DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Through its lawyer, William J. Olson P.C. of Vienna, Virginia (http://www.lawandfreedom.com/), GATA today filed federal Freedom of Information Act requests with the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, and Federal Open Market Committee, greatly expanding upon GATA's 2009 FOIA request to the Fed, which sought access to records involving gold swaps.
The 2009 FOIA action elicited a revealing admission from the Fed that it has secret and highly sensitive gold swap agreements with foreign banks -- an admission that the Fed, despite its many previous denials, is indeed active in the gold market. That FOIA action led to GATA's lawsuit against the Fed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which last year produced both a judicial finding that the Fed has many gold-related secrets and a verdict enough in GATA's favor that the Fed was required to pay court costs to GATA:
GATA's new FOIA requests seek access not just to records involving gold swaps but essentially to all records held by the targeted agencies that involve gold -- for example, in the case of the State Department, records of all international agreements involving the United States and gold.
We're hopeful that these FOIA requests will liberate material as telling as the confession the Fed was forced to make about secret gold swap agreements in GATA's first FOIA case. But of course contending with the likely resistance of the targeted agencies and then taking them to federal court will involve much effort and expense. If you're inclined to help, information about donating to GATA is here:
GATA's new FOIA request to the State Department is here:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Letter-StateDept-07-24-2012.pdf
GATA's new FOIA request to the Treasury Department is here:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Letter-Treasury-07-24-2012.pdf
GATA's new FOIA request to the Federal Reserve Board is here:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Letter-Fed-07-24-2012.pdf
And GATA's new FOIA request to the Federal Open Market Committee is here:
http://www.gata.org/files/GATA-FOI-Letter-FOMC-07-24-2012.pdf
GATA this week received inquiries from two more reporters for major news agencies seeking information about the rigging of the gold market, inquiries that seem to have been prompted by GATA secretary/treasurer Chris Powell's appearance on CNBC Asia last month (http://www.gata.org/node/11490) and the LIBOR interest rate rigging scandal. We gave the reporters the basic background about gold market rigging (http://www.gata.org/node/11507) and suggested specific questions they might put to major central banks, questions that are almost certain to prompt refusals to answer and thus to confirm that the central banks are active in the gold market.
"We're increasingly hopeful that something will come of this terribly tentative if laughably obvious journalism over the next few years," said Chris Powell.