Subject: FOIA for Records Regarding GlobalLeaks

From: Polity News <politynews@gmx.com>

Date: 07/27/2014 08:49 AM
To: FOIA@usaid.gov
Dear Alecia S. Sillah,
Attached is a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for records about GlobalLeaks.
Please confirm receipt of this email.
Sincerely,
Rachael Tackett
Polity News
Po Box 1071
Land O Lakes, FL 34639
politynews@gmx.com
Attachments:
FOIA for globalleaks usaid.pdf 243 KB
FOIA for Records Regarding GlobalLeaks
1 of 1 07/27/2014 08:49 AM
July 27, 2014
FOIA for Records Regarding GlobalLeaks
Alecia ! illa"
#ea$ Lead, Go%ern$en& Infor$a&ion 'ecialis& (FOIA)
Roo$ 2!7* RR+
1,00 -ennsyl%ania A%enue, .!/!
/as"ing&on, 0!*! 2012,22701
(202) 71220340 #ele'"one
FOIA5usaid!go%
0ear Alecia ! illa",
#"is is a re6ues& under &"e Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& (FOIA)! -ursuan& &o &"e Freedo$ of
Infor$a&ion Ac&, I re6ues& co'ies of all records res'onsi%e &o &"is Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& re6ues&,
regardless of for$a&, $ediu$, or '"ysical c"arac&eris&ics, and including elec&ronic records and
infor$a&ion! 7nder &"e Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& legisla&ion, &"e 7!! Agency for In&erna&ional
0e%elo'$en& "as 20 8orking days &o res'ond &o &"is re6ues&! If &"e 7!! Agency for In&erna&ional
0e%elo'$en& fails &o 'ro'erly res'ond &o &"is re6ues& in 20 8orking days, i& faces 'ossible a''eals and
li&iga&ion!
'ecifically, I am requesting records regarding GlobalLeaks! Generally, &"ese records can be found
between January 1, 2011 to July 27, 2014! -lease also see a&&ac"$en& &o &"is le&&er!
#"is lis& is no& e9"aus&i%e! I& is $ean& &o assis& you in find res'onsi%e records!
1! #"e :;er$es *en&er for #rans'arency and 0igi&al ;u$an Rig"&s< a''lica&ion &o 7AI0 for
funding &"e GlobalLeaks 'ro=ec&!
2! *on&rac&s>agree$en&s be&8een 7AI0 and &"e :;er$es *en&er for #rans'arency and 0igi&al
;u$an Rig"&s< for &"e GlobalLeaks 'ro=ec&!
,! ubcon&rac&s 8i&" 7AI0 funds for &"e GlobalLeaks 'ro=ec&!
4! All e$ails be&8een 7AI0 and &"e :;er$es *en&er for #rans'arency and 0igi&al ;u$an
Rig"&s<!
1! All e$ails be&8een 7AI0 and &"e GlobalLeaks 'ro=ec& &ea$!
4! 7AI0 non2disclosure agree$en&s signed by s&aff fro$ &"e :;er$es *en&er for #rans'arency
and 0igi&al ;u$an Rig"&s<!
7! 7AI0 non2disclosure agree$en&s signed by $e$bers of &"e GlobalLeaks 'ro=ec& &ea$!
In order &o "el' &o de&er$ine $y s&a&us &o assess fees, you s"ould kno8 &"a& I a$ a re'resen&a&i%e of &"e
ne8s $edia affilia&ed 8i&" -oli&y .e8s, and &"is re6ues& is $ade as 'ar& of ne8s ga&"ering and no& for a
co$$ercial use! -oli&y .e8s is researc"ing and 8ri&ing an on2going series of ar&icles regarding &"e
financing of in&erne& freedo$ 'ro=ec&s! #"is Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& re6ues& 8ill significan&ly
con&ribu&e &o &"e 'ublic?s unders&anding of &"e 7 go%ern$en&?s 'olicies &o8ards in&erne& freedo$
'ro=ec&s! #"is Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& re6ues& 8ill be 'ublicly 'os&ed online and a%ailable &o &"e
general 'ublic!
As edi&or of -oli&y .e8s, I fall in&o &"e ca&egory :Re'resen&a&i%e of &"e @edia< and I re6ues& a full fee
8ai%er for all fees including searc" fees and '"o&oco'y fees! 0isclosure of &"e re6ues&ed infor$a&ion &o
$e is in &"e 'ublic in&eres& because i& is likely &o con&ribu&e significan&ly &o 'ublic unders&anding of &"e
o'era&ions and ac&i%i&ies of &"e go%ern$en& and is no& 'ri$arily in $y co$$ercial in&eres&!
