2015 postings and publications

This page shows all EBBs, News, Books, and Unredacted postings.
Use Right sidebar to filter postings by year.
Use Ctrl+F to search by keyword.
Available fields to search in:
- Posting Date
- Title
- Posting type (Briefing book, Blog Post, News, Book)
- Briefing book number
- Edited by (allows to search by author of briefing book)
- Short summary text

U.S. Cold War Nuclear Target Lists Declassified for First Time
Briefing Book 538
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The SAC [Strategic Air Command] Atomic Weapons Requirements Study for 1959, produced in June 1956 and published today for the first time by the National Security Archive www.nsarchive.org, provides…
Pinochet’s Secret Envoy to Kissinger: Contreras
Unredacted blog
Obama's Back Channel to Cuba: Events Leading to Historic Breakthrough Revealed in Updated Book
News 20151218
For more information, contactPeter Kornbluh 202/994-7000, peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington, DC, December 18, 2015 - On the first anniversary of the historic breakthrough in U.S.-Cuban relations, the National Security Archive announced that the book, Back Channel to Cuba: The…
1974 U.S. War Game Launched 54 Nuclear Weapons in Iran to “Save” Country from Soviet Invasion, According to Declassified Document in New National Security Archive Publication
Unredacted blog
The Clinton White House and Climate Change: The Struggle to Restore U.S. Leadership
Briefing Book 537
Edited by Robert A. Wampler, PhD Robert A. Wampler, 202/994-7000 or wampler@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., December 11, 2015 – The Clinton administration came to office in 1993 determined to restore the United States as the preeminent global protector of the environment, but saw its…
Declassified Docs Show Reagan and H.W. Bush Sought Strong American Leadership on Climate Change, NSL Contents Revealed, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 12/3/2015
Unredacted blog
Declassified Docs Show Reagan and H.W. Bush Sought Strong American Leadership on Climate Change, NSL Contents Revealed, and Much More: FRINFORMSUM 12/3/2015 DECEMBER 3, 2015 tags: b(5), Climate…
U.S. Climate Change Policy in the 1980s
Briefing Book 536
Edited by Robert Wampler
Washington, D.C., December 2, 2015 – Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush actively promoted measures to combat climate change, with Reagan in 1987 overruling objections within his own…
Road to Dayton paved with genocide
Briefing Book 535
Tom Blanton and Emily Willard Special thanks to Michael Dobbs and Sarah Chaney Reichenbach
The Srebrenica Conference International Decision-Making in the Age of Genocide: Srebrenica 1993-1995 "Critical Oral History" Conference Marks 20th Anniversary of Srebrenica Massacre. Lessons from…
DIA Declassified: A Sourcebook
Briefing Book 534, Sourcebook 534
Jeffrey T. Richelson
Related links The U.S. Intelligence Community, 7th edition (Westview, 2015) By Jeffrey T. Richelson The Pentagon’s Spies Updated July 6, 2015 The Record on Curveball November 5, 2007 Underground…
Why The Key Able Archer 83 Report Should Be Released Under UK FOIA
Unredacted blog
Updated Edition of The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook
Unredacted blog
The 1983 War Scare Declassified and For Real
Briefing Book 533
Edited by Nate Jones, Tom Blanton, and Lauren Harper For more information, contact202-994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington D.C., October 24, 2015 – The newly released Soviet "War Scare" report - previously classified "TOP SECRET UMBRA GAMMA WNINTEL NOFORN NOCONTRACT ORCON" and published today after a 12-year…
The United States and the Pakistani Bomb, 1984-1985: President Reagan, General Zia, Nazir Ahmed Vaid, and Seymour Hersh
Briefing Book 531
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., 14 October 2015 - In July 1984, U.S. customs agents arrested a Pakistani national, Nazir Ahmed Vaid, at Houston International Airport for trying to purchase krytrons--useful for…
Secret CIA Report: Pinochet "Personally Ordered" Washington Car-Bombing
Briefing Book 532
Edited by Peter Kornbluh Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Related links CIA Acknowledges Ties to Pinochet’s Repression Report to Congress Reveals U.S. Accountability in Chile September 19, 2000 OSCARS: DECLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS TELL HISTORY BEHIND BEST…
Prelude to Iguala: "Heavy-handed police tactics" used against Ayotzinapa students in 2011
News 20151007
For more information, contactMichael Evans 202/994-7029, mevans@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, October 7, 2015 - U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Earl Anthony Wayne said that “evidence of heavy-handed police tactics” was “strong and disconcerting” after a 2011 clash with student…
Freeing the President’s Daily Brief
Unredacted blog
The Real Deal on PDBs
Unredacted blog
President's Daily Briefs from Kennedy and Johnson Finally Released (Eight Years After Archive, Professor Larry Berman Lawsuit)
Briefing Book 530
Compiled and edited by Tom Blanton and Lauren Harper For further information, contact 202.994.7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu.
