National Security Archive

In a handwritten note, Pres. Carter seems to dismiss Brzezinski's call for military action to incite the "downfall" of Khomeini: "We need to list everything that Khomeini would not want to see occur and which would not incite condemnation of U.S. by other nations." nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/197...

Opinion | Why it matters that the government is messing with health databases There is no replacement for reliable data from federal government databases.

Very cool to see the @nsarchive.bsky.social’s work on disappearing climate data featured in @postopinions.bsky.social!

I’d also point readers to the excellent work of @envirodgi.bsky.social and @publicenvirodata.bsky.social, the experts in environmental data preservation!
wapo.st/4b5EUd8

CIA declassifies more of "Zendebad, Shah!" – internal study of 1953 Iran coup Washington, D.C., February 12, 2018 – A partially-declassified CIA history of the 1953 coup in Iran, released in late 2017, includes an-depth critique of how the agency approached the operation, highl...

In 2017, a mandatory review request by the @nsarchive.bsky.social forced the CIA to release previously redacted portions of an internal history on the overthrow of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeq in 1953. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Documenting U.S. planning for the Iran strike will be harder than documenting the lead-up to the Iraq War thanks to this admin's animosity to record-keeping.

Still, docs released through FOIA re Iraq provide offer a road map of what to ask for.

The best examples are from @nsarchive.bsky.social.

Deny, delay, downplay: How governments hide climate change intelligence A recent UK national security assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem collapse made headlines, not for its dire warnings, but for its omissions. It's part of a larger trend of governments keeping cli...

Deny, delay, downplay: How governments hide climate change intelligence

Via @thebulletin.org by Scoville Fellow '22 @rsanta.bsky.social of the @nsarchive.bsky.social. thebulletin.org/2026/02/deny...

The @nsarchive.bsky.social is one of the best resources on the web on the declassified history of U.S.-Iran relations, the 1953 coup, the 1979 hostage crisis, and more.
nsarchive.gwu.edu/project/iran...

CIA Releases Controversial Bay of Pigs History Washington, D.C. October 31, 2016 - The CIA today released the long-contested Volume V of its official history of the Bay of Pigs invasion, which it had successfully concealed until now by claiming th...

Ten years ago, the CIA released a controversial internal history of the Bay of Pigs operation. Read it here: nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres: Canadian Court Sanctions Perpetrator of 1982 Dos Erres Massacre in Guatemala --
@nsarchive.bsky.social publishes key records from the trial nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan...

Other key records posted today include cables from the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, which in the immediate aftermath of the massacre named the military as responsible. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Published today for the first time today, "Plan Victoria 82" is an essential Guatemalan army document describing its counterinsurgency strategy during the year of the Dos Erres massacre. nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/338...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres: Canadian Court Sanctions Perpetrator of 1982 Dos Erres Massacre in Guatemala --
@nsarchive.bsky.social publishes key records from the trial nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan...

From the @nsarchive.bsky.social today, primary documents and court records related to the recent federal court ruling in Ottawa that "revoke[d] the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan military officer who participated in a horrific and notorious massacre of hundreds of innocent civilians in 1982."

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres Washington, D.C., February 24, 2026 - After a decade-long investigation and a trial lasting more than five weeks, a federal court in Ottawa has ruled to revoke the Canadian citizenship of a Guatemalan...

The Long Shadow of Dos Erres: Canadian Court Sanctions Perpetrator of 1982 Dos Erres Massacre in Guatemala --
@nsarchive.bsky.social publishes key records from the trial nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Deny, delay, downplay: How governments hide climate change intelligence A recent UK national security assessment on biodiversity and ecosystem collapse made headlines, not for its dire warnings, but for its omissions. It's part of a larger trend of governments keeping cli...

Deny, delay, downplay: How governments hide climate change intelligence
thebulletin.org/2026/02/deny...

Imperial Prerogative: How the Panama Invasion and the “Barr Doctrine” Set the Stage for the Maduro “Snatch” Operation Washington, D.C., January 16, 2026 - The Justice Department official who wrote the legal opinion determining that President Donald Trump had the constitutional authority to “unilaterally order” the “e...

