SFGate: Secret CIA deal on documents

----------------------------------------------------------------------
This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/04/18/MNGR0IAOKI1.DTL
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, April 18, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Secret CIA deal on documents
New York Times

Washington -- The National Archives signed a secret agreement in 2001 with
the CIA permitting the spy agency to withdraw from public access records
it considered to have been improperly declassified, the head of the
archives disclosed Monday.
Allen Weinstein, who began work as archivist of the United States last
year, said he learned of the agreement with the CIA on Thursday and was
putting a stop to such secret reclassification arrangements, which he
described as incompatible with the mission of the archives. Like a similar
2002 agreement with the Air Force that was made public last week, the CIA
arrangement required that archives employees not reveal to researchers why
documents they requested were being withheld.
The disclosure of the secret agreements provides at least a partial
explanation for the removal since 1999 of more than 55,000 pages of
historical documents from access to researchers at the archives. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle