April 19, 2004: Headlines: FOIA: Freedom of Information: Journalism: Investigative Journalism: Speaking Out: US Peace Corps: How to FOIA the Peace Corps

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Peace Corps Library: Freedom of Information Act: April 19, 2004: Headlines: FOIA: Freedom of Information: Journalism: Investigative Journalism: Speaking Out: US Peace Corps: How to FOIA the Peace Corps

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How to FOIA the Peace Corps

How to FOIA the Peace Corps

How to FOIA the Peace Corps

The Peace Corps, a federal agency, has been providing volunteer opportunities for U.S. citizens around the world since 1961. Peace Corps Volunteers fight hunger, disease, illiteracy, poverty, and lack of opportunity. As a federal agency, the Peace Corps is subject to the Freedom of Information Act, including provisions of the Act providing individuals with the right to request records created by the Peace Corps and other federal agencies. The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on how to make a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Peace Corps. It will provide you with a brief description of your rights and the manner in which Peace Corps will respond to your requests. The information contained herein is not intended to be definitive or exhaustive.



I. Frequently Asked Questions
II. Reading Room
III. Electronic Access
IV. Conclusion
Appendix A. Sample FOIA Request Letter



What is the FOIA?
The FOIA is a Federal law that establishes the public's right to request existing records from Federal Government agencies.

Who can file a FOIA request?
Any "person" can file a FOIA request, including U.S. citizens, foreign nationals, organizations, universities, businesses, and state and local governments.

Who is subject to the FOIA and what type of information can be requested?
The FOIA's scope includes Federal Executive Branch Departments, agencies, and offices, Federal regulatory agencies, and Federal corporations. Congress, the Federal Courts, and parts of the Executive Office of the President are not subject to the FOIA. State and local governments are likewise not subject to the Federal FOIA, but some states have their own equivalent access laws for state records.

What is a record?
A record is the product(s) of data compilation, such as all books, papers, maps, and photographs, machine readable materials, inclusive of those in electronic form or format, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law in connection with the transaction of public business and in Peace Corps possession and control at the time the FOIA request is made.

Can we ask questions under the FOIA?
The FOIA does not require Federal Agencies to answer questions, render opinions, or provide subjective evaluations. Requesters must ask for existing records, such as those mentioned above.

How do I file a FOIA request with the Peace Corps?
Label your request "Freedom of Information Act Request," preferably within the request letter and on the envelope, and address the request to:

Peace Corps
FOIA Officer
Office of Administrative Services
1111 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20526

State your willingness to pay applicable fees. If you seek a fee waiver, provide a justification for such a waiver.

Describe the specific records you are requesting in enough detail so that they can be located with a reasonable amount of effort. Generally, a record is reasonably described when the description contains sufficient file-related information (type of document, title, subject area, date of creation, originator, etc.); or the request contains enough event-related information (date and circumstances surrounding the event the record covers) to permit the conduct of an organized, non-random search.

NOTE: See Appendix A for a sample FOIA request letter.

Does the Peace Corps maintain any records that are exempt from disclosure?
Yes. In the event a request for any records or information is made which is denied by the Peace Corps, the requester will be advised of the basis for the denial. Such records include:

Records currently and properly classified in the interest of national security;
Records related solely to internal personnel rules and practices;
Records protected by another law that specifically exempts the information from public release;
Trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a private source which would cause substantial competitive harm to the source if disclosed;
Internal records that are deliberative in nature and are part of the decision making process that contain opinions and recommendations;
Records which, if released, would result in a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; and
Investigatory records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes.


What is a denial?
When information is withheld, whether partially or fully, this constitutes a denial under FOIA. A request may be denied for one or more of the aforementioned exemptions. When this happens, you will be notified in writing and given appeal rights. If your request is denied partially you will receive information that has portions deleted.

Can I appeal a denial?
Yes. If your request is initially denied in whole or in part because it seeks information which is exempt from disclosure, you will be advised of your appeal rights and the proper procedures for submitting the appeal. If you are not satisfied with the appeal determination, you may seek a judicial review.

