Wolf v. CIA and FBI ... the legal battle to release records about Jorge Eliécer Gaitán

Update: On October 20, 2005, I filed a pro se appeal in the Federal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This follows a settlement with the FBI for attorneys fees which was concluded last week. My apeal will challenge the CIA's so-called "Glomar" response, which is to neither confirm nor deny the existence or non-existence of any records about the subject. In my appeal, I will argue that the "glomar response" is not an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act that can be broadly applied to categories, such as the category used in my case - foreign nationals. In addition, the CIA's use of the Glomar in my case is not logical, because the CIA has publicly acknowledged the existence of files on several occasions, such as the testimony of the first CIA Director, Roscoe Hillenkoetter, to Congress on April 15, 1948, or the official history written by CIA historian Jack Davis, both of which refer to specific documents about the murder of Gaitan. I expect it will take about two years to resolve these issues in the Court of Appeals, and if I am successful, it will take a few more years for the trial court to force the CIA to release the documents. This is not a big problem for me, since I have been working on this case for more than four years already.

As for the FBI, I have settled the case with them in exchange for attorney's fees. I received some 720 pages of "cross references", which are pages of documents mentioning Gaitan's name. Most appear to be reports on the Colombian communist party (Partido Socialista Democratico) and the Confederacion de Trabajadores de Colombia, a grouping of labor unions, and Gaitan is only incidentally mentioned. I have not posted them to the internet, except for two heavily redacted documents which apparently show Fidel Castro meeting with Colombian communists in 1945 and 1946.

I was quite disappointed with the FBI's files on Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. Its main file on Gaitan consisted of a single 14 page report. This report, dated April 8, 1946, stated that the Gaitan file was being closed, and that his subsequent activities would be reported in the FBI's "109" file for Colombia, which contains general reporting on political matters. When Judge Leon ordered the FBI to produce this file, they did so. It turns out that this file had once contained over 800 documents, only 11 were preserved. I know this because FBI records are numbered serially within each file, and one of the preserved documents is number 817. The file also contained this serial destruction sheet stating that the others were destroyed pursuant to the authority of the National Archives.

I then wrote a Freedom of Information Request to the National Archives, asking them for the document authorizing this destruction. NARA sent me about 20 letters and memos, referring to this Request for Authority to Dispose of Records. This was apparently the authority claimed for the destruction of documents in this file. However, as you can see, this document authorizes destruction of WWII era files (including those of Nazis escaping to South America, presumably) and the Gaitan reporting would have occurred after 1946, so it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Rather than continuing to battle the FBI in court, last week I settled with them, for $30,000 in attorney's fees. I will not get paid anything, but my attorney deserves to be paid. My main interest has always been in the files of the CIA, and this business with the FBI is just delaying my appeal of the CIA portion of the case. My other thought was that I doubt the FBI really destroyed its files about Gaitan. When the CIA took over the FBI's work in Colombia in 1947, I suspect that the FBI's files were transferred to the CIA. So, I hope that if and when I am eventually successful against the CIA, I will get the FBI's files at that time. There is still a long way to go, but rest assured that I will not rest until all avenues have been pursued to their ends.

Paul Wolf
October 20, 2005

In the news ...

¿Qué sabe la CIA sobre el 9 de abril? El Tiempo, 4 de octubre, 2000
¿Quién mató a Jorge E. Gaitán? El Tiempo, 11 de octubre, 2000 (English)
La confesión del agente Espirito El Tiempo, 15 de octubre, 2000
La CIA debe saber sobre Gaitán El Espectador, 20 de octubre, 2000
Castro ocultó testimonio sobre asesinato de Gaitán El Nuevo Herald, 22 de octubre, 2000 (English)
Aparece nueva ficha en el rompecabezas de Gaitán El Tiempo, 22 de octubre 2000
¿Quién mató a Gaitán? Semana, 22 de octubre, 2000
De Gaitán a Gómez Hurtado El Tiempo, 6 de noviembre, 2000
La obediencia a Estados Unidos El Espectador, 5 de diciembre, 2000
Archivos Secretos El Tiempo, 15 de diciembre, 2000
Crimen de Gaitán, venganza El Espectador, 6 de marzo, 2001
Muerte de Gaitán, una venganza personal: CIA El Tiempo, 6 de marzo, 2001
¿Quién mató a Gaitán? El Tiempo, 13 de marzo, 2001 (English)
Así viví el 9 de abril El Tiempo, 8 de abril, 2001
Hoy, día clave en cruzada por Gaitán El Tiempo, 9 de abril, 2001
Demandados CIA y FBI por caso Gaitán El Espectador, 9 de abril, 2001
Scotland Yard investigó a Castro por asesinato El Nuevo Herald, 10 de abril, 2001 (English)
Gaitán y la CIA: la evidencia Revista Semana, 10 de abril, 2001
Archivos desclasificados en E.U. develan sus secretos El Pais, 13 de mayo, 2001
Yo atendí a Gaitán agonizante El Tiempo, 14 de abril, 2002