I re6ues& an e9'edi&ed re%ie8 for &"is Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& re6ues&! I a$ an indi%idual 'ri$arily
engaged in disse$ina&ing infor$a&ion, and &"is Freedo$ of Infor$a&ion Ac& re6ues& is in&ended &o
infor$ &"e 'ublic concerning ac&ual or alleged federal go%ern$en& ac&i%i&y! I affir$ &"ese s&a&e$en&s are
&rue &o &"e bes& of $y kno8ledge!
incerely,
Rac"ael #acke&&
-O +o9 1071
Land O Lakes, FL ,44,3
'oli&yne8s5g$9!co$
CENTER FOR TRANSPARENCY AND DIGITAL HUMAN RIGHTS
"GlobaLeaks (...) won't have any
central point of failure"
"Their project aims to make a suite
of software (...) to (...) maintain a
whistle-blowing platform"
"Tor2web is a positive step for those
who want to publish anonymously
without sacrificing the exposure"
ABOUT
& MISSION
PROJECTS &
TECHNOLOGIES
GlobaLeaks
Tor2web
LeakDirectory
Ahmia
Big Brother Award
Fax2social
PAPERS &
RESEARCH
NEWS
& PRESS
USAID Serbia Freedom2Connect Program Radio Free Asia
GLOBALEAKS
GlobaLeaks is the first open-source whistleblowing framework. It
empowers anyone to easily set up and maintain a whistleblowing
platform. GlobaLeaks can help many different types of users: media
organizations, activist groups, corporations and public agencies.
GlobaLeaks is a project aimed at supporting the practice of whistleblowing
by giving people the software tools necessary to start their own initiative.
Thanks to GlobaLeaks even non-technical people will be able to setup
their own anonymous whistleblowing site on multiple platforms (Windows,
Mac OS X, Linux, Android).
GlobaLeaks provides high levels of security and anonymity by default,
though these parameters can be flexibly changed. This allows the operator to tweak the system in order to reach the right
security/usability tradeoff that he feels comfortable with.
GlobaLeaks aims at becoming the de-facto standard in technologically-powered whistleblowing, thanks to its unique usability,
security and integrable APIs.
It has been financially supported by:
PROJECT STATUS
GlobaLeaks 2.0 stable release is composed by:
GlobaLeaks | HERMES Center for Transparency ... http://logioshermes.org/home/projects-technologi...
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GLBackend, the GlobaLeaks backend written with Python/Twisted;
GLClient, the GlobaLeaks client written with AngularJS and Bootstrap.
Prototypes in progress:
GLDroid, a GlobaLeaks client for Android; this client incorporate security features such as anonymous submission with
Orbot (Tor), and face anonymization with Obscuracam, thanks to the Guardian Project;
iGlobaleaks-Tor, Globaleaks client for iOS.
CONTACTS
Twitter: http://twitter.com/globaleaks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/globaleaks
Linkedin: GlobaLeaks Linkedin Group
Wiki: http://wiki.globaleaks.org
Mailing List: http://lists.globaleaks.org/listinfo/globaleaks-talk
Irc chat: irc.oftc.net #globaleaks
Webchat: http://irc.lc/OFTC/globaleaks/webchat
GLOBALEAKS FOR THE MEDIA
Media outlets, including newspapers, websites, magazines and non-profit journalism associations, can set up a GlobaLeaks
interface to collect anonymous reports from sources that will be protected by default. Some media organizations already have
deployed whistleblowing sites to accept leaks that can inform their investigative journalism, but it is difficult for journalistic
organizations to maintain the technology necessary for security and privacy. GlobaLeaks can provide an open-source
alternative that could be used by any of these organizations and many others. Several media organizations already are
seriously considering the use of GlobaLeaks.
GLOBALEAKS FOR TRANSPARENCY ACTIVISM
Non-governmental and informal activist organizations can set up independent whistleblowing sites and promote them. Such
sites could be used to uncover corruption or other problems locally, or within specific industries. This can be true even when
the issues might not get attention nationally or among the mainstream. Anonymity backed by technological security can help
such organizations even in places where organized crime is dominant or human rights are not guaranteed.
GLOBALEAKS FOR CORPORATIONS
Corporations can set up whistleblowing sites as part of their internal accountability policies managed by auditing departments,
allowing them to spot waste, corruption and malpractice. Employees can be incentivized to voice their concerns as part of
compliance with corporate responsibility laws.
GLOBALEAKS FOR PUBLIC AGENCIES
Public agencies can use GlobaLeaks to involve citizens in spotting tax evasion, corruption, market manipulation and other
problems. Famous public whistleblowing services already exist and include those in the U.S IRS, U.S. SEC, and the EU
Antitrust. GlobaLeaks can help protect those citizens who want to help investigators.
