Heritage Foundation sues the CIA for refusing to hand over Covid records

Vambram · Dec 27, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Foundation Sues CIA For Refusing To Hand Over Covid Records

The conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project is suing the CIA for records related to its investigation of covid-19 origins.

dailycaller.com

Is this a legitimate lawsuit?
Should the CIA have agreed to the Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation?

sandman · Dec 27, 2023

Vambram said:
EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Foundation Sues CIA For Refusing To Hand Over Covid Records

The conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project is suing the CIA for records related to its investigation of covid-19 origins.

dailycaller.com

Is this a legitimate lawsuit?
Should the CIA have agreed to the Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation?

There are certain aspects and specific criteria for keeping some things under wraps.

But things that concern the gain of function should be available to the general public via FOIA, seeing as the seal was broken when the disinformation was spread to the public.

Of course, the CIA is the law unto themselves….but if there is nothing to hide …why hide it?

DaisyDay · Dec 27, 2023

sandman said:
Of course, the CIA is the law unto themselves….but if there is nothing to hide …why hide it?

Knowledge is power?

Hans Blaster · Dec 27, 2023

sandman said:
There are certain aspects and specific criteria for keeping some things under wraps.

But things that concern the gain of function should be available to the general public via FOIA, seeing as the seal was broken when the disinformation was spread to the public.

Of course, the CIA is the law unto themselves….but if there is nothing to hide …why hide it?

Most likely because what the CIA knows about the origin of COVID comes from spying on China. Revealing what they know (outside of the information being used in carefully vetted reports) would reveal our spying efforts against China. I see lots of fully black pages in the Heritage Foundation's future inbox.

essentialsaltes · Dec 27, 2023

Newsweek article.
Interesting that the focus isn't really on China, but whether the CIA "offered incentives" to induce those on the task force to change their minds.

in September, a CIA whistleblower testified beforethe House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and alleged that members of the intelligence agency were offered incentives to alter their position on the COVID-19 lab leak theory.

In the lawsuit, the Heritage Foundation states that they filed a FOIA request for information relating to the CIA's COVID-19 Discovery team, such as its creation, records among members, communications between members and documents "regarding the pay history, to include the awarding of any type of financial or performance-based incentive/financial bonus to members of all iterations of the COVID Discovery Team(s)."

CIA spox "We do not pay analysts to reach specific conclusions."

sandman · Dec 27, 2023

Hans Blaster said:
Most likely because what the CIA knows about the origin of COVID comes from spying on China. Revealing what they know (outside of the information being used in carefully vetted reports) would reveal our spying efforts against China. I see lots of fully black pages in the Heritage Foundation's future inbox.

There are several possibilities ..but what you stated is highly acceptable as one.

Pommer · Dec 27, 2023

Vambram said:
EXCLUSIVE: Heritage Foundation Sues CIA For Refusing To Hand Over Covid Records

The conservative Heritage Foundation's Oversight Project is suing the CIA for records related to its investigation of covid-19 origins.

dailycaller.com

Is this a legitimate lawsuit?

Yes, of course, this is what “keeping government ’honest’” looks like.

Vambram said:
Should the CIA have agreed to the Freedom of Information Act request from the Heritage Foundation?

Where “the lines are drawn” occurs in the courts, that’s how this all works, you know, “normal” .

Vambram · Dec 27, 2023

Pommer said:
Yes, of course, this is what “keeping government ’honest’” looks like.

Where “the lines are drawn” occurs in the courts, that’s how this all works, you know, “normal” .

Unless the CIA has something either top secret, they should have favorably agreed to that FOIA request.

Pommer · Dec 27, 2023

Vambram said:
Unless the CIA has something either top secret, they should have favorably agreed to that FOIA request.

And had they had, Heritage would have gotten their files and no law-suit, no “thread” unless the FOIA hits paydirt.
I do hope that you* don’t think I say this flippantly, but this is how it looks at the intersection of Rights Road and Government Interests Boulevard. All of these things are supposed to be happening under our system and are running pretty normally.
Why is this somehow “bad”?

*generic

Vambram · Dec 27, 2023

Considering that the Heritage Foundation wants documents that show whether or not the CIA unlawfully influenced the government's research about the beginning of this pandemic, I believe that the CIA could be hiding information which would be very embarrassing to high level officials in the CIA or other high ranking administration members.

Pommer · Dec 28, 2023

Vambram said:
Considering that the Heritage Foundation wants documents that show whether or not the CIA unlawfully influenced the government's research about the beginning of this pandemic, I believe that the CIA could be hiding information which would be very embarrassing to high level officials in the CIA or other high ranking administration members.

Yes, they’re “hiding something”.
We can all agree with that.
What the court will determine is if the CIA (or relevant agency) acted within its authority to rule that the FOIA requested documents “out of bounds”.
Again, this happens all of the time with these cases.

seeking.IAM · Dec 28, 2023

If your spy agency can't keep secrets, it is not much good as a spy agency. Should be interesting to see how this one plays out.

durangodawood · Dec 28, 2023

Heritage is not a neutral watchdog. Its mission is political axe-grinding. Its goal here is almost certainly to misinform via some tidbits stripped of context and background.

I would like to see some neutral investigation into the possible origins of covid - with Chinese lab leak (and American gain of function cooperation) being one realistic candidate.

Heritage Foundation sues the CIA for refusing to hand over Covid records

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