How long will it take for my appeal to be processed?
This is a difficult question to answer because of the size of Peace Corps and its worldwide locations. In fairness to all requesters, the Peace Corps processes requests in order by date of receipt and according to their complexity. These are called easy and hard queuing tracks. Whenever possible, an initial determination to release or deny a record is made within 20 working days after receipt of the request by the FOIA Officer.

If unusual circumstances exist that preclude a timely response, that office will give an estimated completion date and reason(s) for delay. Unusual circumstances include:

Need to search for and collect the requested records from other facilities that are separate from the office determined responsible for a release or denial decision on the requested information. The need to search for, collect, and examine a voluminous amount of separate and distinct records which are requested in a single request.
The need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with other agencies having a substantial interest in the determination of the request.


To receive expedited processing, the requester must demonstrate one of the following compelling needs:

Failure to obtain the records on an expedited basis could reasonably be expected to pose an imminent threat to the life or physical safety of an individual.
Information is urgently needed by an individual primarily engaged in disseminating information in order to inform the public concerning actual or alleged Federal Government activity.
Other reasons that merit expedited processing are an imminent loss of substantial due process rights and humanitarian need.


Do I have to pay for a FOIA request?
The FOIA allows fees to be charged to certain types of requesters, but it also provides that waivers or reductions in fees be given if disclosing the information is in the public interest.

All requesters should submit a willingness to pay fees regardless of the fee category; however, this does not mean you will be charged fees. Except for commercial requesters whose fees total more than $25, waivers are always considered. Fee waivers may be granted when disclosure of the records is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government. The following factors are weighed in making a fee waiver determination:

The subject of the request.
The informative value of the information to be disclosed.
The contribution to an understanding of the subject by the general public likely to result from the disclosure.
The significance of the contribution to public understanding.
Disclosure of the information is not primarily in the commercial interest of the requester.
The ability of the requester to disseminate the information.




Our FOIA Officer can arrange for members of the general public to be admitted to our headquarters building in order to use the Peace Corps' FOIA Reading Room. The location is 1111 20th Street, NW, Washington, DC. Please phone 202-692-1120 for instructions and hours of access.



In compliance with amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, the Peace Corps has created an Electronic Freedom of Information Act Reading Room on the Internet. The World Wide Web address for the Reading room is: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=pchq.policies.docs

Many documents can also be found in the Peace Corps online library. The main address for the Peace Corps homepage is www.peacecorps.gov.



We trust this information will be helpful to you when pursuing FOIA requests with Peace Corps. If you have received this guide in paper copy, we encourage you to visit our web site at http://www.peacecorps.gov for up-to-date information about Peace Corps' activities. You may find the information you are seeking is already posted there. Please feel free to send any suggestions you have for improving this guide or FOIA-related material posted on our web site to our FOIA Officer in writing or by calling 202-692-1120.



FOIA Officer
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear FOIA Officer:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552).

I request that a copy of the following document(s) be provided to me. [Identify the document(s) as specifically as possible].

In order to help you determine my status for the purpose of assessing fees, you should know that I am [Insert one of the descriptions below] a representative of the news media affiliated with the __________ newspaper (magazine, television station, etc.), and this request is made as part of news gathering and not for a commercial use, affiliated with an educational or non-commercial scientific institution, and this request is made for a scholarly or scientific purpose and not for commercial use, affiliated with a private business and am seeking information for use in the companies business, an individual seeking information for personal use and not for a commercial use.

I am willing to pay fees for this request up to a maximum of $_____. If you estimate that the fees will exceed this limit, please inform me first.

[Optional] I request a waiver of fees for this request because disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to the public understanding of the operations or activities of the Peace Corps and is not primarily in my commercial interest. [Include details about how the requested information will be disseminated by you to the general public]

[Optional] I also include a telephone number at which I can be contacted if necessary to discuss any aspect of my request.

Sincerely,

Name
Address
City, State, Zip Code
Telephone Number [Optional



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Story Source: US Peace Corps

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; FOIA; Freedom of Information; Journalism; Investigative Journalism; Speaking Out

PCOL11049
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By daniel (0-1pool136-36.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.36) on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 1:30 am: Edit Post

Here is a FYOI request for you. When you deny documents on under so called National Security laws you violate volunteer's rights as american citizens. You also help the prepetrators of the violence in the field.


