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The CIA Is Closing the Office That Declassifies Historical Documents
Daniel_Stuckey writes "As a result of the sequester-induced budget cuts, the CIA is closing the Historical Collections Division office, which declassifies historical documents, and transferring the divisions responsibilities to the office that handles FOIA requests. The Historical Collections Division is described on its website as 'an important part of CIA's ongoing effort to be more open and to provide for more public accountability.' It is a 'voluntary declassification program that focuses on records of historical value,' including information on the Vietnam War, spy satellites, the Bay of Pigs and other historical scandals and operations."
It's about sending a message.
CIA officials said they closed the Historical Collections Division to accommodate federal budget cuts that the White House and Congress proposed last year to create pressure for a deficit reduction deal. No deal materialized, so across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester were imposed.
The real problem isn't that they're rolling this into their FOIA office, it's that they'll undoubtedly not move the personnel too.
Institutional knowledge is incredibly important in any organization and even more so for a group that deals with history.
Not to mention the fact that FOIA requests are always backlogged, 30 day response requirements be damned.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Obummer. You just can't trust him.
In b4 some liberal whines "BUT BUUUUUUUUUSH"! As if what the monkey boy Dubya did is any excuse for Obummer has been doing for the last 5 years.
And I've got this nice bridge for sale, cheap.
Your plane to Moscow is boarding.
In Soviet Russia the Cagey Bee welcomes YOU!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/news/20121207/
In the 1980's a CIA staff historian wrote a secret history of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
Thanks to FOIA, some of the work was released in the 1990's.
One final volume was locked up as the CIA "does not want to discourage disagreement among its historians."
Welcome to a world where the CIA knows that any basic history can "confuse the public".
Thanks to the sequester-induced budget cuts more US history can be kept safe with ever better long term document hygiene.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
It's the "sequester". That's why.
Does anyone still believe Obama is about hope and change now?
you got someone better? No? Well, then. Looks like we're fucked.
Next comes the oversight functions.
Angleton is turning peacefully in his grave!
Just what did anyone reasonably expect? That in response to budget cuts a bureaucracy would suddenly get religion and root out the fat & waste? Why?
That fat and waste has resisted previous cuts and is remarkably good at protecting itself. Spends all its energy at self-defense. Otherwise it would have been long gone.
Useful activities spend at least some of their efforts at delivering services so has less for self-defense. Besides, they probably think they're too important to cut. And they are -- so what better way to stop the cutting?
an important part of CIA's ongoing effort to be more open and to provide for more public accountability.
Too bad we can't mod TFA, Score:5, Funny.
What are things that occured during my lifetime now being called "historical"? I'm not that old dammit!
Guess we'll never know who really killed Kennedy and Monroe
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
"closing the [redacted] office, which declassifies [redacted]"
I saw a fat bearded man on the street today. he had a sign, "will work for food", while drinking something out of a paper bag. I nominate him for president. All in favor say aye
besttimingever
Before you know it, they'll put the expiration of secret documents on par with the copyright law expirations. Only our grand children will be able to read what really happened during our life times and the CIA would get away with way more than they do already.
I was promised a flying car. Where is my flying car?
I am not surprised, they have blown their budget spying on everyone; so they don't have any funds left to tell us what they have been up to. How convenient!
What I think is sad is that so much recent culture has been locked up in corporate basements. Racist cartoons, the black and white mistrals, cowboys patronising indians, high ranking politicians ranting (to loud applause) on such topics as "keeping niggers separate" and "a woman's place is in the home". These were all standard fare on the TV between 4pm and 8pm when I was a child in the 60's. As a teenager I remember getting up early on new years day and I started watching the (Australian) draft pick for the military, my birthday came up and there was a sudden realisation that in 3yrs time "gooks" could be trying to set me on fire with napalm, for the first time politics was up close and personal, thankfully conscription and the war ended before I tuned 18. The vast majority of that material has been made taboo by anything that resembles mass media, but for some reason hard porn is now on tap everywhere, and the mass media are broadcasting soft porn 24X7.
Not that I mind porn, but it's probably the clearest social signal of how different the world is now to when most slashdotter's parents were growing up. At the time I hit puberty some women were out in the street setting fire to their bras. other equally angry mobs of women were out on the street in protest against such things as, a "lewd" statue of david replica in a craft shop window, the movies "Deep Throat", "Alvin Purple", and "The life of Brian".
I think if the taboo on this "culturally embarrassing" material was lifted rather than constantly reinforced by corporate group think, then maybe the 20-something "revolutionaries" here on slashdot would have a better appreciation of the liberties the civil right movement has won, if nothing else it would certainly add some perspective to the loud claims of "lost freedoms".
This is not to say that all the injustices in our society have gone away, they haven't and never will, but if "individual freedom" is the measure we're using, then the world is definitely a better place than it was when I found it 50+yrs ago, "pics and videos" do exists to back up my optimistic claims, it's just that "grandpa nobody" can't access them as easily as he can access (admittedly very amusing) cat videos.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Sequester induced budget cut - A decrease in the increase in the buget.
That is more money than last year but less than we wanted.
Competitive businesses close branches that customers want all the bloody time. End products customers are fine with. Disable services customers use.
All the bloody time.
Why?
Short term thinking, gut the business and sell out.
Selling new stuff to new customers is more profitable than continuing old things in maintennance or looking after previous customers.
When the new division head takes over, all the previous head's efforts are shitcanned because they hate each others' guts.
Their recent release of CIA involvement in Iran was the final nail in the coffin. This is why they're history. When you are the gatekeeper and you screw up that badly you can expect your days to be numbered.
"As a result of the sequester-induced budget cuts..."
Why pay someone to declassify when Bradley ... er uh ... Chelsea ... Manning will do it for free!