KickStarter Michael Best had a great idea: scan millions of pages of CIA declassified archives open to the public only by way of a visit to the National Archives in College Park, Md. and put them online so everyone can dive in. On his KickStarter site, Best said he needed $10,000. He got over $15,000 to purchase the IT equipment he’d need to make everything public and donate the treasure trove to some university library. Then he encountered a problem.
CREST
“Welcome to the new CIA Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room.” CREST is CIA’s acronym for CIA Records Search Tool available only at the National Archives. “The CREST system,” explains the CIA, “is the publicly accessible repository of the subset of CIA records reviewed under the 25-year program in electronic format (manually reviewed and released records are accessioned directly into the National Archives in their original format).” There at CREST, you’ll find over 11 million documents awaiting you. And it is, so far, pretty uncharted territory. According to the CIA, only 10 percent of which has been printed (likely, much more than that has been reviewed).
ACCESS ISSUES
Getting to College Park is a challenge. I live in Rockville, so no problem for me. But if you’re a researcher in California, or Europe, well, getting to College Park is more difficult, and expensive. Besides travel, you’ll have to think about lodging, and finding what you’re looking for by way of CREST in the Archives isn’t so easy a proposition.
You’re won’t find a team of helpful customer-service trained CIA diplomats waiting on you. Federation of American Scientist writer Steven Aftergood explained back in 2009, the four computer terminals at the Archives are “the only publicly available terminals” that could access the declassified documents. Michael Best’s KickStarter narrative pretty much explains it (though with nearly 30 years in federal service of one sort or another myself, I’m wondering what his problem is. Sounds about right):
Researchers have to go to the back of the 3rd floor library at the National Archives building in Maryland, which is unfortunately unstaffed for half the day. Tucked away in the library are the only computers that can access the millions of pages of declassified records. If researchers ask the main “Information” desk, they’re answered with confused stares and incorrect directions. Researchers trying to look up on the National Archive’s website where to access the computers, won’t find it on the page about doing research at that location or on the page for electronic records at that location. That information is tucked away on the page for online databases—despite not being online.
CREST ONLINE
CREST Online is called the CIA Freedom of Information Act Reading Room. And the “reading room” is right there in your house, or Starbucks. Go to the site, type in some term, like Vietnam, and you’ll have 557 web-pages of links to surf. On just page one, up pops the “Assessment of the Current Military Situation in Vietnam” from August of 1974. Type in Putin, and you’ll find an October 2000 document that reports, “On Saturday, Milosovic rejected Russian President Putin’s offer to meditate the election dispute.” Type in John F. Kennedy, and among over 500 pages of links you’ll find “Lessons to be learned from the Cuban Incident” from May 3, 1961. First lesson: “You can’t do it with mirrors.” Noted. Second lesson: “The U.S. doesn’t understand the use of power.” Sound relevant even today.
In all seriousness, historians will surely find the new online access invaluable.
WHAT YOU WILL (AND WON’T) FIND
“Executive Order 13526, Classified National Security Information” explains in detail the logic of classification, and the same Executive Order (EO) explains in detail the process for declassifying information and making it public. As the EO explains, “Protecting information critical to our Nation’s security and demonstrating our commitment to open Government through accurate and accountable application of classification standards and routine, secure, and effective declassification are equally important priorities.”
Some believe that 25 years after classification, documents are just declassified. Not exactly true. In some cases, the EO directs declassification at the 10 year mark. In other cases, declassification will not happen for 75 years, and, with proper exception, classification could continue beyond the 75-year mark. For instance, documents that reveal “the identity of a confidential human source or a human intelligence source” or that communicate “key design concepts of weapons of mass destruction” are not released until the 75 year mark, if then.
So everybody get to work. If you find something worth reporting, send it our way.
And I’d like to know exactly what Best is doing with a basement full of $15,000 in high-tech reproduction IT.