Washington, D.C., September 16, 2015 - Today the CIA and the LBJ Library are releasing online a collection of 2,500 declassified President’s Daily Briefs (PDBs) from the Kennedy and Johnson…
The Anwar al-Awlaki File
Briefing Book 529
Compiled and edited by Scott Shane Scott Shane is a national security reporter for The New York Times and author of Objective TroyA Terrorist, A President, and the Rise of the Drone, published in September 2015. For further information, contact 202.994.7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu.
Related Materials The Lessons of Anwar al-Awlaki Four years after the United States assassinated the radical cleric in a drone strike, his influence on jihadists is greater than ever. Was there a…
Kazakhstan and Nunn-Lugar: A Non-Proliferation Success Story
Briefing Book 528
Edited by Tom Blanton and Svetlana Savranskaya   For more information, contact Svetlana Savranskaya and Tom Blanton: 202.994.7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu.
Related Materials Nunn-Lugar Revisited U.S.-Russian cooperation on threat reduction from the Soviet Union in 1991 to Syria in 2013 National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 447 Project…
Overhead Imagery: The U.S. Target
Briefing Book 527
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Related links NASA's Secret Relationships with U.S. Defense and Intelligence Agencies April 10, 2015 U.S. Reconnaissance Satellites: Domestic Targets April 11, 2008 U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-…
The Kissinger Telcons: New Documents Throw Light on Sensitive Ford and Kissinger Views
Briefing Book 526
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., August 19, 2015 – President Gerald Ford was "offended" and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger "almost blind with rage" over Israeli negotiating behavior in 1975, according to newly…
Obama's Secret Diplomacy with Cuba
News 20150813
For more information, contactPeter Kornbluh202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington D.C., August 13, 2015 – On the eve of Secretary of State John Kerry’s historic trip to Havana tomorrow to raise the American flag over the newly reopened U.S. Embassy, the National…
Air Force Intelligence Service Redacts Its Role During Able Archer 83
Unredacted blog
Seven decades after Hiroshima, is there still a nuclear taboo?
Unredacted blog
The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II
Briefing Book 525
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
August 4, 2015- A few months after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, General Dwight D. Eisenhower commented during a social occasion “how he had hoped that the war might have ended…
Washington Post Op-Ed Highlights Dubious Secrets
Briefing Book 524
202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The Washington Post article "America classifies way too much information - and we are all less safe for it" By Tom Blanton July 31 at 8:06 PM Tom Blanton is director of the National Security Archive…
Los Quemados: Chile’s Pinochet Covered up Human Rights Atrocity
Briefing Book 523
Edited by Peter Kornbluh Peter Kornbluh - 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
Washington D.C., July 31, 2015 – General Augusto Pinochet refused to accept a police report identifying his own military as responsible for burning two teenage protesters alive in July 1986,…
The U.S. Intelligence Community
Book By Jeffrey T. Richelson
White House Efforts to Blunt 1975 Church Committee Investigation into CIA Abuses Foreshadowed Executive-Congressional Battles after 9/11
Briefing Book 522
Edited by John Prados and Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi For more information, contactJohn Prados - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., July 20, 2015 - Forty years ago this year, Congress’s first serious inquiry into CIA abuses faced many of the same political and bureaucratic obstructions as Senate investigators…
Court Rejects Chiquita's Bid to Hide Terror Payment Records
News 20150717
ContactMichael Evans, mevans@email.gwu.edu, (202) 236-9112, Angela Bradbery, abradbery@citizen.org, (202) 588-7741
Washington, D.C., July 17, 2015 - In an important victory for transparency and corporate accountability, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., has ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange…
New Rosenberg Grand Jury Testimony Released!
