Aaron Swartz’s FBI File Released on Scribd With 2 Pages Missing

JG Vibes
theintelhub.com
Feb 22, 2013

After the death of Aaron Swartz, Daniel Wright of Firedog Lake mailed in a request for Aaron’s FBI file, because apparently  upon someones death it becomes unclassified and available to anyone who wants to ask for it.

Much to his surprise, Daniel Wright actually received an FBI file on Aaron, but it did happen to be missing two pages.

According to the article at Firedog Lake:

“Two of the 23 pages were not released, according to the FBI, due to; privacy (U.S.C Section 552 (b)(7)(C)), sources and methods (U.S.C Section 552 (b)(7)(E)) and, curiously, putting someone’s life in danger (U.S.C Section 552 (b)(7)(F)).

Putting someone’s life in danger? Typically that refers to informants. Did someone close to Swartz provide information to the FBI on him or is the FBI just being really dramatic?

Or is this standard justification for not releasing the Special Agent on the case’s name? I am honestly still confused by that box being checked off.”

The article also revealed that:

“Exceptions aside, the records reveal that the FBI investigated Swartz for his role in the accessing the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) documents.

Swartz himself was aware that he was being investigated and would later send a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for his own FBI file.

Swartz’s request seems to be different than what I received at least in redactions for example the 4/16/2009 meeting was apparently with Swartz’s lawyer Andrew Good who refused to talk to the FBI unless an assurance was given that his client would not be hurt – no assurance would be given so no further conversation took place.

There is another odd redaction on 2/19/2009. The FBI agent writes a report that includes information from a New York Times article but redacts one of the names that is actually listed in the article – Carl Malamud. Malamud also seems to be the one referenced in the 4/15/2009 report in a conversation with the FBI claiming he did not know “how Aaron did it.”

Overall the files tell you more about the FBI than they do Swartz. They collected information from Linked In, followed his blog posts, and even thought his membership in the “Long-term Planning Committee for the Human Race” was worthy of note.

There is also a Kafkaesque entry concerning Swartz’s blog post NYT Personals which includes the question “Want to have the F.B.I. open up a file on you as well?” – which I read for the first time in Swartz’s FBI file. One can only wonder what is in the two classified pages of Swartz’s FBI file.

The FBI concluded its investigation and the PACER case was closed.

No crime had been committed so there was apparently no further need to investigate Swartz. If only U.S Attorney Ortiz had taken the same reasonable stance. Of course, the JSTOR case came after Swartz made a lot more powerful enemies.”

Everything that was released by the FBI is now on Scrib at the following links:

Aaron H. Swartz FBI File by Daniel Wright

Aaron H. Swartz FBI File by

 

This article was posted: Friday, February 22, 2013 at 6:11 am

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