In 1988, then-Deputy Director of the CIA Robert Gates gave a talk at the National War College that left enough of an impression that a line or two ended up in the college’s end of the year “Book of Proverbs, Jokes, and Other Comments.” The Agency, never one to let a mention go unarchived, then preserved said book for posterity in CREST. Let’s just say there’s more than a few folks who’d probably prefer that didn’t happen.

A pair of declassified memos from January 4, 1975 reveal just how contentious things were in the lead-up to the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee, with recent exposés having rocked the American public’s faith in the government, already strained by the still-fresh memories of Watergate, and undermined CIA’s legitimacy.

When J. Edgar Hoover forced William “Bill” Sullivan, the Bureau’s domestic intelligence chief, into retirement he set into motion a chain reaction which nearly forced him into retirement as well.

In late December 1974, the New York Times published an article reporting a massive set of CIA operations conducted domestically and targeting American citizens. A memo marked CONFIDENTIAL in the Kissinger archives shows that Henry Kissinger and White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld were planning a public response to the article’s allegations almost immediately.

Leaks from the government and even Congress itself are nothing new. As shown by a declassified memo describing a meeting between Henry Kissinger and CIA Director William Colby, these concerns were among the very ones facing the White House, the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee in the mid-1970s. Topics included NSA spying on Americans, selectively leaking less damaging info, and how much blame could be shifted to the FBI.

A few years after the Nixon administration first re-opened communication with the People’s Republic of China, the CIA found itself having to field persistent requests from the Navy to enlist Kissinger’s help in substantiating rumors that the Soviets had deployed a laser weapon against the PRC.

The question: “What is a record?” needs to be asked and defined every time a new medium comes up, and policies need to be put in place to govern them, efficiently and transparently.

The Department of Education has rejected a FOIA request for departmental feedback on the FBI’s Countering Violent Extremism website, which recruits teachers to spy on “troubled” Muslim teens.

Ryan Shapiro’s surgical FOIA tactics sent the FBI scrambling to block his efforts. Shapiro’s deluge of wisdom and narrative sprinkles range from understanding the government’s stance on political dissent to his ongoing “street fight” with the FBI and why our democracy depends on the health of the Freedom of Information Act.

The FBI twice conducted background checks on Boston University president John Silber, both before his unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in 1990. While acquaintances emphasized Silber’s eloquence and headstrong nature, the file makes only brief mention of perennial battles with BU staff and student body or the federal bribery investigation around Boston mayor Kevin White.