NARA: National Declassification Center Issues Fifth Report

From a NARA Announcement:

The National Archives National Declassification Center (NDC) has issued its fifth biannual Report on Operations of the National Declassification Center, covering the period of January 1 through June 30, 2012. The report is online[www.archives.gov/declassification].
“The declassification review merry-go-round where records get on for a ride but are never able to get off is over,” said NDC Director Sheryl J. Shenberger. “The work of the NDC has streamlined the declassification process, implemented a proven quality assurance program, and developed a complete equity identification and reviewing curriculum. This has led to millions of pages that no longer contain sensitive information to move off that merry go round. No more records taking multiple rides on a single ticket!”
Report highlights include:

• The NDC has assessed 90% of the classified records backlog, with 55% cleared for final processing.
• The biggest challenge facing the NDC is records that were not properly reviewed for atomic energy information by the originating agency (known as the Kyl-Lott requirement). An interagency team including representatives from the Air Force, Army, Navy, Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of State, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Office of the Secretary of Defense has been working collaboratively to complete these reviews.
• The NDC has started review of special media records and has reviewed 1,341 motion pictures and 235 sound recordings.
• Through its Remote Archives Capture, the National Archives Office of Presidential Libraries prioritized 1,364,471 pages within certain collections of the administrations of Harry Truman through Jimmy Carter, as well as the China-associated materials within the Kissinger Personal Paper Collection, for completion of referral review.

The NDC has released a listing of 237 separate entries (XLS) that have completed declassification processing between May 23 and July 5, 2012 and are now available for researcher request. This release consists primarily of military records.
Highlights include:
Navy records relating to the underwater search for a missing thermonuclear bomb near Palomares Spain,
Department of State Post Files from Australia and France,
Office of the Secretary of Defense records relating to research into medical aspects of atomic warfare,
Office of the Secretary of Defense records relating to the Cuban Missile crisis,
Office of the Secretary of Defense, Advance Research Projects Agency records relating to “Project VELA”,
Army Assistant Chief of Staff records relating to civil disturbances in the 1960s,
Army Command Files for the 4th and 3rd Army, and
Air Force records from Wright-Patterson, Langley, Patrick, and Andrews Air Force Bases.

NARA-The National Declassification Center (NDC) 2012 Biannual Report

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