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2012 postings and publications
This page shows all EBBs, News, Books, and Unredacted postings.
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Briefing Book 407
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson
Washington, D.C., November 24, 2020 – Jonathan Pollard, the former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to spying for Israel in 1987, was released from parole this week. …
Briefing Book 407
Washington, DC, December 14, 2012 – When Naval Investigative Service analyst Jonathan Pollard spied for Israel in 1984 and 1985, his Israeli handlers asked primarily for nuclear, military and…
Briefing Book 409
Edited by Malcolm Byrne and Svetlana Savranskaya 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., December 21, 2012 – 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…
Briefing Book 408
Edited by Michael Evans Michael Evans 202/994-7029 or mevans@gwu.edu
Colombian Army "Facilitated" Paramilitary Operation at Miraflores "From Beginning to End" "Big-Time Narco" Carranza one of the "Best Known" Paramilitaries in Colombia but "Content to Operate Behind…
Briefing Book 406
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
Washington, D.C., December 12, 2012 – As late as 1968, the U.S. government had plans in place to fire an automatic "full nuclear response" against both the Soviet Union and China in the event of the…
News 20121207
Tom Blanton or Nate Jones- 202/994-7000 or foiadesk@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., December 7, 2012 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday rejected the CIA's attempt to shortcut the National Security Archive's lawsuit under the Freedom of…
Briefing Book 405, FOIA Audit 405
Tom Blanton/Nate Jones/Lauren Harper 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
IN THE NEWS
Updated December 6, 2012
Agencies lag on transparency, report says By Josh Hicks, The Washington Post, December 4, 2012
Federal Agencies Are Failing to Uphold Obama's Stated Commitment…
Book By Sergo Mikoyan, and translated and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya
Briefing Book 404
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, November 27, 2012 – In the forty years since the first launch of a commercial imagery satellite – LANDSAT – in 1972, U.S. official policy has shifted dramatically from imposing…
Briefing Book 403
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
Washington, D.C., November 19, 2012 – For decades, U.S. command-control-and-communications (C3) systems were deeply vulnerable to nuclear attack, according to a recently declassified Pentagon study.…
Unredacted blog
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…
Briefing Book 402
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., November 12, 2012 – 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.…
Briefing Book 401
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
Washington, D.C., November 6, 2012 – The U.S. intelligence community predicted India's nuclear bomb in 1964 but mistakenly concluded Israel had "not yet decided" to go nuclear, according to newly…
Special Exhibit
In November 1962, Cuba was preparing to become the first nuclear power in Latin America—at the time when the Kennedy administration thought that the Cuban Missile Crisis was long resolved and the…
Briefing Book 400
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya, Anna Melyakova and Amanda Conrad 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, October 27, 2012 – 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…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 399
Edited by Thomas Blanton, William Burr and Svetlana Savranskaya 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, October 24, 2012 – Extreme temperatures, equipment breakdowns, and the reckless deployment of nuclear torpedoes aboard Soviet submarines near the quarantine line during the Cuban…
Unredacted blog
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 398
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
The Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis Part II. Day-By-Day Washington, DC, October 19, 2012 – Notes, office calendars, and daily journals from Pentagon top secret files published today for the…
Briefing Book 397
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
The Pentagon during the Cuban Missile Crisis Part I. New Documents Washington, DC, October 16, 2012 – Fifty years after President Kennedy considered invading Cuba to take out Soviet missiles during…
Briefing Book 396
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, October 13, 2012 – Contrary to U.S. myths of a strategic Soviet offensive towards warm water ports on the Persian Gulf or Indian Ocean, it was "mission creep" that led the Soviet…
Briefing Book 395
Edited by Peter Kornbluh Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, October 12, 2012 – On the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis, new documents from the Robert Kennedy papers declassified yesterday and posted today by the National Security…
Briefing Book 394
Edited by Malcolm Byrne Malcolm Byrne - 202/994-7000 or mbyrne@gwu.edu
Advance Praise for Becoming Enemies For those seeking to understand the roots of modern enmity between the U.S. and Iran, Becoming Enemies is a truly unique and wonderful resource. — Karim Sadjadpour…
Book By James Blight, janet Lang, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne and John Tirman
“For those seeking to understand the roots of modern enmity between the U.S. and Iran, Becoming Enemies is a truly unique and wonderful resource.” – Karim Sadjadpour
Briefing Book 393
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, October 10, 2012 – In November 1962, Cuba was preparing to become the first nuclear power in Latin America—at the time when the Kennedy administration thought that the Cuban Missile…
