40 YEARS OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTION
2004 postings and publications
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Briefing Book 121
Edited by Tom Blanton
Updated by John Prados
Washington, DC, December 27, 2020—The National Security Archive is today posting an update to a 2004 E-book featuring a landmark but still relatively little-known State Department study of the…
Briefing Book 122
For Further InformationThomas Blanton 202 994-7000 Peter Kornbluh 202 994-7116
Washington D.C. May 12, 2004: CIA interrogation manuals written in the 1960s and 1980s described "coercive techniques" such as those used to mistreat detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq,…
Briefing Book 134
Edited by Barbara Elias; Research Assistance by Jamie Noguchi
Washington, August 18, 2005 - UPDATE - The U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan told a top Taliban official in September 2000 that the U.S. "was not out to destroy the Taliban," but the "UBL [Osama bin Laden…
Briefing Book 144
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson
Washington, D.C.: Today, the National Security Archive posts an updated collection of reports, studies, commentaries, and other material concerning the issue of exactly how much authority should be…
Briefing Book 145
Edited by William Burr
Chinese marshal received Top Secret intelligence briefing from Kissinger in 1972, member of four marshals who told Mao "play the American card" in 1969 "History Declassified: Nixon in China"…
Briefing Book 143
Jeffrey Richelson 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., December 14: Front page stories in The Washington Post ("New Spy Satellite Debated on Hill," Dec. 11, 2004) and The New York Times ("New Spy Plan Said to Involve Satellite System,"…
Briefing Book 125
Peter Kornbluh 202/994-7116 pkorn@gwu.edu John Dinges 212/854-8774 jdinges@aol.com
Washington, D.C., December 14: With the decision by Chilean judge Juan Guzmбn to indict Augusto Pinochet for ten crimes relating to Operation Condor, the National Security Archive reposted a series…
News 20041130
ContactMeredith Fuchs (202) 994-7059 Thomas Blanton (202) 994-7068
Washington, D.C., 30 November 2004 - The National Security Archive along with concerned library, journalist, and public interest organizations today filed an amici curiae brief with the United States…
Briefing Book 142
Edited by Dan Lopez, Thomas Blanton, Meredith Fuchs and Barbara Elias? Thomas Blanton202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., November 23, 2004 - President Gerald R. Ford wanted to sign the Freedom of Information Act strengthening amendments passed by Congress 30 years ago, but concern about leaks (shared…
Briefing Book 141
Thomas Blanton202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., November 17, 2004 - Fifteen years ago today, a modest, officially sanctioned student demonstration in Prague spontaneously grew into a major outburst of popular revulsion toward the…
Briefing Book 140
Thomas Blanton202/994-7000
Washington, D.C. October 29, 2004 - The Department of Defense has refused to release the names of military officers in the chain of command over the soldiers charged with prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib…
Briefing Book 139
by William Burr and Robert Wampler 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., 27 October 2004 - The recent passing of Paul Nitze at the age of 97 has brought forth the expected array of obituaries, retrospectives and assessments of his lengthy and often…
News 20041020
Meredith Fuchs (202) 994-7059?Thomas Blanton (202) 994-7068
Washington, D.C., 20 October 2004 - The National Security Archive today filed suit against the Central Intelligence Agency ("CIA") seeking the expedited processing and release under the Freedom of…
Briefing Book 138
:?Meredith Fuchs (202) 994-7059?Thomas Blanton (202) 994-7068
Washington, D.C., 15 October 2004 - On October 15, 1984, President Reagan signed into law the Central Intelligence Agency Information Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98-477, codified at 50 U.S.C. Sec. 431,…
Briefing Book 137
Edited by Barbara Elias Graphics by Jamie Noguchi
Washington, D.C., 14 October 2004 - The Transportation Security Administration this week refused to release the texts or even the titles of five aviation warnings given to airlines just before the 9/…
Briefing Book 136
:?Ralph Begleiter (302) 831-2687?Daniel Mach (202) 637-6313?Meredith Fuchs (202) 994-7059?Thomas Blanton (202) 994-7068
Washington, D.C., 4 October 2004 - Journalism professor Ralph Begleiter of the University of Delaware today filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act in federal district court for copies of the…
Briefing Book 135
Edited by Tom Blanton, William Burr and Peter Kornbluh 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., 1 October 2004 - Secretary of State Henry Kissinger berated top aides for State Department efforts in 1976 to restrain human rights abuses by military dictators in Chile and…
News 20040925
ContactPeter Kornbluh 202 994 7116 pkorn@gwu.edu
