Amazing work by @ajimenezbacardi.bsky.social for @nsarchive.bsky.social on the snatch operation against Panama's Noriega and its implications for the Maduro operation. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

(4) Building on @lucatrenta.bsky.social work, Barr argued that CIA could support foreign coup d'états even if the coup likely resulted in the killing of the foreign head of state (Noriega or now Maduro). This Barr memo is still classified, but it is described by Barr himself and a CIA lawyer

(3) That Congress' power of the purse had limits and could not prohibit expenditures of the CIA reserve contingencies fund for covert ops nor force the President to notify Congress of covert ops within 48 hours

(2) that the Posse Comitatus Act which restricted the use of the military for law enforcement purposes did not apply to U.S. operations overseas

More importantly, it highlights a series of legal opinions that Bill Barr wrote as head of the Office of Legal Counsel that argued (1) that the President could violate international law

It shows that the CIA was concerned that Noriega might spill the beans on some of the sordid actions that powerful individuals in Washington were involved in.

Here is my new article for @nsarchive.bsky.social It is based on documents I found at the George H. W. Bush Library that deal with the lead up to the "snatch" operation against Panama's Noriega in 1989 and how that op served as the key precedent for the Maduro op nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The UNFCCC laid the groundwork for Clinton, Obama, and Biden to lead on global climate action. Now, Trump’s decision to sever ties with the landmark treaty will only further isolate the U.S. on the world stage. @nsarchive.bsky.social nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Great new EBB today from Dr. Arturo Jimenez-Bacardi on how the Panama Invasion and the “Barr Doctrine” set the stage for the “Snatch” operation in Venezuela nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Great power unilateralism and climate change are not a good combination. @rsanta.bsky.social @nsarchive.bsky.social nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

In pulling out of the UNFCCC, President Trump has sent a clear signal that the US will have no part in multileral debates about climate change. But this is a sharp divergence from past Republican administrations. My latest for the @nsarchive.bsky.social: nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Trump’s Withdrawal from UN Climate Body Breaks Bipartisan Consensus on Multilateral Efforts nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Time Machine: When Putin Warned Bush About Dangers of Regime Change www.spytalk.co/p/time-machi...

The Bush-Putin Transcripts: How Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush Bonded Over Terrorism nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The history of U.S.-Greenland relations is a lot more interesting that most people think and includes the secret deployment of U.S. nuclear weapons there in 1958 and the 1968 crash of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber near Thule Air Base. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Essentially hidden from US history is that a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber crashed in Greenland in 1968, contaminating the site with plutonium. A @nsarchive.bsky.social post from just three months ago reveals more about the US cover up & how one bomb's missing U-235 fissile core has never been found.

The Archive's Rachel Santarsiero has a new piece published today in the @thebulletin.org on how the EPA has been erasing climate data from its website. thebulletin.org/2026/01/epas...

The EPA deleted information about the human causes of climate change from its website in December, capping off a year long assault by the Trump administration on climate data and the American information ecosystem. @rsanta.bsky.social for @thebulletin.org

Wrote for the @thebulletin.org about the EPA’s latest website removals on the human causes of climate change, the administration’s yearlong assault on climate information, and why the everyday person should care about disappearing data: thebulletin.org/2026/01/epas...

Five years on, the Trump administration is still trying to erase what happened on January 6, 2021. The @nsarchive.bsky.social’s Capitol Riot Sourcebook shines a light on what the government knew and when, and what it did (and didn’t do) about the insurrection. nsarchive.gwu.edu/sourcebook/2...

The Archive's Rachel Santarsiero has a new piece published today in the @thebulletin.org on how the EPA has been erasing climate data from its website. thebulletin.org/2026/01/epas...

National Security Archive Editorial Director Michael Evans spoke with Natasha Zouves of @newsnation.bsky.social about CIA behavior control experiments and MKULTRA. www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XXG...

Oh my. News of Bill Burr's death is a gut punch to all who knew him & everyone who relies on declassified US national security records. Once called the Yoda of FOIA, he always had a sparkle in his eyes. All who care about government transparency will continue to benefit from his contributions.

More on Bill Burr via @nsarchive.bsky.social. What a hero. When Kissinger stole his files rather than giving them to the archives, Burr found copies elsewhere and made them publicly available. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...

I was deeply saddened to hear that the @nsarchive.bsky.social's Bill Burr has passed away. His relentless FOIA requests have created an invaluable collection of declassified documents for generations of researchers and historians to come. May he rest in peace. nsarchive.gwu.edu/about/staff/...

