WASHINGTON — On December 8, 2025, the U.S. Department of State closed ten Freedom of Information Act requests about Army Sgt. Kelvin Blas in a single coordinated action. All carried identical “no records” determinations. All were signed by the same FOIA officer. All were approved by the same supervisor.
The mass closure came just three days after several of these requests received urgent demands threatening congressional notification and oversight escalation. It came four months after the original FOIA—filed August 8, 2025—sat unanswered past its legal deadline, with the State Department’s response eventually caught in a spam folder.
This isn’t bureaucratic incompetence. According to documents reviewed by True Signal Media, this is systematic obstruction designed to prevent public scrutiny of how the U.S. government abandoned one of its own soldiers overseas for nearly six years.
And it’s only the beginning of what they’re hiding.
The File They Don’t Want Found
The investigation begins with a simple question: What’s in the file?
According to sources familiar with the case, the U.S. Embassy in Lomé, Togo maintains an internal dossier on Sgt. Blas—a file believed to have been created by then-Chargé d’Affaires Ronald E. Hawkins Jr. in 2024 following unsolicited contact from Burleson, then passed to current Chargé Richard C. Michaels. The timing suggests the file was created to document and justify the embassy’s abandonment based on a former commanding officer’s six-year-late hearsay.
The August 8, 2024 FOIA request sought that file and the communications that led to its creation. Specifically, it demanded:
- The complete embassy file on Sgt. Kelvin Blas
- Communications with former commanding officer Michael Burleson
- Internal memos justifying denial of consular assistance based on Burleson’s claims
- Documentation of how “unverified personal commentary” influenced embassy decisions
The request centered on a troubling allegation: that in 2024—six years after Blas left Afghanistan due to threats on his life—former commanding officer Michael Burleson contacted the embassy and characterized the veteran’s presence in Togo as “chasing wealth.” That unsolicited commentary, according to sources familiar with the case, prompted Hawkins to create formal documentation that institutionalized the embassy’s refusal to assist a stranded American citizen.
The State Department had until August 31, 2025 to respond. They missed the deadline by ten days.
The Unmonitored Email Tactic
When the response finally came on September 11, 2025—ten days past the legal deadline it came from an address designed to prevent further communication.
Covenant for Forgotten Warriors, the veteran advocacy nonprofit that filed the FOIA, received an acknowledgment engineered to block any reply.
The email header warned in bold: “THIS EMAIL BOX IS NOT MONITORED, PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.”
The sender: [email protected]
The signature: Tyeesha G., on behalf of Supervisory Government Information Specialist Ennelle Debrosse.
The response arrived at 12:23 PM on September 11. It went to spam. CFW found it that same evening while searching for other emails—but by then, the tactic had achieved its purpose. The inability to respond to the acknowledgment email created an artificial communications barrier.
The same Ennelle Debrosse who would later approve the coordinated December 8 closure of nine additional FOIA requests. The use of staff acting “on behalf of” the supervisor creates a paper trail that distances decision-makers from direct accountability while maintaining operational control.
Covenant for Forgotten Warriors had sent the original FOIA to three different State Department addresses:
All monitored addresses that accept responses. The State Department chose to respond from an unmonitored group email that explicitly prohibited replies.
The response arrived at 12:23 PM on September 11. It went to spam. CFW found it that same evening while searching for other emails—but by then, the tactic had achieved its purpose. The inability to respond to the acknowledgment email created an artificial communications barrier.
On September 24, 2025—13 days after the late response—Covenant for Forgotten Warriors filed an administrative appeal citing:
- Missed statutory deadline (due September 4, received September 11)
- Improper invocation of “unusual circumstances” after the deadline had passed
- Substantive importance of records concerning a stranded Army veteran
No response came.
On December 5, 2025, a second formal demand was sent, requiring a substantive response within 7 business days.
Three days later, on December 8, the State Department closed nine other Kelvin Blas-related FOIA requests in a coordinated mass action—all approved by the same supervisor who had overseen the initial obstruction back in September.
Between the September 24 appeal and the December 8 mass closure, the federal government shutdown intervened. From October 1 through November 12, 2025, the lapse in appropriations “tolled” all FOIA deadlines—a convenient pause that provided cover for the escalating obstruction.