National Security Archive
-
Cuba/USA: CIA SUCCESSFULLY CONCEALS BAY OF PIGS HISTORY
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday joined the CIA’s cover-up of its Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961 by ruling that a 30-year-old volume of the CIA’s draft “official history” could be withheld from the public under the “deliberative process” privilege, even though four of the five volumes have previously been… Continue reading
-
Iran 1953: The Strange Odyssey of Kermit Roosevelt's "Countercoup"
As the Iranian revolution crested in 1978-1979, the CIA approved a memoir by Kermit Roosevelt, one of the architects of the 1953 coup against Iran’s nationalist prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddeq. After first balking at the potential exposure of numerous “secrets,” the CIA relented when Roosevelt agreed to delete all mention of MI6 and made over… Continue reading
-
FOIA Lawsuit Fights to Reveal US Government’s Involvement in Nelson Mandela’s 1962 Arrest
Nelson Mandela was found guilty of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow South Africa’s apartheid government on June 12, 1964, served 27 years in prison, and stayed on the US’ terror watch list until 2008 –including while he was president of South Africa. While the US joined the international community in condemning Mandela’s arrest in… Continue reading
-
National Security Archive: Spy Chief James Clapper Wins Rosemary Award
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance in 2013, according to the citation published today by the National Security Archive at www.nsarchive.org. Despite heavy competition, Clapper’s “No, sir” lie to Senator Ron Wyden’s question: “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on… Continue reading
-
FRINFORMSUM 3/20/2014: the NSA’s MYSTIC Program Powerful Enough to Swallow a “nation’s telephone program whole,” Judge Calls a DOJ Search Practice “repugnant to the Fourth Amendment,” and Much More By Lauren Harper
The National Security Agency (NSA) has built a surveillance program so powerful that it can swallow a “nation’s telephone program whole.” According to documents obtained by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and reported on by the Washington Post, this program –codenamed MYSTIC– is capable of capturing “100%” of a foreign country’s voice calls. MYSTIC’s retrieval… Continue reading
-
60th Anniversary of Castle BRAVO Nuclear Test, the Worst Nuclear Test in U.S. History
Sixty years ago, on 1 March 1954 (28 February on this side of the International Dateline), on Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands, the U.S. government staged the largest nuclear test in American history. The BRAVO shot in the Castle thermonuclear test series had an explosive yield of 15 megatons, 1000 times that of the… Continue reading
-
Special Plans and Double Meanings: Controversies over Deception, Intelligence, and Policy Counterterrorism
Washington, DC, February 20, 2014 — A major controversy during the administration of President George W. Bush concerned the use or misuse of intelligence with regard to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs and possible links between Iraq and al-Qaida. The best known elements of that controversy were Iraqi motivations behind the procurement of aluminum… Continue reading
-
Declassified Documents Shed Light on 1980 Moscow Olympics Boycott By Lauren Harper
Declassified documents, including the confidential memo featured in today’s posting, help contextualize the Carter administration’s final decision to boycott the games in the hopes of preventing Soviet expansion into Afghanistan. Continue reading
-
NSA: Proliferation Watch: U.S. Intelligence Assessments of Potential Nuclear Powers, 1977-2001
New Release of CIA Report on September 1979 South Atlantic Mystery Flash Joins Annals of Dubious Secrets by Exempting Pages of Previously Released Information Continue reading
-
The U.S.’ South Africa Policy at the Time of Mandela’s Arrest By Lauren Harper
13 December 2013 — Unredacted Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison by a South African court on June 12, 1964, after being found guilty of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the apartheid government. While Mandela’s imprisonment was criticized in the U.S. and abroad, at the time of his arrest, U.S. policy towards Continue reading
-
The U.S.’ South Africa Policy at the Time of Mandela’s Arrest By Lauren Harper
13 December 2013 — Unredacted Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life in prison by a South African court on June 12, 1964, after being found guilty of sabotage and conspiracy to violently overthrow the apartheid government. While Mandela’s imprisonment was criticized in the U.S. and abroad, at the time of his arrest, U.S. policy towards Continue reading
-
National Security Archive: The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of Able Archer 83, a NATO exercise that utilized “new nuclear weapons release procedures” to simulate the transition from conventional to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Although US officials saw Able Archer 83 as a routine exercise, it resulted in an “unprecedented Soviet reaction” which US… Continue reading
-
FOIA Sourcing: Cuban Intervention in Angola By Lauren Harper
In November 1975 while Angola was battling for independence and internal and external forces were competing for primacy, Cuban forces militarily intervened in support of the leftist MPLA movement and against US-supported movements.“By the end of 1975 the Cuban military in Angola numbered more than 25,000 troops. Following the retreat of Zaire and South Africa,… Continue reading
-
NSA: Every Nuclear-Tipped Missile is an “Accident Waiting to Happen”
nuclear accident never produced a nuclear detonation, but according to a new book by Eric Schlosser every nuclear-tipped missile “is an accident waiting to happen, a potential act of mass murder.” Schlosser’s book, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Incident, and the Illusion of Safety (Penguin Press, 2013) includes a truly sobering account of… Continue reading
-
NSA: “Disreputable if Not Outright Illegal”: The National Security Agency versus Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali, Art Buchwald, Frank Church, et al.
Newly Declassified History Divulges Names of Prominent Americans Targeted by NSA during Vietnam Era Continue reading
-
National Security Archive: KISSINGER AND CHILE: THE DECLASSIFIED RECORD ON REGIME CHANGE
On 40th anniversary of coup, Archive posts top ten documents on Kissinger’s role in undermining democracy, supporting military dictatorship in Chile Continue reading
-
The Snowden Affair: Web Resource Documents the Latest Firestorm over the National Security Agency
Recent press disclosures about National Security Agency (NSA) electronic surveillance activities — relying on documents provided by Edward Snowden — have sparked one of the most significant controversies in the history of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Today, the nongovernmental National Security Archive at The George Washington University posts a compilation of over 125 documents –… Continue reading
-
Want to Know Who the US is at War With? Too Bad, Says Pentagon By Lauren Harper
The National Security Archive recently submitted an MDR request for the Pentagon’s current list of Al Qaeda associated forces. The list is significant not only in determining whom the military is targeting in its citizens’ names; it also illuminates the Pentagon’s broadening interpretation of its post-9/11 mandate at the expense of Congressional oversight. Continue reading
-
CIA Admits It Was Behind Iran’s Coup: The agency finally owns up to its role in the 1953 operation By Malcolm Byrne
Sixty years ago this Monday, on August 19, 1953, modern Iranian history took a critical turn when a U.S.- and British-backed coup overthrew the country’s prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The event’s reverberations have haunted its orchestrators over the years, contributing to the anti-Americanism that accompanied the Shah’s ouster in early 1979, and even influencing the… Continue reading
-
NSA: CIA Confirms Role in 1953 Iran Coup
Marking the sixtieth anniversary of the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the National Security Archive is today posting recently declassified CIA documents on the United States’ role in the controversial operation. American and British involvement in Mosaddeq’s ouster has long been public knowledge, but today’s posting includes what is believed to be the… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 