News 20150714
Edited by Thomas Blanton
Washington, D.C., July 15, 2015 - The newly released grand jury testimony by Ethel Rosenberg's brother David Greenglass suggests he committed perjury on the witness stand in the Rosenberg spy trial,…
Iran’s Nuclear Program – Then and Now
Briefing Book 521
Edited by Malcolm Byrne and William Burr For more information, contactMalcolm Byrne or William Burr – 202 / 994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., July 14, 2015 -- Four decades ago -- in the mid-1970s -- U.S. and Iranian officials haggled over a range of concerns that uncannily prefigured similar clashes that surfaced prior to…
The Pentagon's Spies
Briefing Book 520
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Related Postings Torture Report Finally Released December 9, 2014 The Pentagon’s Counterspies September 17, 2007 The Interrogation Documents July 13, 2004   More Archive Resources on U.S.…
Srebrenica Conference Documents Detail Path to Genocide from 1993 to 1995
Briefing Book 519
Edited by Tom Blanton and Emily Willard 202-994-7000 Tom Blantonnsarchiv@gwu.edu Emily Willardewillard@gwu.edu
IN THE NEWS International Decision-Making in the Age of Genocide: Srebrenica 1993-1995 "Critical Oral History" Conference Marks 20th Anniversary of Srebrenica Massacre. Declassified U.N. Cables…
The Gas Centrifuge Secret: Origins of a U.S. Policy of Nuclear Denial, 1954-1960
Briefing Book 518
By William Burr Bill Burr is a senior analyst at the National Security Archive, where he directs the Archive's nuclear history documentation project. See the Archive's Nuclear Vault resources page. For more information, contactWilliam Burr at 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., June 29, 2015 – Long before Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities – based on gas centrifuge technology – became the center of international negotiations, the U.S. tried to deny…
"Critical Oral History" Conference Marks 20th Anniversary of Srebrenica Massacre in July 1995
News 2015
202-994-7000 Tom Blantonnsarchiv@gwu.edu Emily Willardewillard@gwu.edu
June 28, 2015 The Hague, The Netherlands Leading decision-makers from more than a dozen countries will gather in The Hague from June 29 to July 1 to consider the failure of the international…
Nixon, Kissinger, and the Madman Strategy during Vietnam War
Briefing Book 517
By William Burr and Jeffrey P. Kimball Bill is Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, where he directs the Archives nuclear history documentation project. See the Archives Nuclear Vault resources page; Jeff is professor emeritus, Miami University, and author of Nixon's Vietnam War and The Vietnam War Files. For more information, contactWilliam Burr at 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu Jeffrey Kimball at 513/523-3640 or jpkimball@miamioh.edu
Washington, D.C., May 29, 2015 — President Richard Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger believed they could compel "the other side" to back down during crises in the Middle East…
Anatoly S. Chernyaev Diary, 1975
Briefing Book 516
Translated and edited by Anna Melyakova Anna Melyakova 202/994-7000 or annamelyakova@gmail.com
"Anatoly Chernyaev's diary is one of the great internal records of the Gorbachev years, a trove of irreplaceable observations about a turning point in history. There is nothing else quite like it,…
The National Security Archive and Historical Associations Win Lawsuit for David Greenglass Testimony
News 20150519
For more information, contactTom Blanton 202/994-7000 Lauren Harper, Associate FOIA Project Director 202/994-7045 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., May 19, 2015 - The National Security Archive together with leading U.S. historical associations today won a petition for the release of key remaining grand jury records from the…
Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War (Modern War Studies)
Book <p>By William Burr and Jeffrey P. Kimball</p>
US: Mexico Mass Graves Raise "Alarming Questions" about Government "Complicity" in September 2014 Cartel Killings
Briefing Book 515
Edited by Michael Evans Michael Evans 202/994-7029 or mevans@gwu.edu
Related Links Migration Declassified The Archive's blog on Mexico, migration, and human rights "Mexican Authorities Implicated in Violence, but U.S. Security Aid Continues to Flow" By Cora Currier…
Operation Condor: National Security Archive Presents Trove of Declassified Documentation in Historic Trial in Argentina
Briefing Book 514
Edited by Carlos Osorio Carlos Osorio 202/994-7000 or cosorio@gwu.edu Peter Kornbluh 202/374-7281 or peter.kornbluh@gmail.com
In the News La evolución del Cóndor Director del prestigioso Proyecto Documentación Cono Sur del Archivo de Seguridad Nacional en Washington, habló en el juicio en Buenos Aires.  Por Alejandra…
LBJ Regretted Ordering U.S. Troops into Dominican Republic in 1965, White House Tapes Confirm; Yet He Insisted, "I'd do the same thing right this second."
