40 YEARS OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACTION
2014 postings and publications
This page shows all EBBs, News, Books, and Unredacted postings.
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Briefing Book 498
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., December 23, 2014 – A recently released Sandia Labs film contains fa
Washington, D.C., December 23, 2014 – A recently released Sandia Labs film contains fascinating glimpses into…
Briefing Book 499
Edited by Michael Evans Michael Evans 202/994-7029 or mevans@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, December 22, 2014 – With the Mexican government facing widespread public outrage over the alleged role of police and other officials in the September forced disappearance of 43…
Briefing Book 496
Peter Kornbluh - 202/374 7281, peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, December 10, 2014 – Almost thirty years after the end of Brazil's military dictatorship, the Comissao Nacional da Verdade [National Truth Commission] today released its long awaited…
Briefing Book 497
For more information, Tom Blanton 202.994.7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., December 9, 2014 – The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today released the executive summary of its long-awaited "Study of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program…
Briefing Book 495
For more information, contactTom Blanton 202.994.7000 nsarchiv@gwu.edu David Vladeck 202.662.9540 vladeckd@law.georgetown.edu
Previous Postings
More Cold War Espionage Transcripts Unsealed
October 10, 2008
National Security Archive and Historians Secure Long Secret Rosenberg Grand Jury Testimony
September 11, 2008…
Briefing Book 494
Edited by Peter Kornbluh and Justin Anstett For more information, contactpeter.kornbluh@gmail.com or 202 / 374-7281
Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana
By William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh
(University of North Carolina Press, October 2014)
In the News
The…
Briefing Book 493
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Related Links
Studies in Intelligence: New Articles from The CIA's In-House Journal June 4, 2013
Reading the North Korea Tea Leaves April 11, 2013
The Central Intelligence Agency's 9/11 File…
Briefing Book 491
Edited by David E. Hoffman, Svetlana Savranskaya, and Thomas Blanton 202/994-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, November 17, 2014 – Twenty years ago this week a team of American specialists completed an unprecedented operation known as Project Sapphire, working with the government of Kazakhstan…
Briefing Book 492
Edited by Kate Doyle Research Assistance by Alexandra Smith Kate Doyle 202/994-7000, kadoyle@email.gwu.edu
Washington, DC, November 16, 2014 – Twenty five years have passed since the horrifying murders in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter, during a rampage by Salvadoran…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 490
Thomas Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya - 202/994-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, November 9, 2014 – The iconic fall of the Berlin Wall 25 years ago today shocked international leaders from Washington to Moscow, London to Warsaw, as East German crowds took…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 489
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., October 21, 2014 –The secretive missile-tracking center known as DEFSMAC began at the National Security Agency 50 years ago in order to consolidate the multiple alerts and reports…
News
Tom Blanton, Wendy Valdes
Washington, D.C., October 19, 2014 — Sunday's issue of T: The New York Times Style Magazine features a spectacular orange page designed by the artist Jenny Holzer showcasing the…
Briefing Book 488
Edited by William Burr
Washington, D.C., October 16, 2014 – Fifty years ago today, on 16 October 1964, the People's Republic of China (PRC) joined the nuclear club when it tested a nuclear device at its Lop Nur test…
Unredacted blog
Pentagon Sees Climate Change as Immediate National Security Risk, CIA Rebel Training Largely Unhelpful, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 10/16/2014
OCTOBER 16, 2014
tags: CIA rebel training, Climate Change…
Book By Peter Kornbluh and William M. LeoGrande
Unredacted blog
OCTOBER 8, 2014
tags: 9/11, Chiquita Brands International, Eric Holder, National Liberation Army (ELN), Popular Liberation Army (EPL), Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), terrorism,…
Briefing Book 487
Peter Kornbluh - 202/374 7281, peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, October 1, 2014 – Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered a series of secret contingency plans that included airstrikes and mining of Cuban harbors in the aftermath of Fidel Castro…
News 20140926
Peter Kornbluh 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
A Historic Press Conference at the Pierre WHAT: In July 1975, Henry Kissinger sent two of his deputies to meet with representatives of Fidel Castro at the Pierre Hotel in New York City. It was there-…
Briefing Book 486
Project CollaboratorsKate Doyle, Senior Analyst and Director The Evidence Project, National Security Archive Carlos Osorio, Analyst and Director Southern Cone Documentation Project, National Security Archive Angelina Snodgrass Godoy, Director Center for Human Rights, University of Washington Philip Neff, Coordinator Unfinished Sentences El Salvador, Center for Human Rights, University of Washington National Security Archive Research AssistantsAlexandra Smith, Research Assistant The Evidence Project Emily Willard, Coordinator Genocide Documentation Project Special thanks to Patrick Ball, Executive Director Human Rights Data Analysis Group Kate Doyle kadoyle@email.gwu.edu Angelina Snodgrass Godoy 206/616-3585 agodoy@u.washington.edu
