National Security Archive
Scott Armstrong stood in Washington, D.C. during 1985 and launched the National Security Archive. He was a former reporter for The Washington Post who had served on the Senate Watergate Committee. His goal was to check rising government secrecy through legal means. The organization became a non-profit research institution located on the George Washington University campus. It operates as an investigative journalism center and open government advocate. The group also functions as an international affairs research institute. It holds the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government. In four decades, the archive has spurred the release of more than 15 million pages of government documents. They achieved this by being the leading non-profit user of the Freedom of Information Act. The group filed over 70,000 FOIA and declassification requests to force transparency.
A the 21st of December 1970 photograph shows Elvis Presley shaking hands with Richard Nixon at the White House. This image remains the most requested item from the U.S. National Archives every year. The archive secured its release through persistent FOIA litigation. Another major victory involved the CIA's Family Jewels list documenting decades of illegal agency activities. They obtained the NSA watch list containing names of 1,600 Americans including Martin Luther King Jr. and Muhammad Ali. A declassified the 6th of August 2001 President's Daily Brief warned that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike in the US. The archive also released the first official confirmation of Area 51 via a CIA map of Groom Lake. They published FBI transcripts of 25 interviews with Saddam Hussein after his capture in December 2003. Their collections cover Cold War nuclear flashpoints during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 1983 Able Archer War Scare.
The original White House email lawsuit began in January 1989 under Armstrong v. Reagan. It continued against presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. This legal action established that emails must be treated as government records. Consequently, more than 30 million White House email messages from the 1980s and 1990s were preserved. A second lawsuit filed in 2007 against the George W. Bush administration settled in 2009 by the Obama administration. That case recovered over 22 million deleted White House email messages between March 2003 and October 2005. Cumulatively, these litigation efforts resulted in preserving over a billion emails and electronic messages. One suit forced the Pentagon to release 15,000 Donald Rumsfeld snowflake memos covering his tenure as Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006. Another lawsuit compelled the State Department to declassify memoranda recorded by Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott during the Clinton administration. In the 22nd of June 2017, they sued the Trump administration regarding messaging applications that delete conversations automatically.
The National Security Archive relies on publication revenues and grants from private foundations for its three million dollar yearly budget. Major donors include the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ford Foundation. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation supports their cyber security documentation work known as the Cyber Vault. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation funds human rights evidence programs used by truth commissions. The Latin America program receives support from the Arca Foundation and the Coyote Foundation. Their Russia program publishes primary sources from Soviet archives no longer open in Moscow through a Russian-language page. The Iran program operates through a partnership with MIT Center for International Studies. Publication royalties from libraries subscribing to the Digital National Security Archive fund their publications program. They receive no government funding whatsoever despite being recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt public charity. The organization incorporates as an independent Washington, D.C. non-profit operating under eight dedicated program areas.
In 1998, the archive shared the George Foster Peabody Award for the broadcast series CNN's Cold War. They won the George Polk Award in 1999 for facilitating thousands of searches for journalists and scholars. Forbes Best of the Web named them singlehandedly keeping bureaucrats feet to the fire on the Freedom of Information Act in 2005. An Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in news and documentary research followed that same year. Tufts University awarded them the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award in February 2011 for exposing global diplomacy. From 2003 to 2014, they received 54 citations from the University of Wisconsin Internet Scout Report. Choice magazine named their Digital National Security Archive one of the Outstanding Academic Titles in 2018. Journalist Craig Whitlock wrote in 2021 that the archive provides an irreplaceable public service. Their staff have authored over 100 books including winners of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize and the 1995 National Book Award. The group also secured the 1996 Lionel Gelber Prize and the 1996 James Madison Award Citation.
A historic conference took place in Havana during 2002 marking the 40th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuban president Fidel Castro met with former US secretary of defense Robert McNamara there. They discussed newly declassified documents showing John F. Kennedy compared the Bay of Pigs failure to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. Another major event occurred in Budapest in 1996 focusing on the 1956 uprising as a featured subject. Oxford University historian Timothy Garton Ash called this confrontation of documents and memories dramatic. A conference held in Hanoi in 1997 saw Defense Secretary Robert McNamara meet his Vietnamese counterpart General Vo Nguyen Giap. In December 2016, they hosted a conference on the 25th anniversary of the Nunn-Lugar nuclear threat reduction legislation. Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar attended alongside Russians, Kazakhs, and Americans in the Kennedy Caucus Room. These events facilitated dialogue between former adversaries using declassified records to build mutual security understanding.
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Common questions
When did Scott Armstrong launch the National Security Archive?
Scott Armstrong launched the National Security Archive in 1985 while standing in Washington, D.C. The organization operates as a non-profit research institution located on the George Washington University campus.
What major documents has the National Security Archive declassified regarding government secrecy?
The archive holds the largest repository of declassified U.S. documents outside the federal government and has released more than 15 million pages of government documents over four decades. Key releases include the CIA's Family Jewels list, an NSA watch list containing names of 1,600 Americans, and a President's Daily Brief from the 6th of August 2001 warning about Osama bin Laden.
How many White House email messages were preserved through National Security Archive lawsuits?
Litigation efforts by the National Security Archive resulted in preserving over a billion emails and electronic messages from the White House. These legal actions recovered more than 30 million messages from the 1980s and 1990s plus over 22 million deleted messages between March 2003 and October 2005.
Who funds the three million dollar yearly budget of the National Security Archive?
The National Security Archive relies on publication revenues and grants from private foundations for its three million dollar yearly budget since it receives no government funding. Major donors include the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
What awards did the National Security Archive receive for its journalism and research work?
The archive shared the George Foster Peabody Award in 1998 and won the George Polk Award in 1999 for facilitating searches for journalists and scholars. Staff members have authored over 100 books including winners of the 1996 Pulitzer Prize and the 1995 National Book Award while the organization secured the 1996 Lionel Gelber Prize and the 1996 James Madison Award Citation.