CIA Releases Controversial Bay of Pigs History

[bananas]

Source: National Security Archive

- 2016 Change in FOI Law Overturns Agency Stonewalling
- CIA fought release for years, claimed draft would “confuse the public”
- National Security Archive FOIA case prompted Congress’s 25-year sunset

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 that it was a “draft” and could be withheld from the public under the FOIA’s "deliberative process" privilege. The National Security Archive fought the agency for years in court to release the historically significant volume, only to have the U.S. Court of Appeals in 2014 uphold the CIA’s overly-broad interpretation of the "deliberative process" privilege. Special credit for today’s release goes to the champions of the 2016 FOIA amendments, which set a 25-year sunset for the exemption: Senators John Cornyn, Patrick Leahy, and Chuck Grassley, and Representatives Jason Chaffetz, Elijah Cummings, and Darrell Issa.

Chief CIA Historian David Robarge states in the cover letter announcing the document’s release that the agency is “releasing this draft volume today because recent 2016 changes in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires us to release some drafts that are responsive to FOIA requests if they are more than 25 years old.” This improvement – codified by the FOIA Improvement Act of 2016 – came directly from the National Security Archive’s years of litigation.

The CIA argued in court for years – backed by Department of Justice lawyers – that the release of this volume, written by Agency historian Jack B. Pfeiffer, would “confuse the public.” National Security Archive Director Tom Blanton says, “Now the public gets to decide for itself how confusing the CIA can be. How many thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted trying to hide a CIA historian's opinion that the Bay of Pigs aftermath degenerated into a nasty internal power struggle?” Archive senior analyst and Cuba Project Director Peter Kornbluh notes, “We know now why the CIA attempted to cover up this document for so long. It is a vivid historical example of what Pfeiffer called ‘the agency's dirty linen’ that CIA officials never wanted to air in public."

Read more: http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB564-CIA-Releases-Controversial-Bay-of-Pigs-History/

[bucolic_frolic]

1. Nice to see

a handful of Democrats and Republicans communicate enough to get something done

[annabanana]

2. I hope it doesn't take as long to get everything on Alpha Bank & Trump!

"slow but exceeding fine" isn't good enough on this.

[FairWinds]

3. The National Security Archive . .

is a great source of information on what the deep state
actually does as opposed to what it says it does.

This is going to the top of my reading list.

Much of this is due to the indefatigable work of
Peter Kronbluh - hats off to him too.

Veterans For Peace

[burrowowl]

4. About time!

[Judi Lynn]

5. Who could have predicted this release? William Colby, in Doc.3, pt.1 got them to sanitize

the material prior to publication, but it looks deeply interesting.

So much hatred for John F Kennedy was generated within the right wing because he didn't make this an all out war on Cuba. It fueled their raging hatred into the present even though evil people found a way to murder the President and he died long ago.

How would our history have differed if these same mighty stalwarts had found it in their hearts to invade Derp, Alabama, and take on swarms of racist, inbred haters, instead?

Thank you for spotting this significant document release, bananas. It's surely something to keep and study.