Background According to the July 30, 2013, article published in the Tico Times: “Costa Rican authorities on Saturday shipped nearly 24 tons of cocaine and heroin to the United States on a U.S. military plane for the drugs’ destruction. The Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) of Costa Rica made the announcement on Monday, having secretly shipped the illicit drugs to Miami, Florida, in a former U.S. Air Force cargo plane.” In 2013, The Black Vault filed a FOIA requests for records pertaining to this. It took about 6 years, but records were finally released by the U.S. Southern Command, after consultation with…
Author: John Greenewald
Background The Central Information Reference and Control On – Line (CIRCOL) System is a computer -based document reference retrieval system maintained by the Foreign Technology Division (FTD) in support of Scientific / Technical intelligence pro duction . CIRCOL System performance was analyzed by systematically studying the effects of twelve primary factors on search response time. Document Archive Optimization of Retrieval Techniques and File Structures for the CIRCOL (Central Information Reference and Control Online System), February 1974 [157 Pages, 45.5MB]
Background Bitcoin (₿) is a cryptocurrency invented in 2008 by an unknown person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto and started in 2009 when its implementation was released as open-source software. The Black Vault went after FBI files on Bitcoin, and in November of 2020, the FBI released what they had. The case is still open, so additional records may be added in the future. For now, what was released is below. Document Archive FBI File: Bitcoin [159 Pages, 7.3MB]
Background Richard Bissell Jr. was a Central Intelligence Agency officer responsible for major projects such as the U-2 spy plane and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. In 1965, he created a report that looked into the NSA’s effort to crack high grade cipher systems. This was his report. In February of 2019, The Black Vault requested a mandatory declassification review (MDR) of the document, which was previously released but heavily redacted. Although redactions still remain, many were lifted, and the report offers a more in-depth review of the NSA’s efforts. Document Archive The Bissell Report of 18 February 1965 [86…
Background https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddGruK11Mc The following case is thoroughly documented within the United States Government’s files. It was the first document I had ever received under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and will always remain special to me in that regard. But despite my personal connection, this case remains one of the most interesting cases you can find in official documents. The document, obtained under the FOIA from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) reads as follows (.pdf version): What was strange about this case, was the fact that the document was “UNCLASSIFIED.” However, that was not the case for a document…