Several former phone phreaks have asked me how they can request their own FBI files.
It's really easy: Just go to GetMyFBIFile.Com and follow the instructions. That web site creates the letters you need to mail to the FBI to get your files. Just print the letters and mail them off. You'll get an acknowledgment letter back from the FBI in about 10 days. If they don't have any records you'll get a letter saying so about two weeks later. If they do have records on you it will take anywhere from three to nine months for them to arrive depending on how long the records are and whether they were classified.
The cost? $0.42 for a postage stamp and $0.10 per page if your file is more than 100 pages long. Most files aren't very long, so most requests are free.
If you're turned off by typing your personal information into a random web site run by anonymous people, just leave your personal information blank. The web site will generate letters with blanks in it that you can then fill out by hand. You can also use the FBI's own request form if you're really paranoid. But I think GetMyFBIFile is easier to use. It also supports sending requests to FBI field offices. This is really important: the FBI filing system is decentralized and many times FBI field offices have records that FBI HQ doesn't. So if you spent most of your phone phreak career in Los Angeles but you now live in New York, you should send a request letter to both FBI HQ and the FBI LA field office. Heck, while you're at it, send one to the NY field office too. You can do this just by checking a box at GetMyFBIFile.Com.
Yes, you in the back with your hand up, do you have a question? Ah. Yes, that question comes up a lot. Virtually every person I talk to about FBI files asks, "Isn't it true that if you don't have an FBI file and you request your file, the FBI will start a file on you?"
The FBI says that's not true. I have no evidence to suggest otherwise; it seems like a lot of work and would clog up their filing system with a bunch of useless data. (More than 17,000 people filed FBI FOIA requests last year.)
But let me turn the question around. What evidence would you need to convince you that the FBI doesn't start files on FOIA requesters? Say that the Director of the FBI himself stood in front of you and the nation and swore on the Bible, the Koran, the Bell System Technical Journal, and the Kernighan and Ritchie C programming language book that the FBI doesn't start files on people who request their FBI files under FOIA. Would you believe him?
Your answer says a lot about how paranoid you are. It also illustrates the difficulty of proving a negative. :-)