A 1980s-era document from the archives of El Salvador’s military intelligence identifies almost two thousand Salvadoran citizens who were considered “delinquent terrorists” by the Armed Forces, among…
Briefing Book 484
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Selected as a "Best History Book of the Month" - Amazon Washington, DC, September 16, 2014 – The Predator drone, though best known as the CIA's primary weapon in the war against Al Qaeda, was merely…
Book By Malcolm Byrne
"Choice Outstanding Academic Title"
Briefing Book 485
Edited by William Burr and Avner Cohen William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Avner Cohen - 831/647-6437 or 202/489-6282В (cell); avnerc@miis.edu
Washington, D.C., September 12, 2014 – During the spring and summer of 1969, officials at the Pentagon, the State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the White House debated and…
Briefing Book 483
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
"At last, the Reagan administration's Iran-Contra affair finally has a comprehensive history worthy of the scandal ... Malcolm Byrne has told the complex story in brilliant fashion." — Seymour Hersh…
Briefing Book 482
Compiled and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Tom Blanton Editorial assistance by Anya Melyakova and Allison Brady Special thanks to Sidney Orlov 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, August 13, 2014 – Marking the 90th birthday of the human rights legend and distinguished physicist Yuri Orlov, the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.…
Briefing Book 481
Compiled and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Thomas Blanton 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, July 24, 2014 – Former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, who passed away on July 7, brought a new diplomatic style and candor to bear in changing U.S.-Soviet relations in…
Briefing Book 480
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Reports of the Net Evaluation Subcommittee Washington, D.C., July 22, 2014 – On the morning of 20 July 1961, while the Berlin Crisis was simmering, President John F. Kennedy and the members of the…
Briefing Book 479
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, July 20, 2014 – Forty-five years ago, astronaut Neil Armstrong took his "one small step" for mankind, becoming the first person to set foot on the moon. The program that resulted in…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 478
Edited by Peter Kornbluh Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, July 8, 2014 – The Brazilian military regime employed a "sophisticated and elaborate psychophysical duress system" to "intimidate and terrify" suspected leftist militants in the early…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 477
Edited by Malcolm Byrne Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7043 or mbyrne@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, July 2, 2014 – On August 16, 1953, the same day the Shah of Iran fled to Baghdad after a failed attempt to oust Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq, the agitated monarch spoke candidly…
Briefing Book 476
Edited by Malcolm Byrne Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7043 or mbyrne@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, June 27, 2014 – During early planning for the 1953 Iran coup, U.S. Ambassador Loy Henderson warned not only that the Shah would not support the United States' chosen replacement for…
News 20140624
Nate Jones/Tom Blanton 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, June 24, 2014 – Congress may actually take action this year to strengthen the Freedom of Information Act, according to the National Security Archive's posting today of the new…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 475
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Safety Issues, 1957-1986 Washington, D.C., June 9, 2014 – A recently declassified report by Sandia National Laboratory, published today by the National Security Archive, provides…
Briefing Book 474
Edited by Robert A. Wampler, PhD Robert A. Wampler, PhD 202/994-7000 or wampler@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, June 5, 2014 – During the North Korean nuclear crisis of the 1990s, the United States and South Korea shared blunt concerns about the possible outbreak of military hostilities with…
Briefing Book 473
Edited by Malcolm Byrne Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7043 or mbyrne@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, June 3, 2014 – Significant cleavages existed within the Chinese political leadership and security apparatus over the decision to use force against student protesters at Tiananmen…
Briefing Book 472
Edited by Michael Dobbs 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
EXPERT OPINION
Declassified U.N. Cables Reveal Turning Point in Rwanda Crisis of 1994
By Mark Landler, The New York Times, June 3, 2014
The United Nations Security Council in Rwanda
By Michael…
News 20140529
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu; See additional media information at end of posting
Washington, DC, May 29, 2014 – Leading decision makers from the United Nations, Africa, the United States, and Europe will gather in The Hague from June 1 to 3 to consider the failure of the…
Briefing Book 471
Translated and edited by Anna Melyakova Anna Melyakova 202/994-7000 or annamelyakova@gmail.com
Previous Chernyaev Diary Postings
The Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev, 1973
Eigth Installment of Former Top Soviet Adviser's Journal Available in English for First Time
The Diary of Anatoly Chernyaev,…
Briefing Book 470