WASHINGTON D.C.: For the first time in forty years, CIA and White House documents on covert political intervention in the 1964 Chilean election were declassified yesterday. The documents, which…
Briefing Book 133
Edited by Carlos Osorio and Kathleen Costar; : Carlos Osorio202 994 7061 - cosorio@gwu.edu Peter Kornbluh202 994 7116
Washington, August 27, 2004 - A newly declassified document obtained by the National Security Archive shows that amidst vast human rights violations by Argentina's security forces in June 1976,…
Briefing Book 132
Edited by John Prados Phone202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., 4 August 2004 - Forty years ago today, President Johnson and top U.S. officials chose to believe that North Vietnam had just attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, even…
Briefing Book 131
Michael Evans - 202/994-7000 mevans@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., 1 August 2004 - Then-Senator and now President Бlvaro Uribe Vйlez of Colombia was a "close personal friend of Pablo Escobar" who was "dedicated to collaboration with the Medellнn […
Briefing Book 130
Edited by William Burr
Since it was first created in 1960, the Single Integrated Operational Plan (SIOP)--the U.S. plan for nuclear war--has been one of the most secret and sensitive issues in U.S. national security policy…
News 130
For more information, contact William Burr, 994-7032
The U.S. included so many nuclear weapons in its first missile-age plan for nuclear war that top military commanders called it a "hazard to ourselves as well as our enemy," according to newly…
Briefing Book 127
"All of those up and down the chain of command who bear any responsibility must be held accountable for the brutality and humiliation they inflicted on the prisoners and for the damage and dishonor…
Briefing Book 129
Washington D.C., 9 July 2004 - The CIA has decided to keep almost entirely secret the controversial October 2002 CIA intelligence estimate about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that is the subject…
Briefing Book 128
Edited by Brad Simpson simpbrad@isu.edu / 208-282-3870
Washington, D.C. - July 8, 2004 - "You should tell [Suharto] that we understand the problems they face in West Irian," national security adviser Henry Kissinger wrote President Nixon on the eve of…
News 20040624
ContactMeredith Fuchs 202-994-7059 Tom Blanton 202-994-7068
Washington D.C., June 24, 2004 - The United States Supreme Court today remanded to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals a case concerning the application of a federal open government law to the Energy…
Briefing Book 126
Edited by Mark J. Gasiorowski and Malcolm Byrne For further information Contact Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7043 mbyrne@gwu.edu
On the morning of August 19, 1953, a crowd of demonstrators operating at the direction of pro-Shah organizers with ties to the CIA made its way from the bazaars of southern Tehran to the center of…
News
National Security Archive Collections
This page will present finding aids to the Archive's unpublished, boxed collections as the catalogs are completed and become accessioned. We are proud to…
News , Special Exhibit
Washington D.C., June 17, 2004 - Noted modern artist Jenny Holzer, whose signature "xenon" film projectors have cast monumental light images of texts and truisms on the sides of buildings and…
Briefing Book 125pr
Peter Kornbluh 202/994-7116 pkorn@gwu.edu John Dinges 212/854-8774 Cell202/365-5062 jdinges@aol.com
Washington D.C. June 10: Despite denials by the office of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the argument advanced by Council on Foreign Relations Latin American specialist Kenneth Maxwell…
Briefing Book 124
Edited by Kate Doyle
The Cuban revolution was a shock to the Mexican system. On the international stage, Mexico was forced to negotiate a position toward Cuba that allowed it to preserve some independence from the United…
Briefing Book 123
Edited by Dr. Svetlana Savranskaya
Archive director discusses Kissinger telcons on NPR's
All Things Considered, 27 May 2004
New Kissinger Telcons Released 26 May 2004
Kissinger Telcons on Chile
Telcons Previously Released in Other…
Briefing Book 123
Edited by Thomas Blanton and Dr. William Burr
Washington, D.C., May 26, 2004 - Five years after the National Security Archive initiated legal action to compel the State Department and the National Archives to recover the transcripts of Henry…
Briefing Book 121
Edited by Thomas S. Blanton (Director, National Security Archive)
Two months after the leak of the Pentagon Papers generated front page headlines and a landmark Supreme Court case, TIME magazine reported: "State's Secrets. The Pentagon, it seems, was not the only…
News 20040430
For further informationThomas Blanton/Meredith Fuchs - 202/994-7000 Scott Nelson - 202/588-1000
Washington, D.C., April 30 - A federal judge's dismissal last month of a landmark open government case was based on two factual misconceptions and deserves re-opening, according to court filings last…
Briefing Book 120
