A further freedom of information act disclosure was made by the Dept. of Homeland Security today. I focus on one sentence in one email, dated November 16, 2011, which is located on page 4 of the disclosure. http://www.dhs.gov/...
The email is in apparent response to an inquiry from CBS news asking if DHS had anything to do with the eviction of the occupy encampments. The response reads as follows:
"DHS is not actively coordinating with local law enforcement agencies and/or city governments concerning the evictions of occupy encampments writ large."
Now this may be occunoia and this kind of sentence is par for the beltway course, but the phraseology struck me as odd.
If a normal person wrote this and meant to convey that the DHS did and does not have anything to do with the evictions, she would have written something like: "DHS did not coordinate and has not coordinated with any agencies about the eviction of occupy encampments." But that's not how it's written.
What purpose and meaning does the use of the term "actively" have? Can one passively coordinate?
Why the present tense in the use of coordinating? Does this mean DHS was not coordinating in the precise moment it wrote this sentence?
And what activities does "coordinating" encompass and what does it exclude?
Why the limitation to local law enforcement and city governments? Does that mean DHS is coordinating with other agencies and that they are coordinating with city governments?
Why the very odd use of the qualifier "writ large" at the end? What does that even mean?
Is this just the way bureaucrats talk or was this language carefully vetted? And if the latter, why? Just sayin'