As have I indicated many times on this website, I have been unsucessful in finding a lawyer because it costs about three hundred dollars an hour in my case with Peace Corps.

I was wondering, if you or anybody in the Peace Corps community with a legal background could provide me with "a little information". Since the Peace Corps holds twelve pages under laws I stated above and their stance on my case and witholding information is bogus perhaps someone out their "anonymously could help me out with some legal research". "Look at as and legal quiz for you law experts". Here are the laws Peace Corps quoted to me why they can't release these documents with my name on it.

Administrative Services: 10 Pages under the following Freedom of information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5), Privacy Act (U.S.C. 552a (d)(5) and Peace Corps regulation (22 C.F.R. 303.5 (C).

Office of the Inspector General: 2 Pages: Freedom of information Act (5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5), Privacy Act (U.S.C. 552a (d)(5) and Peace Corps regulation (22 C.F.R. 303.5 (C).

Since Lexis Nexis costs a great deal and I am at a disadvantage in geting acess to this information through Lexis Nexis or the laws in the keys. Could someone please assistant me with some legal research. I know what these laws mean and have that printed out. However, I don't have case law on individuals, institutions or business who have been sucessful in petitioning the government and been sucessful in overcoming these obstructions or an alternative to being able to view the documents. Such as being to view them with a camera at Agency headquarters.

You would certainly being helping me over Peace Corps denial of documents under FYOI to me and further to my family.

DDN, your lawyer had to have quoted case law or petitioned in court on certain grounds, could you provide me with any of that legal assistance. If not what court did you file in?
Some of you former General Counsel people at Peace Corps could certainly help or Congressmen or their staff. I would appreciate it. We would appreciate your assistance.

978-462-3868


Look at it as serving the third goal. Or doing your good deed for the day. This is why we need a lawyer working for us as former volunteers.


Daniel

By daniel (0-1pool136-36.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.36) on Tuesday, April 20, 2004 - 2:02 am: Edit Post

I applied.

Was turned down twelve pages with my name on it.

Appealed, was turned down.

The Letter of denial said, "take it to judicial process". That means court for the lay volunteer.

It took me six months and I finally got the letter from "Chuckie Baquette", that if I wanted the twelve pages denied under FYOI, I would have to go to federal court to get them.

When you deny and frustrate on purpose and the documents don't really contain national security information, what is the option for the volunteer? Does it hurt the program? Yes, it does. It also covers up cases where safety breeches did happen. We as Volunteers are not human guinea pigs. We are people. No one has the right to cast people in false light for their own gain, including the Peace Corps as an Institution.

What lawyer do you turn to? How much is a Federal attorney? About 300 per hour and Peace Corps knows this and uses it against volunteer's requests.

Who is Chuckie Baquette to deny documents on me or for that mattter Carol Bellamy or even the current director?

When they cover up on purpose I would say that is "Intentional". If that causes further problems in the volunteer's career don't you think you should be entitled as former volunteer who gave his or her time and more importantly that we are citizen's who gave our time and service?

I would say it is Intentional Infliction toward further emotional harm. Especially, when the volunteer may be right after all these years.

None of the decision makers in my case were there the night of my safety incident. They don't know what happened so they speculated and turned on me. Said I was making it up. I think you know now, I was not making it up. They have made wrongful assumptions and began a personal character assault on me as a person.

Each day, you further advance the individuals who threatened my safety and enable them to possibly do it again to another person.

That is the crime.


Under the above directors many volunteers had safety problems and it is my belief these individuals caused more pain and did the program more damage by covering up.

Openess and resolutions disputes should be a hallmark of Peace Corps, however in many cases especially with regards to safety many volunteers have been "left in the lurch" and prevention of serious safety breeches could have been avoided without their "fear" at the exspense of the volunteer and the program.


That is my experience with FYOI.

When they tell you they will provide information freely, don't be so sure. Look what it took for the DDN to get the information on safety. Volunteers don't have the lawyer the DDN had nor the rights as a journalist to look at the records. Why shouldn't we have the rights as volunteers on all information pertaining to ourselves?

