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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Ben Cromer
April 18, 1997 PHONE: 202-619-6144
News Release No. 035-97 FAX: 202-619-6988
E-MAIL: [log in to unmask]
NEW WEB SITE DISPLAYS RESULTS OF USIA'S EFFORT TO
DECLASSIFY THOUSANDS OF U.S. GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS
Washington, D.C. -- The United States Information Agency (USIA) has
unveiled a new Web site that provides the results of the Agency's effort
to declassify thousands of classified government documents, demonstrating
USIA's proactive approach to declassification. Ultimately, USIA will
review more than 21 million pages of documents.
The Web site is but one of a number of ways that USIA is complying
with Executive Order 12958 issued by President Clinton in April 1995.
The Order outlines procedures for safeguarding, classifying, and
declassifying national security information and is intended to reduce
the amount of classified information, reduce the period of time that
information is classified, and reduce barriers to declassifying information.
The Order also requires agencies to facilitate public electronic access to
declassified documents.
As a result of the Order, USIA established a Declassification Unit, part
of the Office of the General Counsel's office, in 1996 to carry out the
President's mandate. Since then, the Declassification Unit has declassified
approximately one-fifth of the Agency's documents that were held in
controlled storage because they contained classified national security
information. The deadline for review and declassification of nearly
all federal documents created before 1976 is April 2000.
All of USIA's declassified historical records shown on this Web site
are stored at the Washington National Records Center in Suitland, Md.
As additional documents are reviewed and declassified, new records will
be added to the site. The release of specific documents will be determined
by the Agency after it receives a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request. Requests should be addressed to the FOIA unit in USIA's Office
of the General Counsel at 301 4th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20547.
The Declassification Unit's Web address is
http://www.usia.gov/declassification
To access the address, Web users should highlight the word Declassification
on USIA's Home Page in order to bring up the Declassification Unit's pages.
These pages enable users to search for declassified records via a user-
friendly database. The search is guided by a keyword table of topics
accessed from the individual declassified documents. The pages also
offer brief descriptions of the Declassification Unit, its mission and
its operations and serve to alert the public to information no longer
classified and now available for release, a key goal of USIA's
declassification effort.
USIA's Web site includes the most up-to-date listing of USIA's declassified
records because the information comes directly from the Declassification
Unit's database. Agency declassifiers enter research information about
newly declassified materials in this database which is linked to USIA's
Web site. Moreover, information about newly-declassified USIA materials
will be posted on the Web site shortly after review by the Declassification
Unit.
The Web site provides descriptive and bibliographic data about declassified
documents promptly and at low cost to the Agency and to the American
taxpayer with minimal privacy or security concerns. Journalists, historians,
and the general public are encouraged to visit the USIA Web site to learn more
about USIA's Declassification Unit and discover how technology is helps create
a more transparent government.
The USIA Web site is a follow-on activity to a government-wide conference on
declassification of federal documents, hosted by USIA in December 1996, that
also included the CIA, the National Security Agency, the U.S. Air Force, and
the U.S. Navy.
[For more information about USIA's declassification project, contact Ben
Cromer by phone (202-619-6144), fax (202-619-6988), or E-mail
([log in to unmask])].
The United States Information Agency, headed by Dr. Joseph Duffey, is an
independent foreign affairs agency within the executive branch that
explains and supports U.S. foreign policy and national security interests
abroad through a wide range of information programs. The Agency promotes
mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through
a series of educational and cultural exchange activities.
USIA's programs include the Voice of America, Radio and TV Marti, the
WORLDNET satellite television system, the daily Washington File newswire,
the Fulbright scholarship program, the International Visitor Program, the
U.S. Speakers Abroad program, three Foreign Press Centers in the United
States, and a network of overseas resource and cultural centers. The Agency
has 190 posts in 141 countries.
The United States Information Agency has created both a domestic
USIA server and an overseas USIS server to meet legal restrictions which
prohibit the domestic dissemination of agency-produced materials intended for
foreign audiences. The USIA domestic server can be accessed through
http://www.usia.gov
or through most search engines on the Internet.
Overseas browsers might wish to consider this alternative address:
http://www.usia.gov/admin/004/dchp
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