Briefing Book 392
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson Jeffrey T. Richelson - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., October 4, 2012 – Today, the National Security Archive posts the fourth in a series of electronic briefing books concerning secrecy and satellite reconnaissance - one of the most…
News 20121001
Media InquiriesKaren Lynch – karen@armageddonletters.com, 401/354-9465
Washington, DC, October 1, 2012 – The Armageddon Letters - a transmedia project (multiplatform storytelling) launched on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban missile crisis - takes…
Briefing Book 391
National Security ArchiveMalcolm Byrne/ Svetlana Savranskaya, 202.994.7000, svetlana@gwu.edu International MemorialArsenii Roginsky/ Gennadii Kuzovkin/ Natalya Petrova, 7 (967) 271-4171, natalia.petrova@gmail.com
Moscow, Russian Federation, 18 September 2012 – The first-ever Web publication of previously secret U.S. documents on Soviet dissidents, matched with reports and letters by the dissidents themselves…
Briefing Book 390
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., September 14, 2012 – The National Security Archive is today posting - for the first time in its essentially complete form - one of the most controversial nuclear policy directives…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 389
Edited by Barbara Elias-Sanborn Barbara Elias-Sanborn - 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., September 11, 2012 – In the wake of the State Department's recent designation of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization, declassified documents posted…
Briefing Book 388
Jeffrey T. Richelson - 202/994-7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., September 7, 2012 – Eleven years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, how concerned Americans should be over threats of nuclear terrorism remains a subject of vigorous…
News 20120905
Tom Blanton - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, September 5, 2012 – The online magazine ForeignPolicy.com today published an extraordinary CIA document on the recent Iraq war which the National Security Archive obtained through a…
News 20120815
Edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Malcolm Byrne (With grateful appreciation to James G. Blight and janet M. Lang); Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000 Malcolm Byrne - 202/994-7000
Washington, DC, August 15, 2012 – High hopes for a "reset" of U.S.-Soviet relations in the late 1970s were shattered by ingrained suspicions and negative international trends to which both sides…
Special Exhibit
Starting in the early 1990s, the Carter-Brezhnev Project brought together not only policy veterans from the U.S. and USSR, but scholars from several institutions, with three main sponsors - the…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 385
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., July 23, 2012 – The possibility that highly motivated countries, such as Iran in today's environment, could secretly build gas centrifuge plants to produce highly enriched uranium…
Briefing Book 387
Compiled and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya, Tom Blanton and Anna Melyakova Web production by Rinat Bikineyev and Jamie Noguchi. Research and editorial assistance by Anya Grenier and Julia Noecker. Special thanks to the Memorial Society, Archive of the History of Dissent, Moscow. For more information202.994.7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Moscow, Russian Federation, July 20, 2012 – Marking the 85th birthday of Russian human rights legend Lyudmila Alexeyeva, the National Security Archive today published on the Web a digital collection…
Briefing Book 386
Edited by Jeffrey T Richelson Jeffrey T Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., July 19, 2012 – A new Web resource posted today by the National Security Archive offers a wide-ranging compilation of declassified records detailing the operations of a key…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 384
Edited by Robert A. Wampler Robert A. Wampler - 202/994-7000
A new book and newly-released documents illuminate the history of U.S. efforts to deal with the Korean security dilemma during and since the Cold War. Among the key "lessons learned" are the limits…
Briefing Book 383
Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7000 cosorio@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., July 5, 2012 –An Argentine tribunal today convicted two former military leaders for their roles in the kidnapping and theft of dozens of babies of executed and disappeared political…
News 20120704
Nate Jones/Tom Blanton - 202/994-7000
Washington, DC, July 4, 2012 – Marking the 46th anniversary of President Johnson's signing the Freedom of Information Act, the National Security Archive today posted a compilation of 46 news…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 385
Edited by William Burr
Washington, D.C., July 23, 2012 – The possibility that highly motivated countries, such as Iran in today's environment, could secretly build gas centrifuge plants to produce highly enriched uranium…
Briefing Book 382
Robert A. Wampler, PhD - 202/994-7000 wampler@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., June 20, 2012 –The National Security Archive announces the publication of its latest digital compilation of declassified records on U.S. ties with a critically important global…
Briefing Book 381
Edited by Barbara Elias-Sanborn with Thanks to Archive Senior Fellow Jeffrey T. Richelson Barbara Elias-Sanborn - 202/994-7000 belias@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., June 19, 2012 – The National Security Archive today is posting over 100 recently released CIA documents relating to September 11, Osama bin Laden, and U.S. counterterrorism…
