Washington, D.C., February 13, 2024 - State Department lawyers advised Henry Kissinger that transcriptions of his telephone conversations made when he served as national security adviser and Secretary of State were his personal papers and not “subject to disclosure under the FOIA,” according to recently declassified records from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Washington, D.C., December 6, 2023 - Recent U.S. government decisions on the declassification of historical records on nuclear proliferation demonstrate the good, the bad and the ugly in the current national security secrecy system.
On the plus side are releases that add historically valuable information to the public record, such as the opening of documents that were reclassified after having been released at the National Archives, a newly declassified Kissinger-Nixon telcon, and U.S. embassy messages from 1980 on nuclear nonproliferation policies.
Washington, D.C., November 29, 2023 - Henry Kissinger’s death today brings new global attention to the long paper trail of secret documents recording his policy deliberations, conversations, and directives on many initiatives for which he became famous—détente with the USSR, the opening to China, and Middle East shuttle diplomacy, among them.
Washington, D.C., March 23, 2023 - The United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs invited the National Security Archive to testify today about ways to modernize the nation’s security classification system.
Washington, D.C., March 9, 2023 – The public still cannot submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the CIA or other prominent agencies through the national FOIA portal, FOIA.gov, seven years after Congress required the building of a website that allows “the public to submit a request to any agency from a single website.” Three out of four federal agencies do not even mention FOIA.gov on their individual agency websites, with many funneling FOIA requesters through independent portals with varying degrees of functionality, leaving them unaware of a more simpl
Washington, D.C., July 12, 2011 - What were the 11 words the government didn’t want you to see?
by Emily Willard
UPDATE: 7 May 2013, Department of Justice releases less-redacted version of decision. See less-redacted version of decision here. The New York Times is still waiting on a response to a FOIA request to the DOJ for release of the entire court record of this case including transcripts and expert witness testimony on declassified documents.
by Emily Willard
-Notes from the Evidence Project-
Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the massacre of six Jesuit Priests in El Salvador, along with their house keeper and her 16 year-old daughter on November 16, 1989. For Document Friday, the National Security Archive is posting newly released documents regarding the case, filed by the Center for Justice and Accountability in August 2009, against 20 former El Salvadoran officials in the National Court in Spain for their involvement in the massacre.
by Rachel Hatcher
US Embassy staff report that representatives from both the Salvadoran right and left expressed disapproval of possible international investigations into crimes committed during the Civil War.
Ignacio Ellacuría, killed in 1989.
by Emily Willard
The Recovered Documents