Secrecy and FOIA
Jun 28, 2018 | Blog Post
FBI Tries to Put FOIA Lawsuits on Hold The FBI recently told a government attorney that it is beginning to file “Open America” stays in “all FOIA lawsuits going” forward. This means, according to Jason Leopold, who brought attention to this alarming development, that “even if you sue the FBI, the bureau won’t process it until […]
Jun 21, 2018 | Blog Post
ISCAP Directed to Help with FRUS Volume The Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), which is housed at the U.S. National Archives and charged with – among other things – deciding on Mandatory Declassification Review appeals, held a forum today to discuss the current MDR landscape. Major takeaways from the meeting include: ISCAP received a […]
Jun 7, 2018 | Blog Post
The Archive’s New CyberWar Map The National Security Archive is thrilled to announce the launch of our interactive CyberWar Map. The Map is both a visualization of state-sponsored cyberattacks and an index of documents in the Archive’s Cyber Vault relevant to the subject selected. Clicking on each node will reveal documents and analysis and the […]
May 31, 2018 | Blog Post
Nacropolis: Medellín Cartel “Financed” Senate Campaign of Former President Álvaro Uribe, Colombian Senators Told U.S. Embassy State Department cables released to the National Security Archive shed new light on the U.S.’s awareness of, and concerns about, then-senator Álvaro Uribe Vélez’s relationship with the Medellin drug cartel. One cable shows a Colombian senator telling the U.S. […]
May 24, 2018 | Blog Post
Luis Posada Carriles, CIA-Created “Frankenstein”, Dies at 90 CIA-trained Cuban exile and suspect in the 1976 Cuban jetliner bombing that killed all 73 people on board, Luis Posada Carriles, has died at the age of 90. The National Security Archive’s Cuba Project Director Peter Kornbluh, who has fought for the release of U.S. documents to […]
May 10, 2018 | Blog Post
Fact-Checking Haspel’s Nomination Hearing Against the Declassified Record PolitiFact reached out to the National Security Archive’s CIA expert John Prados to help fact-check key claims Gina Haspel made during her contentious nomination hearing to lead the agency. Among the claims Prados debunked was Haspel’s assertion that the “CIA has historically not done interrogations.” The executive […]
May 3, 2018 | Blog Post
Mulvaney Moves to Hide Important Consumer Complaint Database Mick Mulvaney, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, is trying to take a database intended to hold financial institutions accountable offline, ending the public’s ability to file and view complaints. The database (tagline: “How one complaint can help millions”) is currently available here. Americans have […]
Apr 26, 2018 | Blog Post
Gina Haspel’s CIA Torture File The Trump administration’s nominee to be CIA director, Gina Haspel, personally supervised the torture of a CIA detainee in 2002 leading to at least three waterboard sessions, subsequently drafted the cable that ordered destruction of the videotape evidence of torture, and served as a senior CIA official while the Agency […]
Apr 19, 2018 | Blog Post
FOIA Federal Advisory Committee Recs Will Help Agency FOIA Shops Pass “Common-Sense Test” An incredulous Senator Chuck Grassley told the Justice Department Office of Information Policy’s Melanie Pustay this Sunshine Week that her defenses of lackluster government-wide FOIA performance didn’t pass “the common-sense test.” OIP’s support of agencies who claimed 508 compliance concerns were a valid […]
Apr 17, 2018 | Blog Post
By Michael R. Lemov* & Nate Jones** This article originally appeared in the Southwestern Journal of International Law, Volume 24. INTRODUCTION John Moss was an obscure Congressman from a newly created district in northern California when he arrived in Washington D.C. in 1953.1 He had survived a razor-thin general election victory (by about 700 votes), […]