Glomar response

English Etymology So named because it was used in response to a request for records about the Glomar Explorer submarine-retrieval ship.Freedom of Information Act Guide (2007), page 216Herbert N. Foerstel, Freedom of Information and the Right to Know: The Origins and Applications of the Freedom of Information Act (1999, Greenwood): "Now known as a "Glomar response" (see Chapter 2), this exemption came about after FOIA requests had been submitted for contract and budget documents related to the Glomar Explorer, a secret underwater vessel." Noun A response by a US government agency (etc) that it can “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of (secret) information which has been asked for. en 1985 United States House Committee on Government Operations; Government Information, Justice, and Agriculture Subcommittee The Freedom of Information Reform Act: Hearings Before [...the] Ninety-eighth Congress, Second Session, on S. 774 ... May 24, 30; June 20; and August 9, 1984 908 Another legal basis for a "Glomar response" frequently available to the CIA is the provision in the current Executive Order 12356 allowing an agency to "... refuse to confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of requested information  ..." en 1993 University of California, Davis. School of Law U.C. Davis Law Review If a requester knows that the CIA may use the Glomar response only for requests about covert operations, then a Glomar response to a FOIA [amounts to revealing that something exists as a covert operation]. en 1993 Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law As an alternative basis for its holding, the District Court held that the CIA Information Act, 50 U.S.C. § 431, permits a Glomar response only when the FOIA request relates to a covert activity. 1997, Ralph C. Nash, Leonard Rawicz, Intellectual Property in Government Contracts, George Washington University, Government Contracts Program This is a Glomar response, and exemption 6 must be cited in the response. 2006, P. Stephen Gidiere (III), The Federal Information Manual: How the Government Collects, Manages, and Discloses Information Under FOIA and Other Statutes, American Bar Association (9781590315798), page 215: For example, with a "Glomar response," the agency neither confirms nor denies the existence of the requested records. Such a response is appropriate where revealing even the existence of the information would be tantamount to disclosing it. en 2008 Access Reports/freedom of Information A federal court in New York has ruled that the National Security Agency properly provided a Glomar response to attorneys ' requests for confirmation of whether their ... en w:James Bridle Complicity The New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future 2018 Verso Books 978-1-78663-548-8 165 Often shortened to ‘neither confirm nor deny’, or simply NCND, the Glomar response has subsequently escaped from its CIA handlers, leapt the boundaries of National Security, and metastasised through official and public discourse. Related terms Glomar denial, Glomarization See also en NCND References