Daniel

By daniel (0-1pool136-12.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.12) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 1:54 am: Edit Post

Truth lies in the detail.

The Detail is what Peace Corps overlooks.

By daniel (0-1pool136-12.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.12) on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 1:59 am: Edit Post

I appreciate all the articles on FYOI. Someone needs to speak out against Peace Corps covering up information. I think the DDN established that Peace Corps is good at this and Marty Meehan called it "stonewalling".

12 Pages on me withheld in the name of the "great man behind the curtain".

Daniel

By daniel (0-1pool136-4.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.4) on Thursday, April 22, 2004 - 5:53 am: Edit Post

Each day the Peace Corps holds back information with my name on it.

The Peace Corps will not resolve my case in any kind of mutually understandable resolution. The Peace Corps is unreasonable when it comes to someone who has gone through a safety incident while in service. That is why there were hearings and more laws will be implemented to prevent bureaucrats, "who think they know better than the volunteer who has gone through the incident" or "know better what happened to him or her in their Peace Corps experience".

I don't discourage in anyone from joining Peace Corps, it is your own experience. However, be paired with another volunteer at your given village and don't let Peace Corps bully you into not being paired togther. Also, be aware of the Inspector General, The Safety office, General Counsel of Peace Corps and the new Ombudsman office.

If they start writing slander or out of context information in your file through medical services during your service, bring a volunteer to witness what goes in your medical record. Take a journal yourself and let a close friend, volunteer, know what you are going through.

If all else fails and you are back in DC and Peace Corps is separating you wrongfully in DC, don't tell Peace Corps anything and go directly to the chairperson of the international relations committee and have their office call to find out about your safety incident.

Many volunteers are back here in the states who were wrongfully separated due to their safety or health concerns by Peace Corps staff who were incompetent, mean spirtited, down right ignorant, and really didn't see the violations happening to us during the 1990's and into present. Peace Corps will not admit any type of fault.

The Dayton Daily News had to write these articles to make the public know how many people have died and went through safety incidents.


While in service:
Once one of the Peace Corps staff doesn't agree with you, in most cases, they start to back each other up, it can leave a volunteer without legal representation for his or her true experiences. Chairman Hyde, Congressman Meehan, and a few others, understand the some of the types information witholding Peace Corps employs just to cover themselves against a volunteer's true experiences, no matter how horrible or difficult to believe.

The Peace Corps has held twelve pages with my name on it under national security. The national security part of the information is speculation or wrong. They can hold information on people for there own protection and so that the public does not see an open and free flow of information. They do it so volunteers don't get health care after a trauma incident or a rape incident and leave you as a family holding the bag for that incident in service.

I went through a safety incident at my site and the Peace Corps lied about my experience, cast me in false light before the public, and fired me essentially. They said I was lieing and the people who threatened, intimidated and used a weapon to do it were never questioned. Not everyone has a good experience with Peace Corps staff people. I have not because of these lies the Peace Corps wrongfully portrays.

They withold information to cover themselves against the volunteer who has gone through the incident.

The Peace Corps wants you to think the volunteer is expendable and has no rights. We are slowly getting them and Peace Corps does not like it. Why? Because, Peace Corps for years has been firing people wrongfully then not following up with them.

Be careful, especially when dealing with the Staff. Get out there and do your thing in your given village, but if you have a problem go to the Congress immediately when coming back if they are not listening or portraying you in false light to the public.


If you do have problems with Peace Corps call me at 978-462-3868.

Daniel Pailes

By daniel (0-1pool136-2.nas12.somerville1.ma.us.da.qwest.net - 63.159.136.2) on Friday, April 23, 2004 - 5:12 am: Edit Post

Dayton Daily News,

Why don't you do an investigative journalism piece on my case so the public can understand what the operations were like in the 1980's to present using medical services fire individuals and how the new legislation may help Peace Corps improve from their mistakes of the past.

Perhaps, another newspaper will be interested and I will continue to find someone interested in exposing their missteps in my case.

Not until Peace Corps stops lieing about me to the public will the continued efforts for reform stop. There are more proposals coming forward which may further separated veteran issues not discussed in the past. Healing for rape victims not getting health care, post traumatic cases and physical illness and wrongful seprations in general need to take place.