Edited by Kate Doyle
Trying to report intelligently on the Mexican military is like trying to see in the dark - it's all shadowy outlines and no details. The army is famously secretive, opaque, and hostile to public…
Briefing Book 116
By Thomas S. Blanton
Washington, D.C., 12 April 2004 - President Bush on Saturday, 10 April 2004, became the first sitting president ever to release publicly even a portion of his Daily Brief from the CIA. The page-and-a…
News 116pr
For more information: Thomas Blanton, 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., April 8, 2004 - The National Security Archive at George Washington University today called for the public declassification of the controversial President's Daily Brief from August 6…
Briefing Book 119
by William Ferroggiaro
U.S. diplomats and intelligence identified who was perpetrating the killing in Rwanda on the second day of the genocide, according to recently declassified documents posted to the Web today by the…
Briefing Book 118
Edited by Peter Kornbluh peter.kornbluh@gmail.com / 202 994-7116
Washington D.C., 31 March 2004 - "I think we ought to take every step that we can, be prepared to do everything that we need to do," President Johnson instructed his aides regarding preparations for…
Briefing Book 117
by William Ferroggiaro
Ten years ago this week, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Prudence Bushnell visited Rwanda and Burundi. Her visit-one of many visits by State Department and Defense Department…
Briefing Book 97a
Edited by Sajit Gandhi (202) 994-7239 gandhi@gwu.edu
Washington, DC - Pakistan provided millions of dollars, arms, and "buses full of adolescent mujahid," to the Taliban in the 1990's, according to declassified State Department documents obtained by…
Briefing Book 115
Edited by Kate Doyle
The death of former President Josй Lуpez Portillo on February 17 unleashed a torrent of public rage and bitter obituaries in the Mexican press. The most prominent opinion makers called him a…
News 20040311
For further information Contact Meredith Fuchs, General Counsel Thomas Blanton, Executive Director 202/994-7000
Washington D.C., 11 March 2004 - The National Security Archive, together with America's leading library and archival associations and four public interest groups, filed a joint amicus brief today in…
News 114
For further information Contact William Burr202/994-7032
Washington D.C., 5 March 2004 - Over the course of three presidential administrations, U.S. governmental officials repeatedly pressed the Chinese government to explain whether it was providing any…
Briefing Book 114
William Burr
Washington D.C., 5 March 2004 - The recent turnaround in Libya's nuclear policies and the many disclosures of Pakistan's role as a super-proliferator of nuclear weapons technology produced…
Briefing Book 113
For further information Contact Peter Kornbluh202/994-7116
Washington D.C., 26 February 2004 - Diaries, e-mail, and memos of Iran-contra figure Oliver North, posted today on the Web by the National Security Archive, directly contradict his criticisms…
Briefing Book 112
John Dinges 212/854-8774 Cell202/365-5062 jdinges@aol.com
Washington, D.C. - Military officials of Uruguay, who were members of a secret Southern Cone intelligence alliance called Operation Condor, threatened to assassinate U.S. Congressman Edward Koch in…
News 80
Jeffrey Richelson
Washington, D.C. - Almost a year after the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Bush administration faces growing skepticism over its claim that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programs…
Briefing Book 111
Edited by Kate Doyle
Dear President Fox, Something remarkable has happened in Guatemala. You owe it to your country to take notice. On January 20, the Guatemalan Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a senior military…
Briefing Book 110
For further information Contact Peter Kornbluh 202 994 7116 pkorn@gwu.edu
WASHINGTON D.C. - President Richard Nixon acknowledged that he had given instructions to "do anything short of a Dominican-type action" to keep the democratically elected president of Chile from…
Briefing Book 97b
Sajit Gandhi, (202) 994-7000 gandhi@gwu.edu
Washington, DC - The U.S. government pressed the Taliban to expel Usama bin Laden over 30 times between 1996, when the Taliban took Kabul, and the summer of 2001, but the talks were always fruitless…
Briefing Book 109
Edited by Kate Doyle
When the United States government considered the rebellion in Chiapas, it did so through the twin lenses of its primary national interests: money and power. The Zapatista uprising - which exploded on…
Briefing Book 108
Edited by William Burr
Scenarios of nuclear attacks on the United States, whether by terrorist or state adversaries, have assumed that Washington, D.C. would be a major target. A startling article published as the cover…
News 108
William Burr, (202) 994-7032
Washington, D.C. - A nuclear weapon at the "small" end of historic strategic arsenals that exploded over the Pentagon would create a mass fire that would engulf the Washington, D.C. area as far as…