There are so many interesting things about the CIA that were put online for the whole world to read about. The nearly 12 million declassified CIA pages files covers a wide range of information from Nazi war crimes, telepathy (“Project Stargate”), the Cuban Missile Crisis to even UFO sightings. Bill Clinton first ordered all documents at least 25 years old with “historical value” to be declassified in 1995. To say it took a while would be an understatement. However this is the CIA we are talking about. Central Intelligence Agency. The files had to probably go through some “washing” to make sure it was safe to release to public online. You use to have to come visit the US National Archives in Washington DC to take a look at the files. In 2000 the CIA did release an electronic database called CREST (the CIA Records Search Tool) in 2000, but still had to visit the archives to read each document. A nonprofit journalism organization called MuckRock filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in 2014 requesting the CIA to put the files online. The agency said it would take up to six years to accomplish this goal due to the amount of files that had to be scan. However, they agreed to post the entire database online last year. It didn’t take six years to happen either.
CIA Director of Information Management Joseph Lambert said the agency did one last check through the collection before releasing it, and did not reclassify any more documents. However, there’s lots of information to read about. If you are a historian, conspiracy person, war buff or a UFO enthusiasts like me you are sure to find something to keep you busy for a long time. The CIA archives cover events from the early 40s to 1990s.