Bill was the first person I ever spoke to from the @nsarchive.bsky.social, and the reason I decided to work there. He was brilliant and kind, and always generous with his time. It’s hard to imagine a world without Bill Burr in it. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...

We’ve lost one of the leading nuclear historians and archivists, Bill Burr of the @nsarchive.bsky.social He was a constant source of advice, documents and inspiration. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...

A huge loss. Bill Burr's commitments to transparency, accountability, knowledge, and mentorship had no limits. His EBBs always amazed me. Always FOIA, MDR, and appeal. @nsarchive.bsky.social

Today we mourn our beloved colleague Bill Burr, a giant in the field of nuclear history, who passed away last week. Click below to read tributes to Bill that have poured in from around the world. nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/2025-12...

The Paris Agreement is 10 years old today. Now, the documentary record of that groundbreaking accord is beginning to emerge, offering a window into how the U.S. agreed to such an “ambitious” climate deal. nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Paris Agreement turned 10 years old today. The declassified record confirms the Obama administration was pursuing public and private ends to achieve an ambitious climate deal. My latest for the @nsarchive.bsky.social: nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

We published our "Top 40" declassified documents to celebrate 40 years of the National Security Archive! (Click below to read them.) nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The National Security Archive is celebrating 40 years with our top 40 hottest documents. Here’s to 40 more years of excavating government secrets and holding government accountable! @nsarchive.bsky.social nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

To celebrate 40 years, we published the “Top 40” declassified documents from our first four decades. What's your favorite? How about Oliver North's handwritten reminder to call up the former Treasury secretary in re: blocking a Ford Foundation grant to the Archive? nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

To celebrate 40 years, we published the “Top 40” declassified documents from our first four decades. What's your favorite? How about Oliver North's handwritten reminder to call up the former Treasury secretary in re: blocking a Ford Foundation grant to the Archive? nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

A new article in the Guardian cites a @nsarchive.bsky.social briefing book in finding that the "US, which owes the largest climate debt in the world, has blocked meaningful finance deals for years." @rsanta.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Archive's Peter Kornbluh joined Allen Ruff on "A Public Affair" to talk about the meaning of the Church Committee report after 50 years www.wortfm.org/exploding-se...

🎙️What is the role of covert agencies like the CIA in a democracy? Our guest Peter Kornbluh of the @nsarchive.bsky.social poses this question on the 50th anniversary of the "Church Committee" that exposed the CIA's assassination plots in 1975. Listen here: www.wortfm.org/exploding-se...

If you don't follow the work of the great people @nsarchive.bsky.social here a #BlueSky, you really should think about it. They do amazing stuff! Hosted by the @gwu1821.bsky.social. This report on the congressional hearing on CIA activities by Senator Frank Church, might be very relevant right now!

Covert Action in Chile: The Significance of the Church Committee Report 50 Years Later nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

Eugene Hasenfus, whose 1986 capture in Nicaragua exposed the Iran-Contra scandal, has died at 84. The National Security Archive has published important documents on Hasenfus and the "off-the-shelf" covert operations run by the Reagan White House to sustain the Contra war.

Eugene Hasenfus, whose 1986 capture in Nicaragua exposed the Iran-Contra scandal, has died at 84. The National Security Archive has published important documents on Hasenfus and the "off-the-shelf" covert operations run by the Reagan White House to sustain the Contra war.

"The heroic excavators of government secrets" - Author Stephen Kinzer on 40 years of the National Security Archive www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/o...

"The National Security Archive marked the 50th anniversary of [the Church] committee’s work by posting several documents describing... efforts to 'neutralize' inconvenient foreign leaders including Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba... and Gen. Rene Schneider in Chile." www.esquire.com/news-politic...

"The heroic excavators of government secrets" - Author Stephen Kinzer on 40 years of the National Security Archive www.bostonglobe.com/2025/12/01/o...

Operation Condor: A Network of Transnational Repression 50 Years Later nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The Archive's Peter Kornbluh was on NPR's Morning Edition this morning to explain why the 50-year-old "Church Committee" report on CIA plots to assassinate foreign leaders is still relevant today. @npr.org www.npr.org/2025/11/24/n...

The Archive's Rachel Santarsiero spoke with Inside Climate News about intelligence monitoring of climate negotiations. @rsanta.bsky.social insideclimatenews.org/news/2011202...

With the Trump administration reportedly considering the assassination of Venezuelan president Maduro, we published documents on Presdient Ford's effort to quash publication of the 1975 Senate report on CIA assassination plots (the Church Committee report). nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...