CIA Documents Reveal “Unflattering” History
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released two sets of previously classified historical documents detailing some of the most infamous activities by the agency involving overseas assassination plots, kidnapping, and domestic spying. The material is being released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request originally filed by the National Security Archive in 1992. The first collection, which some call the “Family Jewels” consists of almost 700 pages and was compiled in 1973 under Director of Central Intelligence James Schlesinger, who asked CIA employees to report activities they thought might be inconsistent with the Agency's charter. The second collection, the CAESAR-POLO-ESAU papers, consists of 147 documents and 11,000 pages of analysis from 1953 to 1973. The CAESAR and POLO papers studied Soviet and Chinese leadership hierarchies, respectively, and the ESAU papers were developed by analysts to inform CIA assessments on Sino-Soviet relations.
National Archives to Assume Control of Nixon Library
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced that the legal transfer of the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace from the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation to the National Archives will take place on July 11, 2007. Concurrently with the transfer, the new Nixon Library will open approximately 78,000 pages of previously withheld materials.
NEH Announces $26 Million in New Grants
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) awarded more than $26 million in grants and offers of matching funds for 159 diverse projects in the humanities. Included in these awards are funding for 26 applicants to host the We the People 2008 Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops. Among the workshops, 20 have been developed for K-12 teachers and an additional six have been designed for community college faculty. The NEH grants and matching offers come from six of the Endowment's major program areas—challenge grants, education programs, federal/state partnership, preservation and access, public programs, and digital humanities. Scholars and institutions in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories received support from the NEH.
Congress Passes Competitiveness Legislation: Baird Adds Social Science to NSF Priorities List
Culminating a two-year effort, on August 2 Congress cleared the America COMPETES Act. Combining many aspects of House and Senate legislation that traveled through both bodies in 2006 and 2007, the over 450 page bill includes provisions affecting the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Education (DOE). As a number of House members noted, this is only an authorization bill and many of the funding levels may not be provided by the appropriators. Nonetheless, House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) led this successful effort through many mine fields during its route to passage. In the conference deliberations on the COMPETES bill, Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA), chairman of the House Science Committee's Basic Research Subcommittee, convinced his colleagues to insert the “social sciences” into the Priority Treatment paragraph of the section of the legislation on “Meeting Critical National Science Needs.” This paragraph now lists all the sciences NSF supports as a priority. He also added the words “safety and security” to “competitiveness or innovation” as those critical subjects where this research priority applied. Baird did not believe the section following, which limited the impact of the “Priority Treatment” paragraph, was sufficient protection for the social sciences.
Sources
Sources for this column include the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History's NCC Washington Update, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Consortium of Social Science Associations' Washington Update.
