FOIA and the Veterans Administration

The Department of Veterans Affairs is organized into three large Administrations (the Veterans Health Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration, and the National Cemetery Administration) and a number of management offices. Additionally, each Administration has a large number of subordinate field activities. Within VA, each Administration, management office and field activity processes its own records.

Because, over time, individual employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs may change job positions, it is not recommended that you address your request to a specific person. Rather, you should include the notation "Freedom of Information Act Request" on the front of your request envelope and also at the beginning of your request letter. In this way you will be sure that the responsible individual receives your request without delay.

If you know the office that maintains the records you are seeking, you should write directly to that office or contact the VA Central Office FOIA/Privacy Act Officer for the custodian of the record. If you do not know, submit the request as follows:

• For medical records, to the Director of the VA medical facility where the individual was last treated or to the FOIA Officer at Veterans Health Administration, VA Central Office.

• For National Cemetery records, to the Director, National Cemetery Area Office, or to the FOIA/Privacy Act Officer, National Cemetery Administration, VA Central Office.

• For other benefits records, to the FOIA/Privacy Act Officer at the VA Regional Office serving the individual's jurisdiction, or to the FOIA/Privacy Act Officer of the
Veterans Benefits Administration, VA Central Office. The VA Toll-Free number (1-800-827-1000) will connect you to the nearest regional office.

• For all Inspector General records, to the Office of the Inspector General, VA Central Office.

• For all other records, to the VA FOIA/Privacy Act Officer, VA Central Office.

The address for the VA FOIA/ Privacy Act Officer is:

Department of Veterans Affairs Director
Records Management Service (005R1B)
810 Vermont Avenue
NW Washington, DC 20420

More information can be found here.

Cricket Cell Phone Subpoena Compliance

Custodian of Records
Attention: Subpoena Compliance
Cricket Communications/Leap Wireless
10307 Pacific Center Court
San Diego, California 92121
Fax: (858) 882-9237
Voice (858) 882-9301

Submission options: Pen register/trap & trace or Wiretap, email or scan to: Intercept@cricketcommunications.com

Other process: email or scan to: Compliance@cricketcommunications.com. If no email, request may be faxed to: (858) 882-9237. Response time approx 2-3 weeks. A fee may be assessed for production of requested information.

MySpace Subpoena Information

Rosita Martinez, Custodian of Records
Compliance@myspace-inc.com
407 N. Maple Drive
Beverly Hills, California 90210
888-309-1314

In order to get the profile's info you'll need a FRIEND ID # or a SPECIFIC URL. Locating either of these will be simple if the account is still active. Visit MYSPACE, locate the correct account, click on the link, and the URL containing the friend ID # will be in web address bar. Eg. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=6221, the friend ID # is 6221.

Fingerprinting Basics

From How Stuff Works: some history of fingerprinting and how scanners work.

The other function of fingerprints is a total coincidence. Like everything in the human body, these ridges form through a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic code in DNA gives general orders on the way skin should form in a developing fetus, but the specific way it forms is a result of random events. The exact position of the fetus in the womb at a particular moment and the exact composition and density of surrounding amniotic fluid decides how every individual ridge will form.

So, in addition to the countless things that go into deciding your genetic make-up in the first place, there are innumerable environmental factors influencing the formation of the fingers. Just like the weather conditions that form clouds or the coastline of a beach, the entire development process is so chaotic that, in the entire course of human history, there is virtually no chance of the same exact pattern forming twice.

Consequently, fingerprints are a unique marker for a person, even an identical twin. And while two prints may look basically the same at a glance, a trained investigator or an advanced piece of software can pick out clear, defined differences.

This is the basic idea of fingerprint analysis, in both crime investigation and security. A fingerprint scanner's job is to take the place of a human analyst by collecting a print sample and comparing it to other samples on record. In the next few sections, we'll find out how scanners do this.

Supreme Court Watch: Oral Argument heard last week in Immigration misadvice case

For those of you out there handling cases in which people might get deported or illegal reentry cases, keep your eyes on Padilla v. Commonwealth of Kentucky. The United States Supreme Court heard oral argument last week on this important case that has the potential to have significant ramifications. The issue presented is whether the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of effective assistance of counsel require a criminal defense attorney to advise a non-citizen client that pleading guilty to an aggravated felony will trigger mandatory, automatic deportation, and if that misadvice about deportation induces a guilty plea, can that misadvice amount to ineffective assistance of counsel and warrant setting aside the guilty plea? If the Court were to decide that affirmative misadvice by an attorney regarding immigration consequences would entitled a person to challenge a prior conviction, that will raise significant issues for many people who pled guilty only to find themselves deported by surprise. For full briefing and links to oral argument, check Scotuswiki.

