Declassified

Kissinger hindered US effort to end mass killings in Argentina, according to files

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger jeopardized US efforts to stop mass killings by Argentina’s 1976-83 military dictatorship by congratulating the country’s military leaders for “wiping out” terrorism, according to a large trove of newly declassified state department files.

The documents, which were released on Monday night, show how Kissinger’s close relationship to Argentina’s military rulers hindered Jimmy Carter’s carrot-and-stick attempts to influence the regime during his 1977-81 presidency.

Carter officials were infuriated by Kissinger’s attendance at the 1978 World Cup inArgentina as the personal guest of dictator Jorge Videla, the general who oversaw the forced disappearance of up to 30,000 opponents of the military regime.

Declassified

700,000+ CIA docs close to release as ‘national security geek’ nears Kickstarter goal

Michael Best, who has used the online moniker “National Security Geek,”launched the project to raise $10,000, and he’s already near his goal thanks to hundreds of backers. They all want to have a hand in disseminating the unreleased CIA files, numbering about 10 million pages, to the general public. Even though the documents have been declassified, they remain locked up in four computers at the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland.

Known as CREST, the CIA Records Search Tool allows anyone to search the documents, but only if they wish to make the trip there. Even then the only way to share any findings is to print, scan, and upload, which so far has only happened with about 1 million out of the total 11 million pages in the archive. Eventually, the newly unearthed volumes would be sent to The New York Times and Wikileaks, while the physical printouts will be donated to a library, archive, or university, according to the Kickstarter page.

Declassified

DIA Declassified: A Sourcebook

The Defense Intelligence Agency, established in 1961, is one of the United States government’s largest intelligence organizations – employing 17,000 individuals, including thousands stationed overseas. Its 2013 fiscal year budget request was for $3.15 billion. Yet, the DIA is also one of the more secretive agencies in the U.S. intelligence community, regularly denying access to basic information about its structure, functions and activities. Today the National Security Archive posts a new sourcebook of over 50 documents, many appearing for the first time, that help to illuminate the DIA’s five-decades-long history.

Highlights of the posting include an internal memo about the infamous Iraqi defector known as CURVEBALL and the false intelligence he provided about Iraq’s supposed WMD programs; a 180-page review of the case of DIA analyst Ana Belen Montes, convicted of supplying secrets to the Cubans several analyses of Iraqi and Chinese weapons of mass destruction programs; and descriptions of DIA’s interest in “psychoenergetics” activities such as extrasensory perception, telepathy, and remote viewing.