Update on continued failure of Department of State to release documents responsive to 2014 FOIA request under the Privacy Act

The background to this update can be found in two previous posts on this blog. I have previously posted email threads related to the release of my personal information, which the Department of State agreed to release in 2014, but has continuously refused to follow through.
https://kyoto-inside-out.blogspot.com/2019/06/privacy-act-request-to-usdepartment-of.html
https://kyoto-inside-out.blogspot.com/2019/09/update-on-us-state-department-privacy.html

It seems a foregone conclusion that I will have to file a separate lawsuit against the sociopaths at FOIA, and there are sanctions for contempt if they refuse to obey a court order to release the documents: https://www.justice.gov/archives/usam/eousa-resource-manual-137-sanctions-violating-foia

 

At present, the government personnel responding to my emails are refusing to sign their names, even though I have explicitly requested that they do sign their names, as per past examples. In the most recent exchanges of the thread starting in August 2020, after providing an extended estimated date of completion in 2025, the person who responded to my request that they sign their name to the email (necessary in the case of a complaint against them, etc.) arbitrarily extended the estimated date of completion another year, to 2026. It’s arbitrary illegal conduct likely carried out with malice in retaliation for my complaining to/about them, but there is no easy way to hold them accountable.

In past email threads posted on this blog, you can see the following names:

Katrina Wood

Charlotte W. Duckett

Angela Burks

Susan B Gardener

Let me just re-post the email from Ms. Gardner dated October 28m, 2016 stating that :

This is in response to your e-mail below concerning case control number P-2014-09239.  The assigned case analyst has advised that the search of the records of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has been completed and has resulted in the retrieval of no documents responsive to your request. In addition, the search of the records of  the American Consulate in Osaka has also been completed and material that may be responsive to your request is pending review. The new estimated completion date is November 2016. 

The last person I complained to before emailing the Office of the Inspector General (another sociopath occupying a dysfunctional position in the federal government) was a woman named Kellie N. Robinson. The email response from her office, which specifically complained about the refusal of the FOIA personnel to sign their emails, also lacked a signature.

Ms. Robinson maintains a public profile on SNS in the form of a Facebook account (https://www.facebook.com/kellie.robinson.12139), and served as a Veteran’s Affairs officer in the Obama administration before moving to DOS. She was named in an email as the contact on the FOIA Public Liaison, but the name of the Liaison listed on the webpage was changed from “Natasha Jones” (at least since 2023: https://web.archive.org/web/20231209054032/https://www.doi.gov/foia/foiacenters) in September 2024 (https://web.archive.org/web/20240926174553/https://www.doi.gov/foia/foiacenters) to “Elisabeth W. McCarty” in October 2024 (https://web.archive.org/web/20241007035735/https://www.doi.gov/foia/foiacenters): https://www.doi.gov/foia/foiacenters#:~:text=The%20FOIA%20Public%20Liaison%20reports,between%20you%20and%20the%20agency. Natasha Jones and Elisabeth McCarty are operating more stealthy, with no public profile. 

Apparently, the personnel sending the emails refused to sign their names because not only were they arbitrarily setting dates, etc., they were lying about whom was the Liaison at the time, as Jones had already taken over at least 6 months before that email was sent.

I did find other complaints/correspondence listing Ms. Robinson as Liaison as late as April 2023. Those cases, however, seem to pertain to public documentation disclosure requests (dated 2023 from “The Identity Project”: https://papersplease.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/IDP-address-change-DOS-13APR2023.pdf and dated 2021 from “Empower Oversight: https://empowr.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2021-12-06-JF-to-DoS-FOIA-Delay-Inquiry.pdf). 

My case, on the other hand, is a Privacy Act request, so enforcement should be much more straight forward, especially since there were no responsive documents held by the 'Bureau of Diplomatic Security, and responsive documents held by the U.S. Consulate in Osaka were under review, with the review estimated to be completed within a month (of October 28, 2016). It would appear that there are issues regarding court enforcement of the FOIA vis-à-vis the federal government. 

Suffice it to say, that the DOS OIG has not responded to my email, and I suppose I should contact the FOIA OIG as well, but for now I’m just going to post the entire thread dating from August 2020.

