Twenty years ago on November 4, the American embassy in Tehran was seized by militant students, an act which radicalized the revolution and severely damaged relations between the two countries. The National Security Archive (last discussed in the October 22, 1999 Scout Report) has recently placed online a small collection of documents related to this event. This collection is a sample from the...

The Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) at the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) oversees the security classification programs in both Government and industry, and reports to the President each year on their status. As in previous years the Federation of American Scientists' (FAS) (last mentioned in the February 19, 1999 Scout Report) Project on Government Secrecy has...

Released to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, this intriguing electronic briefing book (presented by the National Security Archive at George Washington University), contains an audio tape of the late President Kennedy discussing the possibility of a clandestine meeting with Fidel Castro in Havana (just several weeks before Kennedy's death). Along with this...

A number of organizations are actively concerned with monitoring the ways in which various governments have attempted to limit or restrict access to the Internet, and the OpenNet Initiative is one such group. Drawing on a collaborative partnership with four academic institutions (including the University of Toronto and Harvard Law School), the group's aim is "to excavate, expose and analyze...

This new electronic briefing book from the National Security Archive (last reviewed in the November 12, 1999 Scout Report) offers a peek inside the creation, evolution, and management of the National Security Agency (NSA). Originally founded as the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA) in 1948, the name and function of the agency was changed in 1952, when its role was expanded beyond merely...