National Security Archive
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Declassified 1964 National Intelligence Estimate Predicts India’s Bomb But Not Israel’s
Finds “Better than Even” Chance India Will Soon Build a Bomb; But Mistakenly Concludes Israeli Leaders “Probably Have Not Yet Decided” Continue reading
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Mikoyan’s “Mission Impossible” in Cuba: New Soviet Evidence on the Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis continued long after the “13 days” celebrated by U.S. media, with U.S. armed forces still on DEFCON 2 and Soviet tactical nuclear weapons still in Cuba, according to new documents posted today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org) from the personal archive of the late Sergo Mikoyan. Continue reading
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NSA: Lifting the Veil on NRO Satellite Systems and Ground Stations
Today, the National Security Archive posts the fourth in a series of electronic briefing books concerning secrecy and satellite reconnaissance – one of the most sensitive areas of U.S. intelligence-gathering. Specific satellite programs whose declassification is covered in this briefing book include some of the earliest and, at the time, most secretive programs of their… Continue reading
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NSA: The Armageddon Letters – Telling the Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis From the Perspective of Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro
The Armageddon Letters – a transmedia project (multiplatform storytelling) launched on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis – takes visitors behind the scenes during the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the most dangerous crisis in recorded history. Continue reading
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NSA: Jimmy Carter’s Controversial Nuclear Targeting Directive PD-59 Declassified
The National Security Archive is today posting – for the first time in its essentially complete form – one of the most controversial nuclear policy directives of the Cold War. Presidential Directive 59 (PD-59), “Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy,” signed by President Jimmy Carter on 25 July 1980, aimed at giving U.S. Presidents more flexibility in… Continue reading
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NSA: The Haqqani History: Bin Ladin’s Advocate Inside the Taliban
In the wake of the State Department’s recent designation of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization, declassified documents posted today — on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — by the National Security Archive offer new insight into the Haqqani family’s long history with militancy. The records on Network founder Jalaluddin Haqqani detail… Continue reading
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Anatoly S. Chernayev Diary, 1972
Today the National Security Archive publishes excerpts from Anatoly S. Chernyaev’s diary of 1972 for the first time in English translation with edits and postscript by the author. Continue reading
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CIA ALLOWED TO SUSTAIN COVER-UP OF BAY OF PIGS HISTORY
CIA Officials Defy Obama Directive on FOIA which states that “the Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.” Continue reading
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National Security Archive: That 3 A.M. Phone Call…
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was awakened on 9 November 1979, to be told that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the combined U.S.–Canada military command–was reporting a Soviet missile attack. Just before Brzezinski was about to call President Carter, the NORAD warning turned out to be a false alarm. It was one of those moments… Continue reading
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INTEL WARS: The Lessons for U.S. Intelligence From Today’s Battlefields
Spendthrift, schizophrenic policies and a massive, multi-tiered bureaucracy more focused on preserving secrets than on mission accomplishment leave our intelligence operatives drowning in raw data, resource-starved, and choked on paperwork, according to a new book, Intel Wars: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror. Continue reading
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VIDEO: Iran Contra at 25: Reagan and Bush ‘Criminal Liability’ Evaluations
Washington D.C., November 25, 2011 – President Ronald Reagan was briefed in advance about every weapons shipment in the Iran arms-for-hostages deals in 1985-86, and Vice President George H. W. Bush chaired a committee that recommended the mining of the harbors of Nicaragua in 1983, according to previously secret Independent Counsel assessments of “criminal liability”… Continue reading
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VIDEO: Iran Contra at 25: Reagan and Bush 'Criminal Liability' Evaluations
Washington D.C., November 25, 2011 – President Ronald Reagan was briefed in advance about every weapons shipment in the Iran arms-for-hostages deals in 1985-86, and Vice President George H. W. Bush chaired a committee that recommended the mining of the harbors of Nicaragua in 1983, according to previously secret Independent Counsel assessments of “criminal liability”… Continue reading
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NSA: IRAN CONTRA AT 25: REAGAN AND BUSH ‘CRIMINAL LIABILITY’ EVALUATIONS
President Ronald Reagan was briefed in advance about every weapons shipment in the Iran arms-for-hostages deals in 1985-86, and Vice President George H. W. Bush chaired a committee that recommended the mining of the harbors of Nicaragua in 1983, according to previously secret Independent Counsel assessments of “criminal liability” on the part of the two… Continue reading
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REMAINS OF TWO OF GUATEMALA’S DEATH SQUAD DIARY VICTIMS FOUND IN MASS GRAVE
The bodies of two men whose disappearance in 1984 was recorded in the notorious Guatemalan “death squad diary” have been located on a former military base outside the capital and positively identified through DNA testing, according to the Forensic Anthropology Foundation of Guatemala, which announced its findings in a press conference this morning. Continue reading
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National Security Archive: Finally released – CIA History of DCI William Colby
The latest declassification (in August 2011) from a series of secret studies by the CIA History Staff of the agency’s directors, the volume gains credibility from its authorship by veteran CIA analyst and operative Harold Ford, who courageously presented to the Congress well-documented internal critiques of CIA director-designate Robert Gates during his confirmation hearings in… Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, September 11, 2011: New Documents Detail America's Strategic Response to 9/11
The documents published here describe multiple important post-9/11 strategic decisions. One relates to the dominant operational role played by the CIA in U.S. activities in Afghanistan. Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, August 15, 2011: TOP SECRET CIA ‘OFFICIAL HISTORY’ OF THE BAY OF PIGS: REVELATIONS
This episode of ‘friendly fire’ is one of many revelations contained in the Top Secret multi-volume, internal CIA report, “The Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation.” Other revelations include new information on the CIA’s collaboration with the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro as part of the invasion plan, Richard Nixon’s role in the… Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, August 12, 2011 – THE BERLIN WALL, 50 YEARS AGO
Fifty years ago, when leaders of the former East Germany implemented their dramatic decision to seal off East Berlin from the western part of the city, senior Kennedy administration officials publicly condemned them. Nevertheless, those same officials, including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, secretly saw the Wall as potentially contributing to the stability of East… Continue reading
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CIA FORCED TO RELEASE LONG SECRET OFFICIAL HISTORY OF BAY OF PIGS INVASION
Pursuant to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive on the 50th anniversary of the infamous CIA-led invasion of Cuba, the CIA has released four volumes of its Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation. Continue reading
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National Security Archive Update, June 8, 2011: “Del Silencio a la Memoria: Acto para celebrar el Informe del AHPN”
The National Security Archive publishes a copy of the report “Of Silence to the Memory: Revelations of the Historical File of the National Police”. Hoy, el National Security Archive publica en su sitio de web una copia del informe “Del Silencio a la Memoria: Revelaciones del Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional”. Continue reading
The New Dark Age 