Briefing Book 513
Edited by David Coleman For more information, contactDavid Coleman, david@historyinpieces.com, 703/942-9245 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu, 202/994-7000
Washington, D.C., April 28, 2015 – President Lyndon Johnson regretted sending U.S. troops into the Dominican Republic in 1965, telling aides less than a month later, "I don't want to be an intervenor…
International Atomic Energy Agency Lacks Transparency, Observers and Researchers Say
Briefing Book 512
By Toby McIntosh and William Burr McIntosh is Editor of FreedomInfo.org , published by the National Security Archive . Burr is Senior Analyst at the National Security Archive, where he directs the Archive's nuclear history documentation project. See the Archive's Nuclear Vault resources page. For more information, contactToby McIntosh or William Burr at 202 / 994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C. April 24, 2015 - The nuclear inspection agency that is central to the current Iran negotiations is flunking international transparency norms, according to a report posted today by…
1994 Rwanda Pullout Driven by Clinton White House, U.N. Equivocation
Briefing Book 511
Tom Blanton/Emily Willard, nsarchiv@gwu.edu, 202.994.7000
Washington, DC, April 16, 2015 – Newly declassified Clinton White House e-mails and notes detail a decisive U.S. role in the tragic pullout of United Nations peacekeepers during the first two weeks…
The U.S. Discovery of Israel's Secret Nuclear Project
Briefing Book 510
Avner Cohen and William Burr, editors Avner Cohen at 202-489-6282 (mobile) or 831-647-6437 (office) William Burr at 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., April 15, 2015 – The U.S. government first learned of Israel's secret nuclear program at Dimona from an American corporate official talking to U.S. diplomats in Tel Aviv during mid-…
NASA's Secret Relationships with U.S. Defense and Intelligence Agencies
Briefing Book 509
Edited by James E. David James E. David, davidj@si.edu or The National Security Archive 202/944-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, April 10, 2015 – Furnishing cover stories for covert operations, monitoring Soviet missile tests, and supplying weather data to the U.S. military have been part of the secret side of…
Salvadoran General Deported from U.S. for Command Role in Human Rights Crimes During El Salvador Civil War
Unredacted blog
tags: Center for Justice and Accountability, El Salvador, Vides Casanova by The Archive General Vides Casanova] Credit: Latin America News Dispatch.  General Vides Casanova. Photo Credit: Latin…
Rwanda Re-Examined
Briefing Book 508
Michael Dobbs mdobbs@ushmm.org Emily Willard ewillard@gwu.edu Tom Blanton tblanton@gwu.edu 202/994-7000
IN THE NEWS Exclusive: Rwanda Revisited By Colum Lynch, Foreign Policy, April 5, 2015 Declassified U.N. Cables Reveal Turning Point in Rwanda Crisis of 1994 By Mark Landler, The New York Times,…
Déjà vu All Over Again
Unredacted blog
National Security Archive's Carlos Osorio Honored for Human Rights Work in Argentina
News 20150326
Carlos Osorio - 202/994-7061 cosorio@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 26, 2015 – Carlos Osorio, Director of the National Security Archive's Southern Cone Documentation Project, received a special award from the Argentine Embassy in Washington on…
Secrecy Cloaks History of U.S. Nuclear Presence in Western Europe
Unredacted blog
New Memoir by Participant in U.S. H-Bomb Program Sheds Light on the Making of the First Test Device
Briefing Book 507
Ken Ford 215/439-8568, kenneth.w.ford@gmail.com or William Burr 202/994-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, D.C., March 24, 2015 – A new scientific memoir by one of the few surviving participants in the U.S. H-bomb project provides fresh information and insights into the production of the world…
The CIA and Signals Intelligence
Briefing Book 506
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 20, 2015 – For decades the Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a major signals intelligence (SIGINT) effort that often placed it in competition with other members of the…
The CIA and Signals Intelligence
Briefing Book 506
Compiled and edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson
