Listing of Classified and Restricted Documents at the Air Force Historical Research Agency
Over 500,000 documents cover almost every aspect of US military history from the 1920s to the early 1990s
Very few of these documents have been released to the public
[Note:
Instructions for requesting these documents have been
expanded and clarified. Read the left-hand column below.]
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Introduction >>> In response to a Freedom of Information Act request by researcher Michael Ravnitzky, the Air Force Historical Research Agency - which maintains one of the largest repositories of US military historical documents - released in early 2001 a list of its still-classified and still-restricted documents. This unprecedented database contains information on well over half a million documents held by the agency. The list was released on a cumbersome data cartridge and stored in an awkward data format. The Memory Hole's tech guru Brett Milner has laboriously extracted and converted this massive file into a series of more manageable Excel spreadsheets. The 550,000+ documents are identified by call numbers, title, date, author,
etc.; they include reports, memos, directives, histories, daily operations
reports, oral histories, interviews, situation reports, intelligence summaries,
speeches, chronologies, logs, minutes, briefings, correspondence, press
clippings, newsletters, photos, slides, audiotapes, and more. We have
spotted documents that date back to the 1920s and some as recent as the
early Among the many, many areas covered are World War II, the Vietnam War (including Laos and Cambodia), the Korean War, the Cold War, the Balkans, Desert Storm, specific aircraft and weapons systems, histories of bases and squadrons, accidents, nuclear weapons, chemical and biological warfare, space exploration, satellites, UFOs, NATO, and NORAD. There appear to be a large number of documents that are not designated as classified but are apparently limited or restricted for other reasons. While documents may be identified as classified or restricted, the passage of time as well as the presidential rules on protecting classified information make it somewhat likely that any particular document would now be declassified and/or released upon request.
If these reports are still classified or otherwise restricted, how can you get a copy? There are two ways, and the one you use depends on the document's classification. If the document is listed as "classified," "top secret," "secret," or "confidential," you need to file a Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR) request. If the document is listed as "unclassified," you should file a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) request. This applies even if the document has other security markings, such as "FOUO" ("For Official Use Only"). If the document is listed as "Restricted," then you may be able to use either an MDR or a FOIA request, depending upon the age and subject matter (because the government has over the years used two very different classifications, but unfortunately both were called "Restricted"). Both types of requests - MDR and FOIA - go to the same office - the address is below. You can send a request letter to the AFHRA for any document. Be sure to identify it as specifically as possible, using the numbers and other identifiers given in the Excel listings. If you request more than one document, you'll want to file a separate request letter for each one. Here is the address to send the MDR or FOIA request: AFHRA/RSA The FOIA section of their website is here.
Under Section 3.5 of Executive Order 12392, the most recent Executive Order on National Security Information, signed by President Bush ([here] and [here]), you may ask the agency to review the specified documents for declassification under MDR. They are required to review the document for declassification and release if they have not reviewed it within the last two years. An MDR is better than a FOIA for requesting classified documents for two reasons. First, it obliges the agency to actually review the document for possible declassification rather than simply saying that the document is classified. Second, while a FOIA allows one administrative appeal, and if that fails, a federal lawsuit, an MDR permits two administrative appeals: one to the agency and if that fails, one to an outside review panel called ISCAP: Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel. (ISCAP is located at the National Archives in Washington, DC and is administered by the Information Security Oversight Office - ISOO.) Furthermore, if the agency does not respond to the MDR within one calendar year, you may appeal the non-response directly to ISCAP. The ISCAP is more likely to overturn a bad classification decision than is a federal court because the federal courts usually defer to the agency decision-making on national security classification issues. In contrast, ISCAP has reversed many agency classification decisions. Additionally, appealing to ISCAP is easier and cheaper than a federal lawsuit. To appeal an MDR decision, write to the agency's appeals authority (they should provide this information) and explain that you believe the decision to maintain the document as classified is incorrect because of its age and subject matter. To appeal to ISCAP, write to ISCAP and explain similarly. |
The Files Note: All files have now been posted.
5) af_history_18-21.zip 4) af_history_14-17.zip 3) af_history_10-13.zip 2) af_history_06-09.zip 1) af_history_01-05.zip
An appeal to our readers: If you find any particularly intriguing documents listed in these files, please let us know. We're looking, too, but it's easy to miss the intriguing needles in this giant haystack. |
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04 Jan 2005 | last updated 11 Jan 2005 site and original text copyright 2002-5 Russ Kick |
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