This is the history up to the present of my attempts to
obtain certain records from the U.S. government which
I believe may contain explosive information -- they might
reveal the first human deaths from variant CJD (the
human form of Mad Cow Disease) acquired in the U.S.

On December 28, 2004, I sent a letter to the CDC FOI
office, following the instructions given on their website
he

http://www.cdc.gov/od/foia/foidir.htm

I requested "any records in the possession of the CDC
regarding the results of any tests performed by or for
the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center
between October 15, 2004 and December 15, 2004 on
human central nervous system tissue".

According to CDC's FOI page, I should have received a
postcard from them acknowledging receipt of my request
when it was logged into their system. I also should
have received a response within 20 working days.

I did not receive a postcard or any other communication.
On February 4, 2005, I called their phone number, and
their spokesman confirmed that my request had been received
and logged as case number 05-0278. I was told that the
records I had requested had been received by the CDC
FOI office from the laboratory involved, and the records
were in the process of being reviewed for release. In a
subsequent phone call on March 14, 2005, I learned that
the requested records had been received by the CDC FOI
office on January 20, 2005, and that the records were still
in the process of being reviewed.

This is an extraordinarily long delay in the release of
these records, much longer than 20 days. This suggests
that the case was passed up the chain of command -- no one
below the highest level would have authority to release
these documents, if they contained extremely sensitive
information.

On March 19, 2005, I posted an account of these events
to rec.food.cooking and a few other newsgroups.
On March 29, 2005, I received a letter from the CDC
(dated March 23, 2005) denying my request for the records.
It seems more than a coincidence that it took a public
exposure of this case to shake loose a response from CDC.
Had I not posted my account, I think it is unlikely I
would have received a response even today.

On March 31, 2005, I sent an appeal of the denial to the
office of CDC Director Julie Gerberding. To my surprise,
I received a letter (dated April 13, 2005) not from the
CDC, but from the Public Health Service, acknowledging
receipt of my appeal. I guess nobody in the CDC had the
authority (in a practical sense, if not a legal sense)
to make a decision to release these documents. My appeal
was assigned case number PHS-2K5-A-070.

After another extraordinarily long delay, on July 23, 2005
I received a letter (dated July 19, 2005) denying my appeal.
Oddly, the reason given for denying the appeal is that the
records are not in the possession of the CDC, even though
the CDC FOI office had told me the records were received
on 1/20/05!

If these records showed nothing noteworthy, I believe
they would have been released to me long ago. I believe
that the extraordinary delays in processing my initial
request and my appeal indicate that no low-level official
could make the decision to comply with the Freedom of
Information Act by releasing the records to me. I believe
that only information of the most sensitive nature would
receive such treatment.

As I said in my appeal addressed to Director Gerberding:

"The extraordinary delay in responding to my request
suggests what these records might contain: documentation
of the first human death from variant CJD acquired in the
United States. Because variant CJD is a preventable
fatal illness, it would be against the mission of the CDC
if the public release of documentation of such an event
were suppressed or delayed. There could be U.S. citizens
that will become infected today who would have changed
their behavior to avoid infection, if a death from
U.S.-acquired variant CJD were known to have occurred."