Click here for the list
(plaintext format, 4.4 megs)

Left-click to open the file
Right-click to save the file to your hard drive

>>> Executive Order 13292, the Bush Administration instructions that control the handling and classification of secret government information, says most government information should be declassified after 25 years. But at least one agency has a collection of thousands of documents that still remain classified after 50 years or more.

As its Website notes: "The Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) is the central facility for the collection and dissemination of scientific and technical information for the Department of Defense (DoD). Much of this information is made available by DTIC in the form of technical reports about completed research, and research summaries of ongoing research."

The Defense Technical Information Center originated as the repository of a massive amount of material collected from occupied Germany, Japan, and Italy after World War II. The Armed Services Technical Information Agency (ASTIA) was transferred to the Defense Supply Agency in 1963 and became the Defense Documentation Center. The DDC was renamed the Defense Technical Information Center in 1979. DTIC handles much information which is classified or whose distribution is limited to government agencies and contractors.

DTIC does not deal with the general public other than making available portions of its Website for searching of unclassified and unlimited documents. Except for responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, or Mandatory Declassification Review requests, DTIC does not provide copies of documents to the general public.

The agency which provides unclassified and unlimited materials to the public is the National Technical Information Service. In theory, copies of DTIC reports that are declassified and delimited are transferred to NTIS for distribution to the public. While this does happen, it is surprisingly infrequent, considering the large number of reports in the DTIC system.

Thousands upon thousands of DTIC's older reports are still classified. I recently asked DTIC for a list of the titles of its oldest still-classified reports, those more than 50 years old. That list is posted at the link above. Most of the reports are from the early to mid-1950s, with some dating back as far back as the 1940s and 1930s.

These 4,574 reports are not the very oldest classified documents at DTIC; however, I think that these are the oldest that they are able to pull up with a relatively straightforward computer search. There are almost certainly older reports on, say, gas warfare or protection, that date back before the turn of the century and are still officially marked and designated as classified.

These other categories of older reports weren't searched in the process generating the 4,574 classified old reports and so weren't included. These antique classified reports at DTIC are in various hidey-holes. Here they are in case some interested news reporter wants to ask DTIC for those as well.

1) The so-called Legacy collection of reports designated with the prefixes "ATI" and "TIP." These reports are generally from the 1940s, but some legacy documents are much older. Many of these reports are captured enemy documents from German, Japan, and Italy and translations of these documents. Hundreds and perhaps several thousand of these ancient reports are marked as classified and are still considered classified national security information.

2) Reports with older "AD" report number designations, mostly dating from the late 1940s and the early 1950s--although there are some older items--which are only indexed in manual card indices and are not computerized. These were not searched for purposes of this list. There are a couple of thousand such reports that are marked as classified and are still considered classified national security information.

3) Old reports which have been re-catalogued since about 1988 and given numbers starting with "AD-C" designations. Although those reports are more than 50 years old and still classified, DTIC also did not search these documents, many of which are older reports from the categories above on subjects such as desert warfare and chemical weapons.

But with all the caveats above, these 4,574 reports represent many of the oldest still-classified reports and most of the classified reports that are over 50 years old.

Do you want to request a copy of any of the reports listed? There are two ways to request a copy, but you have to select only one of the ways--you can't do both.

You Can Use the Freedom of Information Act

The first is to send a letter to DTIC requesting a copy of the report under the Freedom of Information Act. The letter must include a description of the record being requested, your name and address, and what type of requester you are (a private individual, a company or commercial requester, a non-profit organization, a news organization or reporter, etc.) You
should include in your letter a statement that says you are willing to pay fees associated with the request up to $25 without additional permission. If they deny the request, you can send them an appeal letter explaining why you think the report should be released after all this time--they will tell you the correct address for the appeal.

But It Is Better to Use Mandatory Declassification Review

A better alternative is to send a letter to DTIC asking them to review the document for mandatory declassification review - MDR. You should write to them and indicate in your letter that you want a Mandatory Declassification Review of the specified document or documents under the provisions of Executive Order 13292, Section 3.5. You should include in your letter a statement that says you are willing to pay fees associated with the request up to $25 without additional permission. You need not indicate which type of requester you are for an MDR request.

If they deny the MDR request, you can appeal to the Defense Department at the address shown below. If they turn down your appeal, you can file an appeal with a top-level classification review office called ISCAP, which has declassified records in most of the appeals they have handled. You can also appeal directly to ISCAP if the DTIC doesn't respond within one year.

Address of DTIC (for FOIA Requests or MDR Requests)

Defense Technical Information Center
ATTN: FOIA Officer - Ms. Kelly Akers
8725 John J. Kingman Road, Suite 0944
Fort Belvoir VA 22060

Address of the Defense Department (for FOIA Appeals or MDR Appeals)

Department of Defense
Will Kammer
Directorate for Freedom of Information and Security Review
Room 2C757
1155 Defense Pentagon
Washington, D.C. 20301-1155
telephone number: (703) 697-1160
fax number: (703) 693-7341

Address of ISCAP (for Final MDR Appeals Only)

Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel
c/o Information Security Oversight Office
700 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Room 500
Washington, D.C. 20408
Telephone: (202) 219-5250
Fax: (202) 219-5385

Now, enjoy this list of ancient secrets....

text copyright 2003 Michael Ravnitzky

front page | newest additions | index + search
about | contact | donate