Freedom of Information Act Spotlighted in The Spy Files by Kenneth Eade...

 

Long title	An Act to amend section 3 of the Administrative Procedure Act, chapter 324, of the Act of June 11, 1946 (60 Stat. 238), to clarify and protect the right of the public to information, and for other purposes.
Acronyms(colloquial)	FOIA
Nicknames	Public Information Act of 1966 Public Information Availability
Enacted by	the 89th United States Congress
Effective	July 5, 1967

The way things are supposed to work is that we're supposed to know virtually everything about what they (the government) do; that's why they're called public servants.

They're supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do; that's why we're called private individuals.

--Glen Greenwald

Arguing that you don't care about the right

to privacy because you have nothing to hide

is no different than saying you don't care

about free speech because you have nothing

to say.

--Edward Snowden

The Spy Files
A Brent Marks Legal Thriller

By Kenneth Eade

I don't know about you, but I've not been happy with our seeming loss of Freedom of Information since The Patriots Act came into effect. While not beginning to be able to argue about what my thoughts and intuition arrive at, I thought it was a time for us to consider what can and perhaps is happening today... The Spy Files pits the Freedom of Information Act against The Patriot's Act in a very unpleasant legal case. And our main character of the series is in deep trouble...

You're right if you guessed, he is not the brilliant lawyer solving the case. He is the defendant and, thankfully, he had another learned gentlemen to represent him. A Quite Interesting elder in the matters of Law...

With a Prologue that sets us up for a legal case, when a brilliant scientist for MSoft Corporation, the software and computer giant, is murdered... we will not see anything about that murder until later in the story...so keep your eyes open!

[To Brent} He was a kindred spirit.
A man against the grain. A fish
swimming against the current. He
seemed to live by the epigraph in
Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451:
"When they give you lined paper,
write the other way."
~~~

Michael Fine, somewhat of a freelance journalist who was always getting into issues on the Freedom of Information Act had come to Brent Marks for a consultation on the FOIA.

Michael Fine was a young journalist with an attitude. He had been fired from his job at the Los Angeles Times and had found his place in the "alternative press" of Dissident News. There was just no other place for him. He was a round peg in a square hole, an investigative journalist in a world of corporate media owned journalism...his reputation was well known. Hated by many government agencies because of his excessive use of the Freedom of Information Act to draw out and publicize sensitive government information, he had been told by the Pentagon: "We'll give you the documents, so long as you never file another FOIA request again..."

~~~

His story was about government surveillance, but nobody in the government is willing to talk about it, saying it's a matter of national security.

Brent added that "of course, The national security of spying on U.S. citizens."

Agreeing, Fine indicated that he'd filed the required FOIA requests with the DOJ, the FBI, the NSA and the CIA and that the Act called for receipt within 20 days. He noted that there was an upcoming vote by Congress that related and he needed to get his articles completed before then...

Congress will be voting on the ratification of a secret information sharing agreement with the EU that hasn't even been disclosed to the public yet, so the story I'm working on is right now. The FBI has refused to produce the records. Here's what they said after my appeal." We cannot produce the records requested because they are located in an investigative file which is exempt from disclosure pursuant to...

Fine had hired Marks to sue for responses on his requests...

And then the irony of our justice system begins! Fine had passed on records to Marks for safe keeping, because the FBI indicated almost immediately after they have given Fine the records that he'd requested...that they return them! They refuse initially and then are arrested...

Then the legal system offers Fine a deal if he puts most of the blame on to his lawyer! 

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Fine was quite willing to agree with the Agents who had taken him in and offered the plea bargain...Now, it was Brent Marks who was labeled as working against the government!

Those of you who have read this series will remember that Marks normally starts a background investigation on anything related to what his present case is...And in this case, readers will discover that the "why" the government is acting proactively to get those files back just might be for criminal rather than national security reasons...

Kinda makes you wonder, stop and think...and...worry...

You know, I've seen that some have compared Kenneth Eade to John Grisham. I read a couple of his books years ago and never got interested enough to continue...Not so, with Kenneth Eade. He provides content I want to read and learn about but his characters are the real driving point for me. I enjoy Marks and his investigator, Jack Ruder. But the man who he chose to represent him against the FBI in this book was, really, one cool dude! Hope to see him again sometime... 

If you haven't read this author yet, and enjoy legal thrillers, do check this book and others by Kenneth Eade! Highly recommended!


GABixlerReviews

Described by critics as "one of our strongest thriller writers on the scene," author Kenneth Eade, best known for his legal and political thrillers, practiced law for 30 years before publishing his first novel, "An Involuntary Spy." Eade, an up-and-coming author in the legal thriller and courtroom drama genre, has been described by critics as "One of our strongest thriller writers on the scene and the fact that he draws his stories from the contemporary philosophical landscape is very much to his credit." He is the author of the "Brent Marks Legal Thriller Series", the fifth installment of which, Killer.com, won best legal thriller in the 2015 Beverly Hills Book Awards, and the "Involuntary Spy Espionage Series".

Said Eade of the comparisons, "Readers compare me in style to John Grisham and, there are some similarities, because John also likes to craft a story around real topics and we are both lawyers. However, all of my novels are rooted in reality, not fantasy. I use fictional characters and situations to express factual and conceptual issues. Some use the term 'faction' to describe this style, and it is present in all my fictional works." 

Eade has written twelve novels, which are now in the process of being translated into six languages. He is known to keep in touch with his readers, and offers a free Kindle book to all those who sign up at his web site, www.kennetheade.com. 

Email: info@kennetheade.com
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