NSA Documents on U.S. Cold War Intelligence Activities Released
A month before the Cuban Missile crisis, Soviet leaders placed their strategic forces on their "highest readiness stage since the beginning of the Cold War," reveals an internal history of the National Security Agency. Possibly worried that the White House had exposed soviet plans to deploy missiles on Cuba, the Kremlin kept forces on alert for 10 days from Sept. 11, 1962. The NSA's signals intelligence (SIGINT) history also reveals that on October 15th, the Soviets had a "precautionary, preliminary" alert. After JFK's speech on October 22nd 1962, announcing the blockade of Cuba, the Kremlin put military forces on an "extraordinarily high state of alert." (pubrecord.org)
UN archives reveal plan to arm Jewish militia with weapons, tankettes
It was Nov. 29, 1947. The UN General Assembly had passed Resolution 181 - the Partition Plan (the British Mandate was to be split into a Jewish state and an Arab state). Then civil war erupted between the Jewish and the Palestinian residents. The UN Secretariat formed a Special Committee to deal with the situation. Last year Historian Elad Ben-Dror sat in the UN archives and read declassified files relating to the work of the Special Committee. He made a discovery: The UN had planned to carry out the Partition Plan by means of a Jewish militia, trained by the UN and armed by the UN - with weapons, combat aircraft and tankettes. (haaretz)
CIA to release black files - illegal assassination plots, kidnapping, etc
The CIA is to declassify secret files detailing illegal domestic surveillance, assassination plots, kidnapping, subjecting US citizens to "unwitting" CIA drug experiments to induce "behaviour modification" and other "black" operations from the 1950s to the 1970s. The files detail the ageny's activities at the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union and "Red" China; and the Vietnam conflict. The records were compiled in 1973 at the behest of the CIA director James Schlesinger, and collected in a 693-page dossier known as the "family jewels". Although some of its contents have been leaked, the CIA has refused until now to reveal the full dossier. (guardian)
10 Million Pages of CIA Declassified Records Available
The CIA delivered more than 420,000 additional pages of redacted declassified electronic records to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in College Park, Maryland. The declassified CIA records are hosted on the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), which now includes more than 10 million pages of records declassified under Executive Order 12958 (by President Bill Clinton). This Executive Order requires Intelligence Community agencies to review all nonexempt records that are 25 years old or older for declassification. As a result, millions of pages of classified information are now available for research. (newsblaze)
Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence
Soviet intelligence agencies "rarely used the polygraph, but trained some of their officers with a machine stolen in 1965 by a Counterintelligence Corps sergeant Glen Rohrer." That factoid is just one of many contained in a "Historical Dictionary of Cold War Counterintelligence" by intelligence writer Nigel West. From "abduction" to "Zlatovsky" the new Dictionary provides brief, capsule summaries of key topics and terms in the history of cold war counterintelligence. All of the familiar entries are there, and quite a few unfamiliar ones. "Eyewash" is "the CIA term for false entries made in files to protect the security of a source. (fas)
British mapmaker to include Cold War sites
Britain's national mapping agency has surrendered to satellite imagery and will no longer "airbrush" Cold War bases from its maps. Some 50 "sensitive sites" in Britain will be included in the next editions of the official Ordnance Survey maps. The agency acknowledged the Internet had defeated its attempts at secrecy. Among the remaining sites to be included on the new maps is a nuclear-warhead factory at Burghfield in Berkshire, England. (upi)
Germany Releases Stasi Files on Cold War Politicians
The office guarding East German secret police records has released the first set of files about 16 West German politicians. It's unclear whether they worked as spies. Their names were listed in records as "unofficial employees" or contacts for the German secret police, or Stasi. Five sets of records concern those who cooperated with the Stasi. The intelligence service's use of cryptic codes makes it unclear if the 11 other politicians knew they were delivering information to the secret police. The Stasi is said to have influenced Steiner and Wagner during a 1972 no confidence vote for Chancellor Willy Brandt. (dw-world)