From: Swan, Francine I LTC NGNH To : Yvonne Dunetz Sent: Saturday, September 8, 2007 12:25 PM Subject: Project-America Cares For The Families of Our Fallen Soldiers and Veterans Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Caveats: NONE Dear Ms. Dunetz, As COL Duncan's email mentioned I was asked to write to you to explain the issues surrounding the limits on what the New Hampshire National Guard can do with respect to support or endorsement of private organizations. My apologies for the delay in getting this to you. As you may or may not know Ms. Lindskog is not an employee of the New Hampshire National Guard, rather she is employed by a contractor to perform certain duties under that contract for the New Hampshire National Guard. Because Ms. Lindskog is employed by a contractor she is not familiar with the ethical and other constraints on the National Guard. There are a number of legal and ethical constraints on the New Hampshire National Guard with respect to involvement with outside organizations and release of information. Members of the New Hampshire National Guard are required, by law, to comply with the Joint Ethics Regulation. Chapter 3 of the Joint Ethics Regulation governs activities with non-federal entities and paragraph 3-209 states "Endorsement of a non Federal entity, event, product, service, or enterprise may be neither stated nor implied by employees in their official capacities and titles, positions, or organization names may not be used to suggest official endorsement or preferential treatment of any non Federal entity". There are listed exceptions to this prohibition however your organization is not among the listed organizations. The second limitation has to do with release of Privacy Act protected information, the New Hampshire National Guard does not have the authority to release personal information of an individual without express permission of the individuals involved. This means that we cannot forward you the information you have requested with respect to the names and addresses of next of kin of our fallen soldiers and airmen. Release of protected information in violation of the Privacy Act is punishable by a $5000 fine per offense. Finally, the New Hampshire National Guard cannot be involved in fund raising for private entities. If, as you explain, Ms. Lindskog was going to provide you with information on funding resources I can only assume that she was going to do so in her personal capacity as there are no such resources in the New Hampshire National Guard. None of these limitations would affect Mr. Dalianis, nor would they affect other individuals who would chose to be involved with your organization in a personal capacity and I will be more than happy to explain that to anyone who has questions, please also feel free to share my letter with anyone who may have questions. These limitations in no way reflect on your organization or it's efforts, they are simply the rules we are required to follow.
Please do not hesitate to contact me should you have any questions about the rules their application. //SIGNED// FRANCINE I. SWAN, Lt Col, NHNG Legal Advisor to The Adjutant General Adjutant General's Department