Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- SECRECY NEWS from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy September 21, 2001 Secrecy News is written by Steven Aftergood and published by the Federation of American Scientists. STATE DEPT MULLS "BOOK BURNING" The Department of State is under growing pressure from the Central Intelligence Agency to destroy its inventory of an official history of U.S. relations with Greece during the 1960s and to replace it with a new, sanitized version. Some 1500 copies of "Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), 1964-1968, volume XVI" on US policy towards Greece, Cyprus, Turkey have been printed. But they have been withheld from circulation because of last minute concerns raised by the CIA. The sticking point appears to be a handful of documents that allude to CIA intervention in the electoral process in Greece some 35 years ago. CIA officials claim that release of such documents could upset current relations with Greece or even provide a pretext for terrorism. Similar claims that delayed the release of another FRUS volume on Indonesia earlier this year proved unfounded. A CIA proposal to dispose of the existing inventory of the FRUS volume on Greece and to reprint the volume without the offending documents "has been bruited for weeks," according to one government historian familiar with the situation. "Every time the subject is raised in my presence, I mention those dread words 'cover up.' Or at least they should be dread words. It seems to me that the existence of the volumes is too well known. Destroying them would be a huge public relations disaster for the U.S. government," the historian said on September 20. "Book burning is definitely not a politically correct thing to do." "I don't know why the Agency is so over-the-top on this issue," the historian said. "Maybe they really do know more than they're telling us." Director of Central Intelligence George J. Tenet has gotten personally involved in the matter, attempting to enlist the help of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in blocking release of the official history. According to one source, Mr. Tenet contacted Mr. Armitage to discuss the matter as recently as the night of September 10, at a time when his attention might have been more profitably directed elsewhere. A State Department official would not confirm or deny that the September 10 conversation took place. The suppression of the FRUS volume was reported by the Washington Post on August 17. It was discussed in an August 12 article in the Greek press here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2001/08/gr081201.html ****************************** To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, send email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> with this command in the body of the message: subscribe secrecy_news [your email address] ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
