Analysts at the National Security Archive have uncovered everything from assassination plots to programs to secretly give LSD to citizens. According to the group, the purpose of this activity is to keep the government in check.
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The Central Intelligence Agency’s secret mind control program. The National Security Agency spied on Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali. Federal Manual on Political Assassinations.
It’s not just about spy novels. This is also part of the daily work of the National Security Archive, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The archive, which describes itself as an “activist archivist,” is not a government agency and collects declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and other means. Since its founding in 1985, the group has exposed some of America’s darkest secrets, including records of senior U.S. officials discussing covert operations and memos from spymasters.
“These documents reveal what was done in the name of the American people without their knowledge,” Peter Corblue, an analyst with the group since 1986, told USA TODAY. “These declassified documents are the currency of history. They will remain forever valuable because they contain the words, positions, and operations of U.S. foreign policy actors and, in many cases, summaries of operations in other countries that are the only record of what happened there.”
The group celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. Documents obtained by the archive group reveal everything from how U.S. officials supported coups in Latin America to the torture of terrorist suspects on black sites after 9/11.
Legal experts and government watchdogs say the body of work produced by archives serves an important function in the state by providing a check on government power.
“If it weren’t for those 20 historians, archivists and document buffs, governments would have more control over public discourse,” said Stephen Kinser, author of a book about state covert operations around the world. “Their work is especially important in an administration as committed to secrecy as this one.”
The organization’s anniversary comes at a time when Americans are demanding transparency in government.
As soon as President Donald Trump took office, he moved to release long-classified files related to the assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy, his brother and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.
Recently, calls for the Justice Department to release the investigative file on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have spread, prompting Congress to pass the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act. On December 10, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would force the Pentagon to release videos showing military attacks on survivors of US attacks on alleged drug cartel vessels.
But scholars say some of the most valuable files in the country’s history have only come to light through the work of the archive’s determined analysts.
Here’s what you need to know about the trove of documents the group uncovered, from a 702-page collection of CIA files containing government memos about a plot to assassinate Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba to the MKULTRA files, a CIA program developing mind-control techniques to test drugs, including LSD, on “unsuspecting American citizens.”
The CIA, the Mob, and Fidel Castro
One of the archive’s biggest coups is a 702-page collection of CIA files known as the “Family Jewels” report. When the archives released the files in 2007, it said the documents detailed “25 years of agency misconduct.”
One memo, titled “Potentially Embarrassing Agency Activities,” listed a catalog of CIA programs that went on to become a classic example of how top government leaders lost control of their agencies.
Among the items listed in the 1973 memo was a program to “influence human behavior by administering mind- and personality-altering drugs to unconscious subjects.” Confirmed “substantial involvement of government agencies” in the assassination of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. and plans to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
The memo noted that the CIA’s plot to kill Castro had already been reported in the media, and said, “Although the column contained numerous factual errors, the allegations are essentially true.”
USA TODAY reported on the release of the documents, which included a 1960 plot to poison Cuban leader Fidel Castro in collusion with “organized crime figures and close associates of tycoon Howard Hughes.”
CIA Director General Michael Hayden reportedly said, “Today’s news coverage of the release will remind us of some things the CIA should not have done.” “This document really offers a glimpse into a very different era and a very different government agency.”
“People’s Information”: How the archive retrieves files
Archival analysts use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to access long-class classified documents. Federal law dating back to 1967 requires government agencies to turn over records to the public, with some exceptions.
The group says it has filed tens of thousands of FOIA requests over the decades and filed 75 lawsuits to ensure files are turned over in accordance with the law.
Georgetown Law Professor Cliff Sloan is an attorney who has represented the archives in some of its biggest cases. Sloan, a former government employee, said he understands the need to keep some government information classified.
But he says he takes on the case because he believes information that sheds light on government activities is in the country’s best interest.
“We’re a democracy, and people have a right to know what their government is doing unless there’s a very good reason not to,” said Sloan, who teaches constitutional law. “It’s people’s information.”
As distrust of government grows, Sloan said it becomes more important to shine a light on government dealings.
“In this era of disinformation and dramatically contradictory narratives, we need to get the facts out there, get the truth out there and let people decide for themselves,” he said.
cleaning the attic
When Kornbluh started working at the Archives, a former Washington Post investigative journalist taught him that it’s important to know what exactly to ask in a FOIA request, and that asking former government officials is a good place to start.
This information led him to offer to help a former Kennedy administration intelligence analyst “clean out the attic.” The official gave him a storage list of documents related to the Cuban Missile Crisis, including the titles of the documents and the exact locations where they were kept.
The crisis occurred in the fall of 1962 when the Soviet Union attempted to plant nuclear missiles in Cuba. It is believed that the United States and the Soviet Union came closest to nuclear war.
Documents obtained from the archives included secret correspondence between Kennedy and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, which provided deeper insight into how the two countries avoided war.
“There is nothing more important to understanding the Cold War than understanding how we got into the worst crisis associated with it and how we got out of it,” the longtime archivist said. “That is the real mission of the archives: to strengthen the pillars of an informed citizenry.”