Peter Kornbluh 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, May 23, 2014 – Covert U.S. planning to block the democratic election of Salvador Allende in Chile began weeks before his September 4, 1970, victory, according to just declassified…
News 20140521
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, May 21, 2014 – 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…
Briefing Book 469
Edited by Emily Willard 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, May 21, 2014 – The Arusha Accords, a peace agreement between the Rwandan government and the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) signed in August 1993, failed in the worst way peace accords…
Briefing Book 468
Edited by Malcolm Byrne Malcolm Byrne 202/994-7043 or mbyrne@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, May 12, 2014 – 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…
Briefing Book 467
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., April 21, 2014– Henry Kissinger played a slightly reluctant but nonetheless highly influential role in establishing the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in the mid-1970s, motivated…
Briefing Book 466
Edited by Jake Freyer and Emily Willard 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, April 7, 2014 –The complete series of daily and weekly situation reports (sitreps) written by UN peacekeepers in Rwanda — published today by the National Security Archive for the…
Briefing Book 465
Edited by James G. Hershberg and Peter Kornbluh James G. Hershberg, 202/302-5718 Peter Kornbluh, 202/374-7281 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, April 2, 2014 – Almost two years before the April 1, 1964, military takeover in Brazil, President Kennedy and his top aides began seriously discussing the option of overthrowing Joao…
Briefing Book 464
Edited by Kristin Scalzo 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 31, 2014 – During the months leading up to the genocide in Rwanda, United Nations officials and western diplomats became increasingly concerned by the threat to political…
Briefing Book 463
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
Washington, DC, March 27, 2014 – In February 2014, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) posted 300,000 State Department telegrams from 1977 — the first year of the Jimmy Carter…
Briefing Book 462
Malcolm Byrne - 202/994-7000 Tom Blanton - 202/994-7000 Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 26, 2014 – The passing away of Iran-Contra Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh on March 19, at age 102, is an appropriate occasion to recall some of the extraordinary outcomes…
News , 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
Washington, DC, March 24, 2014 – Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance in 2013, according to the citation…
Briefing Book 461
Edited by Arnaud Siad; translations by Christina Graubert 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
RELATED POSTS
Warnings of Catastrophe
French, US, UN, and Belgian Documents Foreshadow the Genocide in Rwanda 1994.
March 6, 2014
The Rwanda Sitreps
Daily Pleas to New York Detail How International…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 460, FOIA Audit 460
Tom Blanton/Nate Jones/Lauren Harper 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
IN THE NEWS
Obama Administration Official Whitewashes Truth About FOIA By Jason Leopold, Freedom of the Press Foundation, March 17, 2014
Sunshine Week: Transparency issues persist with Obama…
Briefing Book 458
Edited by Michael Dobbs 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 6, 2014 – Concerned about the possibility of "a new bloodbath" in Rwanda, the Belgium foreign ministry issued a dramatic diplomatic dйmarche on February 25, 1994, calling for a…
Briefing Book 459
William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., February 28, 2014 – 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…
Briefing Book 457
William Burr
Washington, D.C., February 21, 2014 – Inane and contradictory declassification actions on military records of the Cuban Missile Crisis indicate serious flaws in the Defense Department's…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 456
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
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…
Unredacted blog
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 455
Edited by Emily Willard 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, February 3, 2014 – Three months after its arrival, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) remained ill-equipped and unprepared to respond to the rising threat of…
Unredacted blog
Briefing Book 454
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7032
Washington, DC, January 24, 2014 – A recently declassified transcript of a telephone conversation (telcon) between Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President Gerald Ford in December 1975…
Briefing Book 453
Edited by John Prados and Jack Cheevers 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, January 23, 2014 – Forty-six years ago today - well before Edward Snowden was born - the National Security Agency suffered what may still rank as the most significant compromise ever…
Briefing Book 452
Edited by Michael Dobbs Editorial Assistance by Emily Willard 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, January 9, 2014 – Twenty years ago this week, the commander of United Nations peacekeeping forces in Rwanda (UNAMIR) wrote a "Most Immediate" cable to his superiors in New York that…
News 20140103
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., January 3, 2014 – Marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall later this year, CNN will begin re-airing its monumental, 24 part series — "COLD WAR" — starting…