Find it Without FOIA

Steve Esposito's first book-length project is Time Bomber: The Movement in Amerika, the true story of a 1971 plot to bomb American banks and the incredible hardware hack at its core.

"Early in my research, I discovered that the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was not particularly useful for my purposes; information was not received in a timely manner and was frequently so redacted as to be nearly useless.

It turns out that the FBI had already published key pieces of information I sought via The Vault, the FBI's "new electronic reading room," even though they said much of the information I had requested via FOIA was not releasable.

The Vault proved much more effective than FOIA; it is also not redacted in the way many assume.

Examples of information received via The Vault that had been denied or redacted under FOIA will be discussed.

I would also like to share additional FOIA alternatives I discovered, as well as how to identify errors in records."

Target Audience: New researchers, history fans, anyone trying to get past bureaucratic stonewalling.