"A popular Government without
popular information or the means of acquiring it, is
but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy or perhaps both.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people
who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves
with the power knowledge gives."
-- James Madison
Ever heard of the NRO? What's Echelon? Want to peruse
the memos of a former CIA Station Chief? To what degree
does Big Oil determine foreign policy? After all, who
did kill Kennedy?
Often the difference between a conspiracy theory and
a legitimate uncovering of secret activities is the
proper documentation. Thanks to various pieces of legislation,
including the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and
several Executive Orders, the general public now has
access to vast stores of material previously deemed
Top Secret, Secret, or Confidential at the highest levels
of government.
When these new regulations were conceived, no one (including
the government) had any clue that information would
become so widely available and easily searchable as
it has thanks to the advent of the Internet. However,
in 1996, in the spirit of openness and information sharing,
amendments to the FOIA mandated that each federal agency
create a publicly accessible electronic reading room,
guidelines about how to make agency specific FOIA requests,
and electronically indexed and searchable databases
of information.
This manifestation of American glasnost has been
a boon for historians, history buffs, and those who
pan for the gold dust of the next Watergate or Pentagon
Papers. In the links in this section, you will find
access to direct source materials, including memoranda,
field reports, telegrams, correspondence, background
studies and even detailed minutes of cabinet-level meetings.
You'll find entire collections of documents from government
intelligence agencies such as the CIA, NSA, and maybe
a few others you've never heard about …
|
|
|
