WASHINGTON: United States spy agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, has put nearly 13 million pages of its declassified documents online.
The papers shed light on the agency’s activities amid the Vietnam, Korean and Cold War conflicts. It also includes documents pertaining to purported UFO sightings and the organization’s “Star Gate” program investigating possible psychic abilities and what could be done with them.
Joseph Lambert, the CIA’s information management director, in a press release says, “Access to this historically significant collection is no longer limited by geography.”
The archive touches on the CIA extensive history as an organization, from its inception up through the 1990s. “None of this is cherry-picked,” said CIA spokesperson Heather Fritz Horniak. “It’s the full history. It’s good and bads.”
The now-declassified documents, spanning the agency’s activities from the 1940s to the 1990s, covers records such as the CIA’s R&D documents, scientific research papers, intelligence reports, news archives and more.
The records feature the agency’s activities through the Vietnam, Korean and Cold War conflicts and also contains documents relating to the agency’s “Star Gate” program which investigates so-called potential psychic abilities and whether they can be utilised operationally.
The documents also contain Henry Kissinger’s papers, translated reports from foreign intelligence services, CIA policy and memoranda documents and even documents relating to UFO sightings.
However, the archive does not contain any newly declassified documents. Moreover, although most of the documents have been declassified, there are some which come with redactions. According to Horniak, the redactions were made to protect sources and methods, which could potentially pose a threat to the US national security.
