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This electronic briefing book released in December 2010 takes a look at the attempts by the Carter administration to roll back Pakistan's nuclear program in the late 1970s. These recently declassified U.S. government documents shed light on the "critical period when Washington discovered that Pakistan, a Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty hold-out, had acquired key elements of a nuclear weapons capability." This collection contains 40 documents that highlight some of the behind-the-scenes negotiating that went on from 1978 to 1980. There's a brief synopsis of each document, and a fine introduction that provides some good context on this series of communiques and related exchanges.

Previously secret U.S. Air Force official histories of the Vietnam war published by the National Security Archive disclose for the first time that Central Intelligence Agency contract employees had a direct role in combat air attacks when they flew Laotian government aircraft on strike missions and that the Air Force actively considered nuclear weapons options during the 1959 Laos crisis. The newly declassified histories, which were released through Freedom of Information Act litigation by the National Security Archive with the law firm James & Hoffman, include the Air Force's detailed official history of the war in northern Laos, written during the 1990s but hidden in classified form for years. Also declassified were Air Force historical studies on specific years of the Vietnam War, documenting in great detail the Air Force's role in planning and implementing the air war in North and South Vietnam.

"President Bush's executive order for a "citizen-centered" and "results-oriented" Freedom of Information system did improve customer service at federal agencies, but has failed to make consistent progress on backlogs and has not significantly improved compliance with electronic FOIA requirements, according to the Knight Open Government Survey released by the National Security Archive at George Washington University (www.nsarchive.org)."

National Security Archive electronic briefing books provide online access to critical declassified records on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military history, intelligence policy, and more. They are updated frequently. This volume contains declassified documents regarding the activities, some illegal, of the CIA activities of the last 30 years. The Web page also has articles from mainstream newspapers that provide further information about the documents.

A collection of newly-declassified documents details U.S. concern over Pakistan's relationship with the Taliban during the seven-year period leading up to 9-11. The declassified U.S. documents clearly illustrate that the Taliban was directly funded, armed and advised by Islamabad itself. These new documents also support and inform the findings of a recently-released CIA intelligence estimate characterizing Pakistan's tribal areas as a safe haven for al-Qaeda terrorists, and provide new details about the close relationship between Islamabad and the Taliban in the years prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Declassified State Department cables and U.S. intelligence reports describe the use of Taliban terrorist training areas in Afghanistan by Pakistani-supported militants in Kashmir, as well as Pakistan's covert effort to supply Pashtun troops from its tribal regions to the Taliban cause in Afghanistan-effectively forging and reinforcing Pashtun bonds across the border and consolidating the Taliban's severe form of Islam throughout Pakistan's frontier region. Obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the National Security Archive at George Washington University, the documents reflect U.S. apprehension about Islamabad's longstanding provision of direct aid and military support to the Taliban, including the use of Pakistani troops to train and fight alongside the Taliban inside Afghanistan. The records released represent the most complete and comprehensive collection of declassified documentation to date on Pakistan's aid programs to the Taliban, illustrating Islamabad's firm commitment to a Taliban victory in Afghanistan.

In a series of public statements, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has again denied that the Clinton administration presented the incoming administration of President George W. Bush with a "comprehensive strategy" against al-Qaeda. Rice's denials were prompted by a September 22, 2006, Fox News interview with Bill Clinton in which the former president asserted that he had "left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy" with the incoming Bush administration in January 2001. In a September 25, 2006, interview, Rice told the New York Post, "We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida," adding that, "Nobody organized this country or the international community to fight the terrorist threat that was upon us until 9/11." The crux of the issue is a January 25, 2001, memo on al-Qaeda from counterterrorism coordinator Richard Clarke to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, the first terrorism strategy paper of the Bush administration. The document was central to the debate over pre-9/11 Bush administration policy on terrorism and figured prominently in the 9/11 hearings held in 2004. A declassified copy of the Clarke memo was first posted on the Web by the National Security Archive in February 2005. Clarke's memo "urgently" requested a high-level National Security Council review on al-Qaeda and included two attachments: a declassified December 2000 "Strategy for Eliminating the Threat from the Jihadist Networks of al-Qida: Status and Prospects" and the September 1998 "Pol-Mil Plan for al-Qida," the so-called Delenda Plan, which remains classified.

Selected pages from the Taguba Report with redactions modified to reveal censored portions. Includes chart summarizing released sections of the report with links to PDFs of the relevant pages.

• Oval office audio tape, November 5, 1963
• White House memorandum, top secret, "Mr. Donovan's trip to Cuba," March 4, 1963
• White House memorandum, top secret, "Cuba
• policy," April 11, 1963
• CIA briefing paper, secret, "Interview of U.S. newswomen with Fidel Castro indicating possible interest in rapprochement with the United States," May 1, 1963
• U.S. UN mission memorandum, secret, chronology of events leading up Castro invitation to receive a U.S. official for talks in Cuba, November 8, 22, 1963
• White House memorandum, secret, November 12, 1963
• White House memorandum, top secret, "Approach to Castro," November 19, 1963
• White House memorandum, top secret, "Cuba : item of presidential interest," November 25, 1963
• Message from Fidel Castro to Lyndon Johnson, "Verbal message given to Miss Lisa Howard of ABC News on February 12, 1964, in Havana, Cuba"
• United Nations memorandum, top secret, from Adlai Stevenson to President Johnson, June 16, 1964
• White House memorandum, top secret, "Adlai Stevenson and Lisa Howard," July 7, 1964
• Key figures in the dialogue: William Attwood ; Gordon Chase ; Lisa Howard ; Carlos Lechuga.

Created by the National Security Archive, this Web site showcases the highly sought after, but not disclosed until 2003, audio tape of President John F. Kennedy and his national security advisor, McGeorge Bundy, discussing the possibility of a secret meeting in Havana with Castro. The talks were to be on improving relations with Washington and was planned a mere 17 days before Kennedy' assassination--continuing to fuel the fire that the U.S. government was involved with Kennedy's assassination.

Selection of materials on the structure, activities and experiences of U.S. special forces. Includes a history of the inter-service Joint Special Operations Command, a recent posture statement on U.S. special operations forces, a joint Army-Air Force field manual describing guidelines for military operations in low-intensity conflict, a critique of the Army Ranger engagement in Somalia, and other documents describing particular missions and tools relevant to the deployment in Afghanistan.

• The secret briefs and the secret evidence
• Supreme Court briefs and opinions
• White House telephone conversations
• Memoirs ... from Nixon, Kissinger and Halderman.

The National Security Archive of George Washington University presents Electronic Briefing Book Number 48. The series offers access to declassified records regarding the "Pentagon Papers" and the affiliated U.S. Supreme Court case. The briefing book examines the government evidence on why the government wanted its study of U.S. policy during the Vietnam War to remain secret.

• The Guatemalan military : what the U.S. files reveal / by Kate Doyle
• v. I. Units and officers of the Guatemalan Army / by Carlos Osorio
• v. II. Documents.

This Web site is an electronic version of the National Security Archive's no. 32 briefing book that presents declassified U.S. documents on the Guatemalan military's traditional secrecy and clarifies U.S. responsibility for the violence that occurred. Visitors can browse through a hypertext summary of topics and documents available within the site that can be clicked on at any time.