Next step will be back to the District Court of the District of Columbia...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Results of complaint to Japan Fair Trade Commission against Human Global Communications, Inc. and Kyoto City

 I don't have time to blog much at present, so a brief update.

In response to the complaint and evidence I submitted, some of which is posted in previous entries on this blog, the FTC issues the two notices below.

In short, they found that Human Global Communications had engaged in problematic behavior with respect to the Anti-Monopoly Act, etc., but that it was difficult to implement measures against such companies, so they were not sanctioned.

Meanwhile, though the FTC acknowledged the problematic conduct in the form of the low bid, etc., they did not find that Kyoto City violated the law by accepting that low bid, which is somewhat less than satisfactory. I would have expected the FTC to also call out Kyoto City for accepting a bid that could reasonably be deemed to be too low (either below cost or selectively below market rate (Japanese legal term:差別的対価), but they simply stated that Kyoto City did not violate the law.

I have other issues to bring up with the FTC, so this theme will be continued.

 

The Disclosed English Translation of the Article Kyoto City is Currently Refraining from Publishing from "京都 Innovation Studio Session Vol. 7"

Since I am at the blog desk, let me post this article now.
This translation was also obtained through a request for disclosure of public documents, as it is one of three Japanese-to-English translations that Kyoto City paid Human Academy Inc. to produce, as per the documents pertaining to the tender I posted yesterday. The city government agreed to provide the documents voluntarily, via email.

Meanwhile, Kyoto City has published the other two pieces, but they have withheld this one, partly for reasons I touched on yesterday (Goldman Sachs et al. finance sector connections, etc.), and will refrain from going into further here. However, I will again post the URL to the original Japanese article, which is still active: 
https://kigyolog.com/interview.php?id=236

Suffice it to say, it is clear, even from the title, that they are making a belabored comparison of Kyoto to Silicon Valley, and trying to market Kyoto as a Silicon Valley competitor of sorts. It's pathetic, of course, but these people wield influence over the government. 

I will post the other two pieces in their pre-edited form eventually, but it remains unclear whether the city ever intends to publish its edited version of this, so I will publish the unedited, public domain document, here.

 

Who is Ron Read? Clue: formerly of Kurdyla and Associates, which was bought out by Human Academy, and currently heads their Osaka branch, with its "Government Contracts Division"

This is a brief follow up introducing the American running the actual company that placed the bid on the problematic tender at issue. https://hgckansai.com/contact/

I don't have time to go into the administrative proceedings that I have pursued thus far against the city and this company, but there will be a court action against Kyoto City.

Kurdyla & Associates is not only a company which I did a little work for more than 20 years ago when I was in Tokyo, but the name of the company that Joel Hastings ran in Seoul, which I worked for, was a branch of Kurdyla & Associates ("K & H" stood for Kurdyla and Hastings). 

See this blog post from 2015: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/1450811588230624925/813057494645258886

 

 

Documents on Human Academy' Inc.'s super-low bid on a somewhat dubious translation tender by Kyoto City

 As I don't have time to write a proper post describing this material and the context, I have decided to simply start putting some of the raw data up in advance. 

Theses are documents including the estimates from six companies that presented estimates in response to the small amount open-counter tender for Japanese to English translation (included a short  Japanese to Chinese PA policy statement as well). The bid was so low as to merit a complaint for suspected dumping.

I will post the source text and target text provided by Human Academy Inc. to Kyoto City, but it bears noting that the project is unusual in that it encompasses Kyoto City performing the final editing of the English text itself in consultation with its foreigner clients, including Nestle (owner of Blue Bottle). Kyoro City has refused to post the final of the three texts, and I assume that is because they don't want me to give it the thrashing it deserves as an ideological spiel by the Wall St. investors that have basically bought out the city office of the Kyoto government, and hired an assistant professor from Waseda University as a consultant.

Of course, that is just the kind of fare I prefer these days, so I will be sure to give Iriyama and the new mayor of Kyoto their just desserts. Here is the website were the translations are being posted: https://preservekyoto.city.kyoto.lg.jp/en/journal

And here is a link to the Japanese article for which they are currently withholding the publication of the finalized translation, more than 3 months after the completed translation was submitted on April 8, 2024: https://kigyolog.com/interview.php?id=236