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CIA Claims it Cannot Find its Own Declassification Regulations
[Editor's note 7/21/2013: At the time of this story, Kel McClanahan actually is the director of the non-profit law firm called National Security Counselors, NOT the National Security Archive. The original story appeared on the National Security Archive's website. We have updated the story with the correct attribution. We apologize for any confusion.] Kel McClanahan of the non-profit law firm National Security Counselors submitted to the Central Intelligence Agency a Freedom of Information Act request for "the CIA's copy of its new regulation 32 C.F.R. 1908." This is a public document: a regulation in the Code of Federal Regulations. It is available, for example, here: 32 CFR 1908. The CIA even has a copy of 32 CFR on its own website (though evidently not the current version!): http://www.foia.cia.gov/32CFR.asp http://www.foia.cia.gov/txt/32CFR.pdf But the CIA responded to this request this way:
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Pentagon Papers to be Officially Released
Pentagon Papers to be Officially Released, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (May 11, 2011).
The National Archives announced this week that it “has identified, inventoried, and prepared for public access the Vietnam Task Force study, United States-Vietnam Relations 1945-1967, informally known as ‘the Pentagon Papers’.” As a result, 3.7 cubic feet of previously restricted textual materials will be made officially available at the Nixon Library on June 13, the Archives said in a May 10 Federal Register notice.Nixon Presidential Historical Materials: Opening of Materials Federal Register Volume 76, Issue 90 (76 FR 27092) (May 10, 2011).
Previously restricted textual materials. Volume: 3.7 cubic feet. A number of textual materials previously withheld from public access have been reviewed for release and/or declassified under the systematic declassification review provisions and under the mandatory review provisions of Executive Order 13526, or in accordance with 36 CFR 1275.56 (Public Access regulations). The materials are from National Security Council (NSC Files), Presidential Acquisition Files, Pentagon Papers.Continue reading
Transforming classification. The new NARA blog on the block
For all you (de)classification geeks out there, here's an interesting new .gov blog to add to your blogrolls. NARA's Public Interest Declassification Board now has a blog called Transforming Classification. They'll be posting a bunch of white papers on various topics over the coming months. I'm looking forward to the conversation.
The Public Interest Declassification Board is an advisory board established by Congress to promote the fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities. The Board’s mandate includes advising the President and other government officials on policies deriving from the issuance by the President of Executive orders regarding the classification and declassification of national security information... ...President Obama has charged the Board with designing a more fundamental transformation of the security classification system. In response to his request, we are proposing new solutions that address the shortcomings of the current system and tackle the challenges of digital records. By reducing inefficiencies and increasing public access, our proposals aim to improve the classification/declassification’s system capacity to protect and serve the American people. Every other Wednesday over the next eight weeks, we will post either two or three “white paper” synopses to the blog describing an element of our proposed transformation.[HT to Meredith Stewart] Continue reading
CIA finally declassifies last WWI era classified documents
So the CIA just got around to declassifying 6 of the U.S.'s oldest classified documents from WWI (1917 + 1918). They've posted them in their CIA FOIA reading room and the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) at the National Archives (but to use CREST, a researcher must physically be present at the National Archives, College Park, Maryland :-|). That also means that the documents will also soon be available at the archive-it FOIA collection (I'm harvesting them as we speak ;-)).
These documents, which describe secret writing techniques and are housed at the National Archives, are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Documents describing secret writing fall under the CIA's purview to declassify. "These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said. "When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people." One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink. "The CIA recognizes the importance of opening these historical documents to the public," said Joseph Lambert, the Agency's Director of Information Management Services. "In fiscal year 2010 alone, the Agency declassified and released over 1.1 million pages of documents."These documents, which describe secret writing techniques and are housed at the National Archives, are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Documents describing secret writing fall under the CIA's purview to declassify. "These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said. "When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people." One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink. "The CIA recognizes the importance of opening these historical documents to the public," said Joseph Lambert, the Agency's Director of Information Management Services. "In fiscal year 2010 alone, the Agency declassified and released over 1.1 million pages of documents."Declassified CIA documents (all pdf):
- Document 1
- Document 2
- Document 3
- Document 4 -- This is the one with the steps for checking for invisible ink.
- Document 5
- Document 6
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The Pentagon Papers are still classified Top Secret
Steven Aftergood points to an article by an historian who says that the Pentagon Papers are still classified as Top Secret:
You might be dismayed to learn that the Pentagon Papers are still classified as TOP SECRET! This is despite the fact that The Pentagon Papers have long been in the public domain. Indeed, US government historians use them in official accounts of the Vietnam War and they are referenced and republished in official US government records, such as Foreign Relations of the United States. Senator Mike Gravel even entered them into the Congressional Record!Aftergood notes that "This means that every public and private library in the country that has a copy of the Papers is technically in possession of currently classified material."
- Twelve Million Pages Opened by Declass Center in 2010, by Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News (January 26th, 2011).
- Can Government Employees Read the Pentagon Papers?, by John Prados, Unredacted (December 14, 2010).
The classification of the Pentagon Papers takes on an even stranger significance when one considers the federal government's recent pronouncement that "unauthorized disclosures of classified documents (whether in print, on a blog, or on websites) do not alter the documents' classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents." This is the reason –in the case of Wikileaks– why the Government has been demanding that US government employees refrain from looking at any of these documents, even if doing so hampers their ability to fulfill their mandates. If this standard holds true, government employees should not be allowed to read (or reference, or cite) the Pentagon papers either.Continue reading
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