US National Security Archive

The National Security Archive is a non-profit research and archival institution located within George Washington University in Washington D.C.. Founded in 1985 by Scott Armstrong and Thomas Blanton, it archives and publishes declassified US government files concerning selected topics of American foreign policy.

The Archive collects and analyzes the documents of many various government institutions obtained via the Freedom of Information Act. The Archive then selects documents to be published in the form of manuscripts and microfiche as well as made available through their website.

The Archive operates under an advisory board which is overseen by a board of directors. The Archive's research was awarded in late 2005 by winning an Emmy Award for its work on the documentary, "Declassified: Nixon in China."

Among the Archive's more prominent institutional supporters today, are the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ford Foundtion, the Freedom Forum and Congressional Quarterly.

On October 1, 2007, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly reversed George Bush on archive secrecy, (38-page) ruling that the U.S. Archivist's reliance on the executive order to delay release of the papers of former presidents is "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion and not in accordance with law."

National Security Archives alleged that the Bush order severely slowed or prevented the release of historic presidential papers.

The NSA has, since it's formation, obtained the release of hundreds of thousands of documents. Only a very select few, that have been requested by the NSA, have yet to be released.

Taken from the NSA webpage :

" Ten Oldest [outstanding requests] - The CIA responded approximately 38 business days after the request was made, reporting ten FOIA requests ranging from May 29, 1987 to November 22, 1989. Nine out of the ten were from media representatives including the National Security Archive, the Syracuse Post Standard, the Pennsylvania Intelligencer Journal, and American Broadcasting Corporation. The media requests concern topics such as Jonathan Pollard (the Israeli spy arrested in 1985), the Iran-Contra investigations, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 (in December 1988), James Howard Guerin, and the Cuban Missile Crisis."

Letter and requests made by NSA under the Freedom of Information Act to the CIA office 1989 - http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB102/CIA/CIA%2019891102.pdf