National Security Archive
-
FRINFORMSUM 8/9/2013: NSA Revelations Might Play a Part in Upcoming German Elections, NSC Records Still Not Subject to the FOIA, and More By Lauren Harper
International fallout from Edward Snowden’s revelations of NSA surveillance methods continues this week, and might play a role in Germany’s upcoming elections. The German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that the NSA leaks demonstrate that German intelligence “sends massive amounts of intercepted data to the NSA,” and that “center-left Social Democrats have made the Snowden revelations… Continue reading
-
How to Send a Good FOIA Request to the Department of State By Laura S. Kauer
The Department of State’s launch of its new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) online request platform and terrific, comprehensive, 80,000-document online FOIA reading room, makes it a fitting time to review how to craft a good FOIA request to the Department of State (or any agency, actually). Continue reading
-
The Israel-Argentina Yellowcake Connection
During 1963-64, the Israeli government secretly acquired 80-100 tons of Argentine uranium oxide (“yellowcake”) for its nuclear weapons program, according to U.S. and British archival documents published today for the first time jointly by the National Security Archive, the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Continue reading
-
Studies in Intelligence: New Articles from The CIA’s In-House Journal
The Presidential ban against CIA assassinations of foreign leaders, first enacted in 1976, reflected both moral and practical reasons — including concerns about retaliation against U.S. leaders — according to an article in the CIA’s in-house journal posted today by the National Security Archive. However, the U.S. government never spelled out the exact scope of… Continue reading
-
Video: Friend of Boston bombing suspect unarmed when killed by FBI
Ibragim Todashev, who was killed during an FBI interview last week, was unarmed when he was fatally shot, according to law enforcement officials. Civil rights activists are now calling for independent investigation of the death. Continue reading
-
NSA: Anatoly S. Chernyaev Diary, 1973 – Brezhnev Elevated Detente over Class Struggle — to the Dismay of his Politburo Colleagues
Chernyaev, deputy head of the International Department of the Central Committee (and later a key foreign policy aide to Mikhail Gorbachev), continues to marvel at the contradictory and enigmatic person at the pinnacle of the Soviet leadership — General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev. Continue reading
-
NSA: National Security Agency Tasked with Targeting Adversaries’ Computers for Attack Since Early 1997, According to Declassified Document
Since at least 1997, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been responsible for developing ways to attack hostile computer networks as part of the growing field of Information Warfare (IW), according to a recently declassified internal NSA publication posted today by the non-governmental National Security Archive (“the Archive”) at The George Washington University. Continue reading
-
NSA: The Thatcher-Gorbachev Conversations
Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister who passed away this week, built a surprising mutual-admiration relationship with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s — including behind-the-scenes agreement against the reunification of Germany, and profound disagreement about nuclear abolition — according to translated Soviet records of key meetings between the two leaders, posted… Continue reading
-
NSA: Chiquita Sues to Block Release of Files on Colombia Terrorist Payments
Chiquita Brands International last week filed a “reverse” Freedom of Information lawsuit to block the release of records to the National Security Archive on the company’s illegal payments to Colombian terrorist groups, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court. At issue are thousands of documents the company turned over to the Securities and… Continue reading
-
NSA: Reading the North Korean Tea Leaves: The Perpetual Struggle to Fathom Pyongyang’s Motives and Goals
For decades, the erratic behavior of North Korea’s enigmatic leaders has often masked a mix of symbolic and pragmatic motives, according to declassified documents posted today by the National Security Archive. During earlier crises, Kim Jong Un’s father and grandfather postured and threatened the region in ways markedly similar to the behavior of the new… Continue reading
-
Freedom of Information Follies: FOIA Reviewers Declassify Same Rwanda Document Four Times, Creating New Secrets Each Time
The U.S. government’s Freedom of Information Act reviewers produced four different versions of the same State Department document over a 12-year period, releasing different information each time, according to the National Security Archive’s posting today of the documents obtained by author and journalist Michael Dobbs. Continue reading
-
NSA: The Iraq War Ten Years After
he U.S. invasion of Iraq turned out to be a textbook case of flawed assumptions, wrong-headed intelligence, propaganda manipulation, and administrative ad hockery, according to the National Security Archive’s briefing book of declassified documents posted today to mark the 10th anniversary of the war. Continue reading
-
NSA: Guatemalan Genocide on Trial
Guatemala achieved a breakthrough for justice today with the opening of the landmark criminal trial of Efrain Rios Montt, former military dictator, for genocide and crimes against humanity. Continue reading
-
ALAN GROSS CASE SPOTLIGHTS U.S. DEMOCRACY PROGRAMS IN CUBA
The U.S. government has “between five to seven different transition plans” for Cuba, and the USAID-sponsored “Democracy” program aimed at the Castro government is “an operational activity” that demands “continuous discretion,” according to documents filed in court this week, and posted today by the National Security Archive. The records were filed by Development Alternatives Inc… Continue reading
-
National Security Archive: The Zero Dark Thirty File
The poster for the blockbuster movie Zero Dark Thirty features black lines of redaction over the title, which unintentionally illustrate the most accurate take-away from the film – that most of the official record of the hunt for Osama bin Laden is still shrouded in secrecy, according to the National Security Archive’s ZD30 briefing book,… Continue reading
-
NSA: Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Was Not a Grand Design But a Grand Entanglement Resulting from Faulty Intelligence, Excessive Secrecy…
On December 12, 1979, the Soviet Politburo gathered to formally approve the decision made several days earlier to send a “limited contingent” of Soviet forces into Afghanistan. Continue reading
-
NSA: The Jonathan Pollard Spy Case: The CIA’s 1987 Damage Assessment Declassified
When Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan Pollard spied for Israel in 1984 and 1985, his Israeli handlers asked primarily for nuclear, military and technical information on the Arab states, Pakistan, and the Soviet Union — not on the United States — according to the newly-declassified CIA 1987 damage assessment of the Pollard case, published today… Continue reading
-
Global Competition and Deterioration of U.S.-Soviet Relations, 1977-1980
The U.S.-Soviet rivalry in the Third World created splits within the Carter administration and fundamental confusion in the Kremlin over the nature of U.S. motives to such a degree that they helped bring about the collapse of superpower detente, according to documents and transcripts from a conference of former high-level American-Russian policy-makers published today by… Continue reading
The New Dark Age 