(Washington, DC)  Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo M. Urbina ordered the Department of the Army to release to Judicial Watch nearly 100 pages of records it had attempted to withhold in response to a Judicial Watch Freedom of Information Act request.  The documents sought by Judicial Watch relate to a multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract awarded in 2003 by the Army to Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Halliburton Co., to fight oil well fires in Iraq and restart oil production there.

The Department of the Army sought to withhold these documents from Judicial Watch citing “Exemption 5” in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which protects certain “inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters.”  However, after concluding its review of these documents, the court ruled that exemptions invoked by the Army did not apply to some of these documents.  “Because the government did not meet its burden of showing that these documents fall within Exemption 5, it must disclose them to [Judicial Watch].”

Moreover, after explaining the legal reasons for his decision, Judge Urbina issued a reprimand to the federal government, under the heading “Notice to the Government Regarding FOIA and its Burdens,” while crediting Judicial Watch’s legal team for its “astute vigilance.”

“The court undertook an onerous in camera review of the defendant’s documents, in large part, because of the defendant’s failure to provide an accurate Vaughn index…In this case, the court discovered its inaccuracies, albeit rather serendipitously, through [Judicial Watch’s] astute vigilance.”  (A Vaughn index describes the documents being withheld along with the reasons for withholding them.  In this case, the court found the Army’s index inadequate forcing Judge Urbina to review the actual documents in camera – or in private.)

Noting Vice President Cheney’s prior relationship to Halliburton, Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request to obtain documents pertaining to the lucrative no-bid contract.  The vice president’s associations with Halliburton “raise concerns about the appearance of a conflict of interest or favoritism,” Judicial Watch argued, “particularly since the contract was awarded to KBR without a bidding process and because the contract was not announced to the public until after it was approved.”  Judicial Watch previously uncovered email correspondence suggesting the no-bid contract was coordinated with the vice president’s office and that a top Pentagon contracting official objected to the no-bid KBR contract.

“When the government is forced to release documents into the public domain, it is a victory for the American people,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “Our goal with this FOIA is to hold the government to account for potential waste, fraud and abuse.  This no-bid contract is controversial and the Bush administration has fueled questions about it by stonewalling our requests for information.”

To read a copy of Judge Urbina’s ruling, please click here.

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