Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Foxy Knoxy Unclassified: The Amanda Knox State Department Cables

As I promised early, I have acquired seven cables pertaining to the arrest and trial of Amanda Knox. The first cable is December 2008 and the last from December 2009. The majority of the cables are redacted due to privacy concerns with the State Department invoking (b)(6) to justify withholding. Despite this, some aspects of the State Department's handling of this case can be puzzled out. Specifically:
  1. The US Embassy in Rome is handling it. All of the released cables orginate from there.
  2. It is a localized affair. All of the cables went to the American consulates in Milan, Naples, Florence, or to  ....
  3. The State Department in Washington DC. The cables say "SECSTATE WASHDC," but it is doubtful that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton read any of them, at least at first. She may have read them since, but with the possible exception those marked IMMEDIATE. I believe all cable traffic is routed to the Secretary of State or more accurate State Department HQ.
  4. Knox has received consular representation as required by international law. However, it does not appear that the State Department is pushing hard (or at all) for her release.
I should point out that the State Department reported there was an 8th record (most likely a cable) withheld its entirety on (b)(6) grounds. I also limited my search to cable traffic. A FOIA request for all Amanda Knox related records will probably turn up more information, probably some more recent cables, but not much more. If someone can get Knox to sign a release or file her own Privacy Act request, more information will become available.

I have loaded them in chronically, oldest to newest, with each page of the PDF being a separate page of a cable. On the bottom left front page of each cable is a line blacked out. I did that to remove identifying material about me.

Knox Cable Traffic