News Archive - Jun 2007

CIA to Release its "Family Jewels"

Jun 22, 2007: On June 25, the CIA will declassify its 693-page "family jewels" documents, according to the National Security Archive. See also a Washington Post story. Collected in 1973 under the orders of CIA Director James Schlesinger, these records describe 25 years of what the National Security Archive calls "revelations of illegal wiretapping, domestic surveillance, assassination plots, and human experimentation," among other abuses of the Agency's charter. CIA's current director, Michael Hayden, announced yesterday the release of these files, only a tiny portion of which has been previously available to the public. The National Security Archive has also posted a 6-page summary of illegal CIA activities compiled in 1974, and a memo from the briefing of President Ford in January 1975.