Briefing Book 380
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson and William Burr
Washington, D.C., May 29, 2012 - A secret exercise in 1986 by a U.S. government counter-terrorist unit uncovered a host of potential problems associated with disrupting a nuclear terrorist plot…
Briefing Book 380
Jeffrey T. Richelson William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., May 29, 2012 - A secret exercise in 1986 by a U.S. government counter-terrorist unit uncovered a host of potential problems associated with disrupting a nuclear terrorist plot in…
Briefing Book 379
Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000
Translated and edited by Anna Melyakova and Svetlana Savranskaya "Anatoly Chernyaev's diary is one of the great internal records of the Gorbachev years, a trove of irreplaceable observations about a…
News 20120510
Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, May 10, 2012 – More than year after the National Security Archive sued the CIA to declassify the full "Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation," a U.S. District Court judge…
Briefing Book 378
Kate Doyle - 646/670-8841 kadoyle@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., May 3, 2012 – On April 25, 2012, Kate Doyle, senior analyst and director of the Guatemala Documentation Project at the National Security Archive, provided expert witness testimony…
Briefing Book 377
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., April 27, 2012 – Tensions between the United States and Pakistan rose through the 1980s over intelligence reports that suggested to U.S. officials that Pakistani leader Zia ul-Haq…
Briefing Book 377
Edited by William Burr
Washington, D.C., April 27, 2012 – Tensions between the United States and Pakistan rose through the 1980s over intelligence reports that suggested to U.S. officials that Pakistani leader Zia ul-Haq…
Briefing Book 376
Tom Blanton/Nate Jones - 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., April 26, 2012 – The former Liberian president Charles Taylor today became the first head of state since Nuremberg convicted by an international court for crimes against humanity,…
Briefing Book 375
202/994-7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., April 10, 2012 – The "FBI's most valued secret agents of the Cold War," brothers Morris and Jack Childs, together codenamed SOLO, reported back to J. Edgar Hoover starting in 1958…
News 20120403
Tom Blanton - 202/994-7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, April 3, 2012 – The State Department today released a February 2006 internal memo from the Department's then-counselor opposing Justice Department authorization for "enhanced…
Briefing Book 374
Edited by Carlos Osorio, Sarah Christiano and Erin Maskell With the collaboration of Anne Morel and Marcos Novaro Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7061 cosorio@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., April 1, 2012 – The United States secretly supported the United Kingdom during the early days of the Falklands/Malvinas Island war of 1982, while publicly adopting a neutral stance…
Briefing Book 373
Kate Doyle - 646/670-8841 kadoyle@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 23, 2012 -- Today marks the 30th anniversary of the coup that propelled General Efraín Ríos Montt to power and launched the most violent period of the 36-year internal armed…
Briefing Book 372
Jeffrey T. Richelson - 202/994-7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., March 23, 2012 – A central element of the current debate over how to deal with Iran's nuclear program has focused on the possible difficulty of destroying the Qom underground…
News 20120312
Nate Jones - 202/994-7000 foiadesk@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 12, 2012 – Attorney General Eric Holder kicked off Sunshine Week 2012 by rehashing widely discredited statistics released by the Department of Justice after it was awarded the…
Briefing Book 371
William Burr - 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., March 1, 2012 – During the 2008 campaign, Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debated the question: who was best suited to be suddenly awakened at 3 a.…
Rosemary Award
For more information contact:
Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive - 202/994-7000
Nate Jones, Freedom of Information Coordinator - 202/994-7045
nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The U.S. Department of Justice has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance over the past year, according to the citation posted on the Web today by the National Security…
Briefing Book 370
Edited by Matthew M. Aid Matthew M. Aid - 202/994-7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Purchase Intel Wars: The Secret History of the Fight Against Terror at Amazon. Review of Intel Wars by Dina Temple-Raston, The Washington Post, February 17, 2012. Other posts by Matthew Aid Project…
News 20120203a
Barbara Elias-Sanborn - 202/994-7000 belias@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, February 3, 2012 – As the U.S. searches for opportunities to negotiate with the Taliban while simultaneously targeting key Taliban leaders with drone strikes, a new article published…
News 20120203
Kate Doyle - 646/670-8841 kadoyle@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, February 3, 2012- Kate Doyle, director of the Evidence Project at the National Security Archive, and Fredy Peccerelli, the forensic anthropologist of the Fundaciуn de Antropologнa…
Briefing Book 369
Edited by James G. Hershberg James G. Hershberg - 202/994-7000 jhershb@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., January 15, 2012 – Casting new light on one of the most controversial and enduring mysteries of the Vietnam War, a new book using evidence from long-hidden communist sources…