Amazing work by @ajimenezbacardi.bsky.social for @nsarchive.bsky.social on the snatch operation against Panama's Noriega and its implications for the Maduro operation. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

(4) Building on @lucatrenta.bsky.social work, Barr argued that CIA could support foreign coup d'états even if the coup likely resulted in the killing of the foreign head of state (Noriega or now Maduro). This Barr memo is still classified, but it is described by Barr himself and a CIA lawyer

(3) That Congress' power of the purse had limits and could not prohibit expenditures of the CIA reserve contingencies fund for covert ops nor force the President to notify Congress of covert ops within 48 hours

(2) that the Posse Comitatus Act which restricted the use of the military for law enforcement purposes did not apply to U.S. operations overseas

More importantly, it highlights a series of legal opinions that Bill Barr wrote as head of the Office of Legal Counsel that argued (1) that the President could violate international law

It shows that the CIA was concerned that Noriega might spill the beans on some of the sordid actions that powerful individuals in Washington were involved in.

Imperial Prerogative: How the Panama Invasion and the “Barr Doctrine” Set the Stage for the Maduro “Snatch” Operation Washington, D.C., January 16, 2026 - The Justice Department official who wrote the legal opinion determining that President Donald Trump had the constitutional authority to “unilaterally order” the “e...

Here is my new article for @nsarchive.bsky.social It is based on documents I found at the George H. W. Bush Library that deal with the lead up to the "snatch" operation against Panama's Noriega in 1989 and how that op served as the key precedent for the Maduro op
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts Washington, D.C., January 15, 2026 - President Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the foundational United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli...

The UNFCCC laid the groundwork for Clinton, Obama, and Biden to lead on global climate action.

Now, Trump’s decision to sever ties with the landmark treaty will only further isolate the U.S. on the world stage.
@nsarchive.bsky.social
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Imperial Prerogative: How the Panama Invasion and the “Barr Doctrine” Set the Stage for the Maduro “Snatch” Operation Washington, D.C., January 16, 2026 - The Justice Department official who wrote the legal opinion determining that President Donald Trump had the constitutional authority to “unilaterally order” the “e...

Great new EBB today from Dr. Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi on
how the Panama Invasion and the “Barr Doctrine” set the stage for the “Snatch” operation in Venezuela nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts Washington, D.C., January 15, 2026 - President Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the foundational United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli...

Great power unilateralism and climate change are not a good combination. @rsanta.bsky.social @nsarchive.bsky.social
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts Washington, D.C., January 15, 2026 - President Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the foundational United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts Washington, D.C., January 15, 2026 - President Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the foundational United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli...

In pulling out of the UNFCCC, President Trump has sent a clear signal that the US will have no part in multileral debates about climate change. But this is a sharp divergence from past Republican administrations.

My latest for the @nsarchive.bsky.social:
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts Washington, D.C., January 15, 2026 - President Donald Trump’s recent withdrawal from the foundational United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Intergovernmental Panel on Cli...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Time Machine: When Putin Warned Bush About Dangers of Regime Change Irony abounds in newly unearthed telephone call on eve of US invasion of Iraq that records Putin warning Bush about violating UN charter and “international law.”

“There is a supreme irony here—that it is Vladimir Putin who is the defender of international law against the law of force,” said Tom Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. www.spytalk.co/p/time-machi...

Time Machine: When Putin Warned Bush About Dangers of Regime Change Irony abounds in newly unearthed telephone call on eve of US invasion of Iraq that records Putin warning Bush about violating UN charter and “international law.”

Time Machine: When Putin Warned Bush About Dangers of Regime Change www.spytalk.co/p/time-machi...

The Bush-Putin Transcripts: How Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush Bonded Over Terrorism Washington, D.C., January 7, 2026 - Russian president Vladimir Putin was the first foreign leader to call George W. Bush on his birthday in July 2001 and on the day of the 9/11 attacks, and the two pr...

The Bush-Putin Transcripts: How Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush Bonded Over Terrorism
nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...