The CIA has released to the public 249 previously classified articles from its in-house publication, Studies in Intelligence. The articles give fascinating news about secret America's violent, deceptive, brilliant, and sometimes funny history.
Some context: The Agency declassified the documents in response to a lawsuit by 19-year CIA veteran, Jeffrey Scudder. After years of working with the highest security clearance as the CIA's project manager of Historic Collections Division, Scudder came across information that he believes the American people should know: 1,600 inaccessible documents falsely labeled "public." When he filed a Freedom of Information Act request to release the documents, the Agency turned on him and forced him out.
Scudder told The Washington Post of the CIA's wild response:
The government told Scudder's attorney this week, "Of the 419 documents that remain in dispute in Scudder, the CIA has produced 249 in full or in part by putting them up on the CIA website," according to Secrecy News.
Studies in Intellegence is published within the CIA under the slogan, "A collection of articles on the historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical aspects of intelligence."
Here are six of our favorite articles in the CIA's newly released compendium:
"CIA and Guatamala Assassination Proposals, 1952-1954" (undated)
In 1995, Center for the Study for Intelligence reviewers discovered a 1954 file of proposals to assassinate multiple Communist Guatemalan leaders, including then-president Jacobo Árbenz Guzmán.These hidden proposals were not included "in a CIA Inspector General report of 1967 on alleged assassination plotting or in the 1976 Church Committee investigation volumes on CIA assassination plotting." This article explains why the CIA proposed assassinations, and why they covered it up.
"Writing Below PAR" (1991)
CIA officers are given Performance Appraisal Reports (PARs) just like the rest of the working world. Straight from the bosses' judgmental mouths, this article lists awful compliments ("Subject manages to break even"), funny malapropisms ("She does not flap"), and plain dickish feedback ("This officer cannot be underrated").
"American Cryptology During the Korean War" (undated)
Our country's brilliant communications intelligence during WWII is credited with ending the war six months early, saving millions. By the time the Korean War arose, however, the United States no longer had the cryptology geniuses we were accustomed to. Our Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) was so preoccupied with the Soviet Union, "ASFA had no technical expertise on Korea."
Until just two months before the Korean War erupted, we had "one self-taught Korean linguist, no Korean dictionaries, no Korean typewriters… no Korean communication collection of any kind." This article explains how we got our shit together on the fly—only to end the war in a draw (although a peace treaty still hasn't been signed, even to this day).
"Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and Drug Conspiracy Story"(undated)
In 1996, San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb wrote a series of articles-turned-book called Dark Alliance that tied the CIA to gangs smuggling cocaine into Los Angeles. The drug profits were allegedly used to fund the CIA-backed Contras, Nicaraguan rebels. The story was untrue, but Webb's fascinating accusation came with a river of evidence.
The CIA struggled desperately to fix its image, which was difficult to do at a time when ongoing investigations required them to disclose little to nothing to the public. Were it not for a torrent of criticism on the validity Webb's evidence from respectable journalists, the CIA may have never set the record straight
"When the public's trust in politics and government institutions sinks, CIA can expect to be a target, with the media the obvious delivery vehicle," the writer at the CIA concluded. "We live in coarse and emotional times, when large numbers of Americans do not adhere to the same standards of logic, evidence, and even civil discourse as those practiced by members of the CIA community."
"Bestiary of Intelligence Writing" (1982)
By illustrating them as mythical beasts, this satire lists awful phrases that CIA writers should avoid. Some phrases are overused and some just plainly misused, but every beast is hysterical.
"The Almost Inevitable, cousin to the Virtually Certain, is an indoor pest of the genus eventuality that has defied man's eradication efforts since the Dawn of Time."
"Interrogation of an Alleged CIA Agent" (1983)
This transcript documents the conversation between an "alleged" CIA agent and a 1980's interrogation computer, an artificial intelligence program called ALIZA. The program was designed to probe, agitate, and circumvent evasive answers. ALIZA is astoundingly advanced for 1983, the same year Apple's Lisa hit the market.