Washington, DC, March 20, 2015 – For decades the Central Intelligence Agency has conducted a major signals intelligence (SIGINT) effort that often placed it in competition with other members of…
Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council Wins Rosemary Award
News 20150318
Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive - 202/994-7000, Lauren Harper, Associate FOIA Project Director - 202/994-7045 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 18, 2015 – The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance of 2014, according to the citation…
Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council Wins Rosemary Award
Rosemary Award
For more information contact: Tom Blanton, Director, National Security Archive - 202/994-7000 Lauren Harper, Associate FOIA Project Director - 202/994-7045 nsarchiv@gwu.edu
The Federal Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance of 2014, according to the citation published today by the National…
Dark Clouds over Sunshine Week as Network Fires Mexico’s Leading Investigative Team
Unredacted blog
Most Agencies Falling Short on Mandate for Online Records
Briefing Book 505, FOIA Audit 505
Audit authored by Nate Jones and Lauren Harper, data chart compiled by Lauren Harper and linked by Jamie Noguchi, Audit edited by Tom Blanton Nate Jones/Lauren Harper/Tom Blanton 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
In the News Happy Sunshine Week: National Security Archive names E-Delinquents in 2015 E-FOIA Audit By Ms. Smith, Network World, March 17, 2015 Sunshine Week Column: Posting FOIA releases online…
Perestroika in the Soviet Union: 30 Years On
Briefing Book 504
Compiled and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Anna Melyakova
Washington, DC, March 11, 2015 – Thirty years ago today, in the Kremlin, the Soviet Politburo unanimously elected its youngest member, Mikhail Gorbachev, to the pinnacle of Soviet power — General…
Perestroika in the Soviet Union: 30 Years On
Briefing Book 504
Compiled and edited by Svetlana Savranskaya and Anna Melyakova 202/994-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, March 11, 2015 – Thirty years ago today, in the Kremlin, the Soviet Politburo unanimously elected its youngest member, Mikhail Gorbachev, to the pinnacle of Soviet power — General…
Archive Sues State Department Over Kissinger Telcons
Briefing Book 503
Edited by William Burr William Burr - 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
n the News Somebody Else Is Suing the State Department—To Get Kissinger’s Phone Calls By Asawin Suebsaeng, The Daily Beast, March 12, 2015 State Department hit with suit for Kissinger records By…
The Merchant of Death's Account Book
Briefing Book 502
Edited by Lauren Harper
Washington, DC, February 23, 2015 –Documents posted for the first time — in a collaboration between the National Security Archive and VICE News — provide insight into the U.S. government's…
FOIA Advisory Committee Begins Posting Oversight Reports
News 20150205
Nate Jones- 202/944-7000, nsarchiv@gwu.edu
As part of the Federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee's mission to "to foster dialog between the Administration and the requester community, solicit public comments, and develop…
Conversations with a Genocidaire
Unredacted blog
U.S. Intelligence and the Soviet Space Program
Briefing Book 501
Edited by Jeffrey T. Richelson 202/994-7000 or nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, February 4, 2015 – During much of the Cold War Soviet space activities — civilian and military — were a major focus of U.S. intelligence collection and analysis. As one of the key…
Key Diplomat's Personal Notebook Sheds Light on Inner Workings of US Government Response to Genocide Unfolding in Rwanda in 1994
Briefing Book 500
Edited by Emily Willard Research AssistanceKristin Scalzo, Clara Fisher, Sarah Reichenbach, Claire Dailey, & Mikaela Duckworth Emily Willard - 202/944-7000, ewillard@gwu.edu
Washington, DC, January 30, 2015 – Former Ambassador Prudence Bushnell's notebooks provide a never-before-seen view into the inner workings of US diplomacy during one of the international community's…
Documenting Mexico’s Recurring Nightmare
Unredacted blog
Declassified Memo of Rumsfeld’s Post-9/11 Middle East Visit Highlights Logistical Challenges; Unwavering Belief in WMD
Unredacted blog