Throughout history, trained animals have been used in security roles to meet mission requirements, especially by armed forces, whether for transportation, communications, or threat detection. From World War I carrier pigeons to today`s explosives detector dogs, government agencies have turned to animals to perform important tasks that humans couldn`t do. The CIA is no exception and has already worked to develop ways for animals to help gather information. This collection of declassified documents highlights the various programs that include the feasibility of using the capabilities of marine animals and birds to support intelligence operations. For various technical and other reasons, none of the programmes has ever been operational. Nevertheless, these documents offer insight into the innovative thinking applied to the intelligence mission, which aims to counter increasingly sophisticated foreign adversaries. The story of the CIA`s Bay of Pigs operation in 1961, initially classified top secret, based on dozens of interviews with key agents and officials, and hundreds of CIA documents. The four volumes include (I) Air Operations, March 1960-1961; (ii) participation in the implementation of foreign policy; III) Development of the CIA`s anti-Castro policy, 1959-January 1961; and (IV) the Taylor Committee`s Bay of Pigs inquiry. The Trieste II Deep Sea Vehicle I (DSV-1), the U.S. Navy`s most advanced ocean-going submersible at the time, surfaced about 350 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands in the early morning of April 26, 1972, after retrieving a mysterious object 16,400 feet below the Pacific Ocean. Publicly known as the Scripps Institution for Oceanography`s discrete “data packet,” the object was actually part of a film capsule from an American photo reconnaissance satellite named HEXAGON. Before today`s digital technology, photographic reconnaissance satellites used films whose capsules returned to Earth from the satellite.
The capsules, called “buckets,” re-entered Earth`s atmosphere and deployed a parachute as they descended to the main re-entry area near the Hawaiian Islands. During the first HEXAGON mission in the summer of 1971, the parachute ruptured, causing the bucket to crash into the ocean and sink on impact. This publication of the CIA images includes photos of the capsule at the bottom of the ocean, images of Trieste II (DSV-1), documents and an article explaining how the CIA and the US Navy conducted the deepest underwater rescue attempt at the time. We also have a link with the United States. Underwater Naval Museum, where the Trieste II (DSV-1) is on permanent display. This collection includes more than 250 previously classified documents with a total length of more than 1,400 pages, of which about 150 are published for the first time. These documents cover the period from January 1977 to March 1979 and were prepared by the CIA to support the diplomatic efforts of the Carter administration that led to President Carter`s negotiations with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David in September 1978. The declassified documents describe diplomatic developments in the Arab peace offensive and President Sadat`s trip to Jerusalem at the Camp David regional suite. For most Americans, the Central Intelligence Agency is a mystery. Founded in 1947 as a civilian diplomatic service that collects information for the highest echelons of the U.S.
government, the name can evoke anything from assassination attempts to aliens and mind control. But although more than 12 million pages of declassified CIA documents have been publicly available since the 2000s, they have been difficult to access. So far: As Jason Leopold reports for BuzzFeed, the agency just uploaded millions of shared documents for anyone to search and review. This archive provides researchers with online access to more than 700,000 pages of selected and previously classified government documents. The archive contains declassified documents from agencies and organizations such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the White House, the United Nations, and the Atomic Energy Commission. The contents of these archives include: FBI journal entries, correspondence and surveillance and intelligence memos, CIA intelligence studies and reports, Joint Chiefs of Staff documents, and technical studies. Now anyone can search for the documents. “Access to this historically important collection is no longer geographically restricted,” Joseph Lambert, the CIA`s director of information management, said in a press release. Redacted and declassified documents cover everything from intelligence reports to internal documents to elements of the CIA`s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services. The estate of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is part of the archives, as are a variety of other documents, reports, photographs, articles, and translations. Modern wars, terrorism and even invisible ink formulas can be found in the depths of archives. This collection includes approximately 120 declassified documents, most of which are being published for the first time.
The collection includes more than 1,200 pages from various studies, memos, letters, and other official documents documenting the CIA`s efforts to investigate, address, and improve the status of female employees from 1947 to the present. Perhaps the most fascinating documents now available concern STAR GATE, a 25-year attempt to see if mediums and mediums could be useful in military and intelligence operations. The database is peppered with the names of dictators such as Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro and includes details of foreign operations such as the Berlin Tunnel, a joint attempt by the CIA and British intelligence to spy on Soviet army communications from a 1,500-foot tunnel in Berlin. (There was only one problem: the Soviets knew about the project from the beginning. Nevertheless, the project collected a huge amount of data.) And if you`re in the mood for aliens, you can browse through over 1,700 documents containing the word “UFO.” The truth is there, that is, if you can find it among the millions of pages now available to the public. The CIA`s Historical Review Program, with the exception of certain legal requirements, is a voluntary declassification program that focuses on documents of historical value. Program managers rely on the advice and guidance of agency history staff, the ICD Historical Review Committee and the public to select topics for review. According to the program`s guidelines, historical records are disclosed except in cases where disclosure would be injurious to national security, that is, disclosure of sensitive foreign government information or would identify sources and methods of intelligence currently in use that are subject to denial or deception.
The historical review program coordinates the review of records with components of the CIA and other U.S. government agencies before final declassification actions are taken and the records are turned over to the National Archives. As Brandon Specktor reports for Live Science, the Black Vault collection contains UFO-related documents that have been declassified by the CIA since the 1980s. The site`s owner, John Greenewald Jr., obtained the newly scanned documents, which the CIA says represent the entire UFO collection, by filing a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