WHAT GLOBALEAKS IS NOT
GlobaLeaks is flexible and suited for many purposes. But there are a few things that GlobaLeaks is NOT.
GlobaLeaks is not the new WikiLeaks
In fact we have nothing in common. We provide a software; they provide a service. We are an open-source community;
theyre a closed group of individuals operating behind a public face. We do not handle leaked documents; they do.
GlobaLeaks is not a corporate whistleblowing service.
GlobaLeaks is simply free and open-source software.
GlobaLeaks has nothing in common with OpenLeaks.
OpenLeaks is a service in which whistleblowers trust OpenLeaks to manage and maintain their data and information.
GlobaLeaks is an open-source software project that does not manage data or information. However, GlobaLeaks is
designed to potentially allow the creation of many OpenLeaks-like services in zero time.
GlobaLeaks start-up isnt sponsored by anyone.
GlobaLeaks is the result of the efforts of a group of independent developers. While it aims to remain independent and will
always offer its services for free, GlobaLeaks projects has received financial support by organization such as Google
GlobaLeaks | HERMES Center for Transparency ... http://logioshermes.org/home/projects-technologi...
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Summer of Code, USAID Serbia, and Radio Free Asia.
GlobaLeaks doesnt want your data.
When you set up a GlobaLeaks node another term for a whistleblowing site you dont become part of a network, but
rather just a node on your own. We invite you to report the existence of your whistleblowing site in LeakDirectory, but thats
really up to you.
GlobaLeaks doesnt track anyone.
The website http://globaleaks.org is never requested or in any way connected to any of the running GlobaLeaks nodes.
Therefore theres no way we can know how many nodes exist, or where and when a user interacts with any of these nodes.
MOTIVATION AND GOALS
Why we think transparency is important
GlobaLeaks strives to increase accountability and transparency in our society. When information that affects the public
remains hidden, democracy and economies cease to work properly.
We are interested in fulfilling the needs of diverse public interest use cases: from media to public agencies, from corporations
to activists. We use the term framework to emphasize the flexibility of the GlobaLeaks platform. For example, the
whistleblower will be anonymous by default, but if the whistleblower chooses to disclose their identity, the framework allows
them to do so. Entities that require whistleblowers to identify themselves can do that as well.
We believe that people should demand governments and companies to be more accountable for their actions. As well we
believe that governments and economies that embrace openness will benefit by promoting trust and enabling informed
discourse and decision-making.
We believe it is important to make an open-source tool because this allows many types of people to use GlobaLeaks and
enables the creation of a community that can constantly make contributions to improve the framework.
Organizations that promote whistleblowing and transparency are not a new development: there are people who have been
active in this field for decades, and groups such as Public Concern At Work have existed for years. Other organizations such
as WikiLeaks have more recently captured the worlds attention. Not all of these groups have the same definition of
whistleblowing, but many of them have faced similar obstacles.
A key problem is the difficulty of maintaining the privacy of the whistleblower. We at GlobaLeaks come from a strong
information security background and have designed our platform to be as secure and privacy-preserving as possible.
The GlobaLeaks suite of software will empower people to stand up anonymously no matter what their definition of
whistleblowing is. The person or organization running the software will be able to customize the platform to suit their needs.
GlobaLeaks is designed with flexibility in mind, while enabling maximal privacy and security by default.
The technologies we use to guarantee the security and anonymity of communications are called Tor Hidden Services. These
technologies protect both the computer that is sending the information and the server that receives it. Both the whistleblower
and the server that gets the messages are as immune from retaliation attacks as possible.
HELP US WITH THE PROJECT
You can join the development of GlobaLeaks 2.0 with your Python (GLBackend), Javascript (GLClient) or C (Tor) skills
depending on what you would like to hack on!
The development of GlobaLeaks requires other kind of support and activities you may be interested in, contact us if youd like
to help with contributions regarding documentation or advocacy!
Outreach
We need help in planning and building outreach projects such as infographics, promotional videos, educational videos, web
blogging, event promotion and so on.
Advocacy
We would like to know about new ideas and projects related to the implementation of anonymous whistleblowing initiatives.
We also look for people proposing and organizing with the organization they know, the startup of new whistleblowing initiatives
by actively advocating for a transparency action in their environment.
GlobaLeaks | HERMES Center for Transparency ... http://logioshermes.org/home/projects-technologi...
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HERMES Center for Transparency and Digital Human Rights - Unless otherwise stated CC-BY-SA-3.0-Italy License. - contacts
GlobaLeaks | HERMES Center for Transparency ... http://logioshermes.org/home/projects-technologi...
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