I always leave the phone number for 978-462-3868 for Peace Corps officials to call and resolve my separation from Peace Corps with an equitable solution, but I don't hold my breath.

As I have mentioned in the past 12 pages are "held over my head" in a bogus circumstance today, so that I as a former volunteer don't get health care and that my separation case is not resolved equitably. They cover up out of fear of liability instead of doing the right thing. Covering up twelve pages under so called National security is bogus. Instead, they try to portray my service in false light before the public with a public smear campaign through my medical file during service which is littered with gossip, out of context information, possible slanderous and libelous insertions and further denigrating information from Peace Corps staff which is not the truth.

None of the Peace Corps officials or volunteers in Mali or in DC were at my site the night of my safety incident. They don't know what happened. Instead, they lie by turning on my character. My character was good enough for being accepted into Peace Corps but when a real incident occured they found a way to fire me, in capricous and abitrary fashion.

By doing so, the Peace Corps protects the individuals who threatened and attacked me at my site in March of 1989. They simply assist these foreign individuals in terrorizing more volunteers during service without investigating my case properly.

The Peace Corps never investigated my case properly. Six months to a year later the northern part of Mali was evacuated do to the guerilla war with the Tuaregs. The unscruplous individuals I reported about, associated themselves with the Tuaregs and said they did not believe in Peace Corps during their threats and intimidation, the night they threatened my safety.

The Cover up and lies will end someday in my case. I will continue to write about it to any venue until my case is heard properly by the Peace Corps or the US Court because I want to work for the Federal Government some day and this will not stain my record.

I am proud of my service. But I am not proud the Peace Corps officials who flubbed up my safety incident at Peace Corps headquarters. That flubb up has cost the Peace Corps alot of money. These flubb ups have hurt alot of families around the states.

Until the Peace Corps comes clean with their cover ups more and more families will continue to want justice for their love ones who served their country.

To all staff at Peace Corps. Remember you should do the right thing today to reform Peace Corps by doing the right thing in healing these type of separation cases from within the agency. It is your re-sponse-ableness that could help a colleague get health care, over turn a case and bring a qualified person back to service, help a family grieve properly and properly make Peace Corps a safe place to work.

That is my say dealing with Peace Corps FYOI for today. It is also my say for the day on information witheld under, so called national security that Volunteers with safety incidents don't get proper services from Peace Corps and our government.

Using National Security to guise liability is old trick and damages your (Peace Corps) case further. "You should see the forest and not one tree."

Daniel

By former Vol (ca1462-ch01-bl07.ma-cambridg0.sa.earthlink.net - 207.69.137.206) on Monday, December 05, 2005 - 2:46 pm: Edit Post

Total coruption. Who are the Peace Corps protecting?

By fam for Former Vol (ca1462-ch01-bl08.ma-cambridg0.sa.earthlink.net - 207.69.137.207) on Tuesday, December 06, 2005 - 8:42 pm: Edit Post

Unethical behavior at Peace Corps by staff members in country and by staff in Peace Corps Washington continue to hurt volunteers, former volunteers and volunteers who have gone through safety and health issues.

Covering up Negilence is very important for staffers who are short sighted, harmful to others and who know they have made mistakes.
These mistakes are never acknowledged. Many of these staff members base their careers on slandering the "volunteer" experiences so they can climb in ranks or maintain their current position at all cost.

What rights do you have as a volunteer?

Are you represented by counsel if you have gone through a safety, health or administrative procedure?

Peace Corps has a whole staff of General Counsel. Who do they represent? You the volunteer? No, they always represent the agency's position

A Peace Corps volunteer, volunteer's his or her time to service, country, and a developing country. How can we volunteer our time and have a situation like the above has expressed? Are we volunteering to have our careers ruined in federal service because some staff member makes up whimsical information in a file about you?

This is injustice. The injustice is not having basic rights as an American citizen protected under federal law. The military has a veterans board, with representation. They are a volunteer service. Where is the right of the volunteer, the Peace Corps volunteer? Is it in the FECA office? I should think not.


