is unafraid of making controversial judgements...
if you're interested in a top-notch lawyer who specializes in FOIA requests - here is his web site: infoprivacylaw.com
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the appeal response has a nice tone, stating that it's really out of their control that they can't release the videos. perhaps it's the case that they would really like us to have them, but need something like a judge's permission to bend their policy. or it could be some other reason.
[March 8] the lawsuit was filed, and [March 9] the FBI was served...
We got a response to the FOIA appeal. ... it says that the FBI does have the tapes, however won't release them because the release would interfere with an ongoing investigation. this is good news, since based upon the first response, i thought they would continue to reply that they don't have the tapes.
so the question this case becomes about is: would the release of the tapes interfere with their investigation? i've done research on the topic, and it appears exception due to 'ongoing investiation' is a normal response to many FOIA requests to the FBI... they are, after all, the FB*I*. that's to be expected, i suppose.
with the lawsuit, they need to justify why releasing the video tapes will interfere with whatever investigation... i can't imagine how any one can make such a justification - i mean, we know what we're going to see, which is something not unlike what we saw with the WTC towers attacks. how can viewing the the final moments of flight 77 interfere with some investigation? it was in the air low, it flew past the sheraton, over the citgo gas station, clipped some light poles and then crashed. i can't imagine what the problem would be with seeing that...
on the morning of september 11th, 2001 the FBI visited at least two private businesses near the pentagon and confiscated several security camera video tapes.
business #1 is the cigto gas station with several security cameras aimed in the direction of the pentagon. flight 77 flew directly over the gas station at an altitude of roughly 50 feet, less than 3 seconds from impact.
business #2 is the sheraton national hotel. it is known, based upon a prior FOIA report filed by CNN which requested the tapes - that the sheraton's security cameras DID capture the plane - however because of national security, the FBI won't release the video.
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