Of course, ideally the criminal defense attorneys out there dealing with cases with immigration consequences are careful not to misadvice to begin with. Good investigation plays a role in this as well by obtaining the proper records and being advised of a client's immigration status as early as possible in the case. Depending on the ruling, there could be a few habeas corpus petitions coming to a courtroom near you.

How the Internet Works

Dealing with computer crimes including the transfer of contraband files or dealing with interstate communications? Looking at how a particular email or file was transferred in cyberspace? Here is a handy little article on "How the Internet Infrastructure Works". It includes explanation on routers, servers, internet protocol, email, uniform Resource Locators (URL) and more.

Military Record Requests: Standard Form SF-180

Military personnel records can be used for proving military service, or as a valuable tool in genealogical research. Most veterans and their next-of-kin can obtain free copies of their DD Form 214 (Report of Separation) and other military and medical records.

Standard Form SF-180 can be found here.

American Violet Trailer

Check out this trailer for American Violet. The film is based on the real-life incident in Hearne, Texas where a large segment of the African-American population was busted on false drug charges in a massive operation. One young single mother, with the help of the ACLU, brought the house of cards down. The film is now available on DVD, I-Tunes, and Blu-Ray.

FBI Delves Into DMV Photos in Search for Fugitives

(AP) - In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver's license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.

The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong.

"Everybody's participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver's license," said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Earlier this year, investigators learned that a double-homicide suspect named Rodolfo Corrales had moved to North Carolina. The FBI took a 1991 booking photo from California and compared it with 30 million photos stored by the motor vehicle agency in Raleigh.

In seconds, the search returned dozens of drivers who resembled Corrales, and an FBI analyst reviewed a gallery of images before zeroing in on a man who called himself Jose Solis.

A week later, after corroborating Corrales' identity, agents arrested him in High Point, southwest of Greensboro, where they believe he had built a new life under the assumed name. Corrales is scheduled for a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles later this month.

"Running facial recognition is not very labor-intensive at all," analyst Michael Garcia said. "If I can probe a hundred fugitives and get one or two, that's a home run."

Facial-recognition software is not entirely new, but the North Carolina project is the first major step for the FBI as it considers expanding use of the technology to find fugitives nationwide.

So-called biometric information that is unique to each person also includes fingerprints and DNA. More distant possibilities include iris patterns in the eye, voices, scent and even a person's gait.

FBI officials have organized a panel of authorities to study how best to increase use of the software. It will take at least a year to establish standards for license photos, and there's no timetable to roll out the program nationally.

Full article here.

FBI Investigated Coder for Public Publishing

From WIRED (full article here)

When 22-year-old programmer Aaron Swartz decided last fall to help an open-government activist amass a public and free copy of millions of federal court records, he did not expect he’d end up with an FBI agent trying to stake out his house.

But that’s what happened, as Swartz found out this week when he got his FBI file through a Freedom of Information Act request. A partially-redacted FBI report shows the feds mounted a serious investigation of Swartz for helping put public documents onto the public web .

The FBI ran Swartz through a full range of government databases starting in February, and drove by his home, after the U.S. court system told the feds he’d pilfered approximately 18 million pages of documents worth $1.5 million dollars. That’s how much the public records would have cost through the federal judiciary’s pay-walled PACER record system, which charges eight cents a page for most legal filings.

ACCA Cases: Watch for Supreme Court Action

From Sentencing Law and Policy

Johnson v. US is yet another Supreme Court case requiring the Justices to try to make sense of which prior state crimes suffice to trigger the 15-year mandatory minimum sentencing terms of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA). Though not an easy read, the Johnson transcript reveals Justice Scalia making a significant and sustained effort to provide a pro-defendant reading of the statute. In notable contrast, Justice Breyer seems to be comfortable with a broader reading of the ACCA statute, though it is not entirely clear how he will vote in the case (especially since last term Justice Breyer thoughtfully suggested that the rule of lenity should apply with special force in cases involving mandatory minimum sentencing provisions).

Remember to get sentencing documents and records to support challenges to prior convictions on potential ACCA cases.

US Has Highest Incarceration Rate

Look a little crowded? According to a report from the Kings College in London now its latest, greatest "World Prison Population List. Check this:

More than 9.8 million people are held in penal institutions throughout the world, mostly as pre-trial detainees (remand prisoners) or as sentenced prisoners.
Almost half of these are in the United States (2.29m), Russia (0.89m) or China (1.57m sentenced prisoners). The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, 756 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (629), Rwanda (604), St Kitts & Nevis (588), Cuba (c.531), U.S. Virgin Is. (512), British Virgin Is. (488), Palau (478), Belarus (468), Belize (455), Bahamas (422), Georgia (415), American Samoa (410), Grenada (408) and Anguilla (401).

More info at Sentencing Law and Policy and Grits for Breakfast.