Peace Corps needs more than an Ombudsman in these days of absolute slanderous behavior toward volunteers.

No justice and covering up thousands of former "volunteer" files in order to look good to the public and the congress is not morally right. It is unethical work. To know the program needs improvement and then nothing happens is part of the problem.

For all the members of Congress, who parade their experiences, yet don't represent former volunteers who have volunteered, gone through a safety incident, health incident or wrongful separation are really kidding themselves. You have to look at that member's moral compass. All have turned a blind eye to these injustices.

The Dayton Daily News have received many awards for their article about us.

However, where are our voices?

Is it literal suppression by members in Congress in these cases?

Why haven't they done constitency work where there is no right for the volunteer?

Why?

We want ansewers from people like Tony Hall, Chris Shays, Mr. Dodd, Honda, Sam Farr, and many others who know these injustices have occured.

All staffers and members of Congress who do not take a stand on this issue now and in the future will be remembered after victims of violence in service and wrongfully separated volunteers and volunteers being injustly served under the FECA program get their redemption in the future.

Fighting justice and poverty in developing countries is a noble cause. But, if we don't have our true civil rights as volunteers, how "good" really "good" is a program that is perjorative or slanderous to those who served their country, swore into the United States government , and served like many of you did?

Covering up "Volunteers" records such as the twelve pages the above volunteer has been denied under the harshest guidlines demonstates where the Peace Corps is servicing its goals as an agency.

Craig Livingstone and Anthony Marcea are having their own problems now with file gate. I think our cases are worse than their alleged crimes against people who served in government. The crime at Peace Corps is against people who volunteered weren't being paid and were givin of themselves. Think about the ones who are not aiding former volunteers who have gone through the above. Most are paid.

You are fooling yourselves as former volunteers who served who don't speak out for people who served and had these issues. You are only hurting yourselves. Because we are all former volunteers.

We need to stop the Soviet Union type career ruining at Peace Corps and have equal rights for all volunteers and former volunteers.

Otherwise, you have corruption like the Dayton Daily News uncovered.

Justice for families of former volunteers

By CarmenBailey (h2-66-137-250.mesh.net - 66.137.250.2) on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 11:07 am: Edit Post

Replies Requested Please!

HOW DOES ONE GO TO CONGRESS TO STATE A PROBLEM?
WHICH NEWSPAPER WANTS MY STORY?? None I've sent it to, with lethal documents which are on the internet in chapterssixandseven of thebig
trekdotcom. The last time I put the name of
my site to PCOL news, it was removed. PCOL has carried those two chapters in Library/Malaria for two years, sans the documents which came out later on my website.

Although my Representative possesses steadfast
care in getting my disabiity pay to me - even when I lived in Ethiopia for seven years to be rid of the stink of hate in this government after
it left me for dead in three countries - he doesn't do my request for a Congressional
Hearing. So, WHO DOES?

Please reply via PCOL?

Because I have not received one email concerning my issue of stating the glaring fact that the Peace Corps medical manual WHERE THERE IS NO DOCTOR does not contain a description of Falciparum Malaria which gets in the brain, is 99.99% first day fatal, has no symptoms, is not described with other malarias.

USG prevents the knowledge of an inexpensive medicine which functions 100% with no side
effects. There are several of them, bitter herbs to which the mosquito parasites have not yet
become immune to. One which Chinese have used for
centuries is ARTEMISIA ANNUA. They use it only
when malaria strikes to prevent the immunity
from happening.

About the time I was forced to return to USA, '03,
[my hip joints were out and I couldn't walk due to spasticty in my hips, again, one of several
facets of the neurogical brain disease caused
by Falciparum Malaria] CDC Atlanta set up an
office in Addis Ababa.

According to angry accounts in local newspapers
which were placed on the internet at that time, CDC collectively paid 19 million USDs to the Prime Minister, the Abuna of the Coptic Church, and Ministry of Health so CDC could sell its pills
and have the perk of running off the French NGO MEDICIN SANS FRONTIERS - winner of the NobelPrize year before, which was teaching the growing and use of Artemisia Annua.

The story of American pill greed and deception is
globally rampant and we, the insulated from real news Americans, are the last to know.

