Falwell suing White House
over ?database?
By Patrick Lynch
The News & Advance
LYNCHBURG ? The Rev. Jerry Falwell has sued the White House and the FBI over denial of a request to obtain information he says is kept on him in a ?secret? Department of Justice database of religious and pro-life leaders.
Falwell?s lawsuit says the database is used to store information intended for use in smear tactics against the database?s targets.
Responses from the White House and the FBI question Falwell?s claims.
Falwell filed requests for information in the late summer of 1999, after being told about the database by Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C., organization that says it learned of the database through an anonymous source. Judicial Watch is a conservative ?watchdog? that has several outstanding lawsuits against the Clinton administration.
Falwell was denied his request to see the information in the database, which Judicial Watch said is referred to within the Department of Justice, which oversees the FBI, as ?VAAPCON.? Judicial Watch has not said what the letters in ?VAAPCON? stand for.
Last week, Falwell filed his lawsuit on the grounds that keeping information about him in the database is a violation of the Privacy Act of 1974, and that the White House?s and the FBI?s denials of his requests are violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Essentially, the Privacy Act makes it illegal for the government to keep a file on a person without (cont)
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