CIA records vault offers a rare glimpse inside the CIA records vault

CIA records vault offers a rare glimpse inside the CIA records vault

Agency’s declassified archive contains a guided tour of the CIA area of the Washington National Records Center - with a few notable omissions

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Edited by Beryl Lipton

A series of photographs uncovered by Emma Best in the Central Intelligence Agency’s declassified archives offers a guided tour of the CIA area of the Washington National Records Center - with a few notable omissions.

With a sense of pacing not unlike a certain traditional horror story, the photos take us through a big, big door …

to a slightly bigger big, big door …

to a long, long hallway …

to another big, big door …

behind which was …

a dubiously-applied exemption! Boo!

While whatever happens to be stashed away in slides five and six was deemed too sensitive to share with the public, as a consolation prize the tour does include a stop by the Agency’s main aisle, so you can see how that stacks up.

Heh. Stacks. View the full photo tour embedded below.