By Justice (ca1462-ch01-bl07.ma-cambridg0.sa.earthlink.net - 207.69.137.206) on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 8:35 pm: Edit Post

We need to push forward to get a counsel's office for volunteers and former volunteers.

We need it passed in legislation to protect the civil rights of volunteers in service and the ones who have already been violated over the years by Peace Corps staffers. We need to move forward even privately for privately funded counsel.

Covering up documents to protect inept staffers is criminal.

The fear of reprisal from the agency has put volunteers at risk and has caused volunteers to not report violence at their sites, health issues or funding issues on their work.

The Fear of reprisal is real. Look what they have done to these volunteers above.

It is wrong, unjust and unethical. We must bring Peace Corps back to its roots when it had ideals and not a culture of slandering volunteers and ruining careers of former volunteers.

When doctors make mistakes in the real world they get sued. If Nurses and Doctors at Peace Corps think they are going to get away with Soviet Union type bureaucratic behavoir, think again. The legal and legislaive system is cathcing up to your shennigans. Peace Corps medical services is not a hospital and does not have a license to practice medicine. It has covered up thousands of rapes over the decades and many hundred or perhaps even thousands of cases related to safety.

Just look at the Datyton Daily News reports. This isn't even the tip of the iceberg.


Injustice is what it is and we as former volunteers need representation in our cases and our families need to be apologized to formally.

Justice for families of Former Volunteers

By CFV (ca1462-ch01-bl01.ma-cambridg0.sa.earthlink.net - 207.69.137.200) on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 8:13 pm: Edit Post

How does one state a problem to Congress?

State the problem clearly. That you want a public witness hearing on your case and other former volunteers with health, safety and wrongful separations. Tell the staffer for Senator Dewine of Ohio, who has already called for hearings after the Dayton Daily News articles. State that volunteers with real issues such as stated above were not heard in the hearings. In the house, call Henry Hyde office and ask for staff person on the International Relations committee and state your concerns for a hearing within the International Relatons committee. There are two places to start. However, these are not the best ansewers. As you know, the house doesn't can't do that muc for you or cares to do so as a former volunteer. You can try though. Tell these offices we need a counsel's office to represent former volunteers and volunteers. This may get you in the right direction.

Newspaper article: Call the Cox News service and get Carrollo's number and try to get him to do a follow up story with your story included. We need your story heard and all the stories of former volunteers not being served for their service to their country.

Most newspapers will squelch these type of articles. Why? Some pretty powerful former volunteers work for these news agencies.

Try the Dayton Daily news again.

Keep plugging day by day Carmen but don't wear yourself out, pace yourself and speak and write clearly to these news agencies and congress staffers. Short one page synopsis is perfect. Send it by fax.

Give this a try.

Concerned former volunteer

By CarmenBailey (h2-66-137-250.mesh.net - 66.137.250.2) on Wednesday, December 07, 2005 - 10:48 pm: Edit Post

To Concerned Former Volunteer,

Very usable reply to my question of how to
state a problem to Congress, starting with the
need to state it clearly. I don't do that so
well since Falciparum [speak or write clearly]
nor do I figure out new things decently. I do
have a wealth of data and stacks of documents
and answer questions credibly. I solicit the aid of a person or group who writes well and knows the law on this matter.

Thank You!!

By CFV (ca1462-ch01-bl02.ma-cambridg0.sa.earthlink.net - 207.69.137.201) on Friday, December 09, 2005 - 6:34 am: Edit Post

Thanks Carmen, keep it touch and let me know what they say and we can keep working on this issues.

I am sorry you don't have legal aid on this with your condition. You should and Peace Corps and the government should provide it without a full time job of tryng to prove disability or in my case gross negligence. I bet you pay out of pocket.

I bet those documents are like a warehouse of defense against the Peace Corps and DOL paid staffers. Its wrong and you and I know it. I bet you have more documetation on your injury than Kevin Quigley has on his desk.

Well, he is so smart, he doesn't need paper work probably.

If we get a hearing I will get in touch. There is another GAO report coming. But, I really want the law suit to go through. This is the best way to get the funds we deserve for our service and Peace Corps negligence in health care.


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