Records released by the National Security Agency to The Black Vault in September 2025, and now being published online by The Black Vault, provide additional details about a 1992 Pentagon effort to examine Cold War reconnaissance losses and determine whether missing American personnel may have fallen into the hands of the Soviet Union, China or North Korea. The records include historical summaries of U.S. reconnaissance incidents and aircraft losses, along with a June 1992 memorandum concerning a Joint Staff effort to examine Cold War POW/MIA cases. Much of the history of the underlying reconnaissance incidents has been documented previously. The…
Author: John Greenewald
A newly obtained Central Intelligence Agency release provides a detailed look at the material prepared inside the U.S. government for the public rollout following the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including internal talking points, an extensive question-and-answer package, public-affairs guidance and records documenting the expedited declassification of intelligence imagery. The 35-page responsive record was provided by the CIA in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by The Black Vault with the agency in August 2013. In its July 6, 2026, final response, the CIA said it had located the document in its “database of…
The 1980 presidential campaign between Democratic President Jimmy Carter and Republican challenger Ronald Reagan became the subject of a political controversy after it was revealed that Reagan’s campaign had obtained confidential materials prepared for Carter ahead of their nationally televised debate on October 28, 1980. The materials included briefing and strategy documents intended to help Carter prepare for his encounter with Reagan, which took place one week before the election. The controversy did not become public until 1983, more than two years after Reagan took office. Congressional investigations examined how Carter campaign documents reached Reagan’s campaign and whether they were…
A new CIA release obtained by The Black Vault has restored significant portions of an August 2001 Inspector General review of the agency’s Counterterrorist Center, adding details that had remained classified when the report was publicly released more than 15 years ago. The document, titled Inspection Report of the DCI Counterterrorist Center, Directorate of Operations, was completed in August 2001. An earlier version was approved for release to the public on July 26, 2010. The Black Vault requested a new Mandatory Declassification Review of the report on January 8, 2019. In a July 6, 2026 final response, the CIA said…
A newly completed Freedom of Information Act release from the U.S. Navy provides hundreds of pages of detailed technical, cost and mission analysis from a late-1970s effort to determine what the next generation of naval vehicles might look like, which includes nuclear-powered aircraft designed to remain on station for days, 80-knot surface-effect ships, enormous lighter-than-air vehicles, wing-in-ground-effect craft and unconventional high-speed warships. The records concern the Advanced Naval Vehicles Concepts Evaluation, or ANVCE, Project, a Navy study begun in 1975 to help shape research and development for the 1980–2000 period. The project ultimately examined nine broad vehicle concepts through more…