SOURCE: Robert Townsend at the AHA blog
2-20-08
comments powered by Disqus
2-20-08
AHA Objects to Destruction of Guantanamo Records
Historians in the News
In letters sent to federal authorities, the American Historical Association objected to recent disclosures that the Central Intelligence Agency destroyed records from interrogations of individuals suspected of terrorism, and requested action to prevent further loss.
The letters, signed by AHA Executive Director Arnita Jones with the unanimous support of the AHA Council, notes that these records were “historically significant and legally important, and their destruction impoverishes the historical record of U.S. involvement in the Middle East.”
Citing the Association’s long history of defending the preservation and treatment of federal records (extending back to the Association’s first proposal for a national archives building in 1906), the letter urges “the CIA to inform all its employees that records may not be alienated or destroyed except under the procedures of the Federal Records Act;” calls on “the National Archives and Records Administration [to] review the records schedules of the CIA to ensure that all records of investigations and interrogations are appropriately scheduled;” and “encourages the Department of Justice in its investigation and prosecution of this violation of the Federal Records Act.”
Letters were sent to Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States; Michael Mukasey, Attorney General; General Michael Hayden, CIA; Representative Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; and Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chair Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Read entire article at Robert Townsend at the AHA blog
The letters, signed by AHA Executive Director Arnita Jones with the unanimous support of the AHA Council, notes that these records were “historically significant and legally important, and their destruction impoverishes the historical record of U.S. involvement in the Middle East.”
Citing the Association’s long history of defending the preservation and treatment of federal records (extending back to the Association’s first proposal for a national archives building in 1906), the letter urges “the CIA to inform all its employees that records may not be alienated or destroyed except under the procedures of the Federal Records Act;” calls on “the National Archives and Records Administration [to] review the records schedules of the CIA to ensure that all records of investigations and interrogations are appropriately scheduled;” and “encourages the Department of Justice in its investigation and prosecution of this violation of the Federal Records Act.”
Letters were sent to Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States; Michael Mukasey, Attorney General; General Michael Hayden, CIA; Representative Henry A. Waxman, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform; and Senator Jay Rockefeller, Chair Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
comments powered by Disqus
News
- Emergency powers helped Hitler’s rise. Germany has avoided them ever since.
- Barack Obama Shares His Recommended Reading For Black History Month
- New Book Highlights Black farmers’ role in the struggle for civil rights
- The lengthy history of white politicians wearing blackface — and getting a pass
- The plot to assassinate George Washington — and how it was foiled
- History has a massive gender bias. We’ll settle for fixing Wikipedia.
- Historians fight back as TV raids their research treasures for its shows
- "The North Star" Launches with Keisha N. Blain as Editor-in-Chief
- New Interactive Tool Maps the American War on Terror
- Cynthia E. Orozco presents at Latino history Texas symposium