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Comment by tsaoutourpants | Hacker News Reader

I'll be requesting a copy by FOIA... will post on my blog whenever it comes :)

Thank you for your brave work on this issue, you are a true patriot.

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." -- Samuel Adams, Founding Father

Was the expression "brush fire" current in the late 1700s? In fact, the whole sentence looks a little questionable.

Not really... http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=brush+fire&...

As well as http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Samuel_Adams#Misattributed

sure but this only applies to a citizen's inalienable right to make beer (and seasonal ales).

Could you ask the journalist in question to forward you the entire e-mail as well?

He doesn't want to ruin his relationship with the source by doing so, but again, it should be a public record releasable under FOIA

How long does an FOIA request of that sort usually take? If there are multiple steps, could you give us a timeline?

Probably depends on the request. I got a pretty quick turnaround (or at least it exceeded my expectations) on my request to the FBI for whatever they knew about my grandfather: About 3 weeks.

Sidenote: if you're interested in doing the same just go to http://www.getgrandpasfbifile.com/

It's supposed to take a month. But, the TSA ignored my last FOIA request, so I had to sue them for it.

Wow. That in itself is a great story which should be heard.

Thank you, story is on the blog, including this post: http://tsaoutofourpants.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/confirmed-t...

Is this the same source that's threatening him?

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if the email server suddenly lost a bunch of emails the day before the FOIA request went through.

What kind of relationship does he have with a TSA agent who is mildly threatening him or intimidating him at least?

The TSA as a journalistic source?

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