^*The bureaucratic problem posed by the Freedom of Information Act had been almost insurmountable for the CIA. Skilled officers had to review the files, making sure that each deletion was justified, and that no little bit of information that was released could, when assembled with other information, provide clues to a source or an operation. It was a dizzying task.Most important, the search itself caused the breakdown of one of the cardinal rules of intelligence—compartmentation of information. All data related to a request were lumped together, removed from the compartmented sections of the operational files. Copies were made. More than one person became involved in the review. In some cases up to 21 separate CIA records systems had to be searched. Professional requesters flooded the CIA with queries for files and data. A New York law firm representing Iran leader Ayatollah Khomeini had made four requests for information on the late Shah. McMahon estimated that it had cost $300,000 to process requests from one of the CIA’s public enemies, Philip Agee, the renegade agent who had published lists of CIA agents.