National security / public records Source-linked reporting
Primary records, recovered reporting, and verified updates on the institutions, policies, threats, and public files behind national-security decisions.
File 01Primary records
File 02Precise attribution
File 03Verified updates
The reporting file
Original publication dates are preserved. Reviewed stories identify meaningful updates and link readers to the records checked.
A quarter-century after the attacks, the post-9/11 system is stronger but still incomplete: its toughest unfinished work is accountability, resilience, and oversight.
Joaquin Phoenix stars in the hit movie "Joker," an origin story of the eponymous deranged killer from the Batman universe. But the group whose logo he wore at showings of the movie is no joke. It belongs to an…
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT ISSUED "IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT" DIRECTIVE TO PRINCIPALS WEEKS BEFORE INCIDENT- -FOCUSED ON RIGHTS OF UNDOCUMENTED TO EDUCATION, BUT INCLUDED NO MENTION OF POTENTIAL SECURITY ISSUES SOME 8% OF…
Records obtained by Need to Share News asked whether USCIS tracks naturalization applicants who reject the Constitution or admit terrorist ties.
[We are awaiting comment from PRNewsire; its owner Cision, Protester.io; and the FBI. We'll update if we get anything.] "Um...this came over PR Newswire...not sure this is legal?" Tweeted well-known conservative editor…
The U.S. government has now declassified files on years of ingenious secret experiments to use "coded pilot whale sounds" for covert communications between American Navy ships and submarines during the Cold War. Excited…
Magician David Copperfield famously made the Statue of Liberty "disappear" in plain sight on national television. Now the major national media are attempting a similarly audacious trick, this time involving some…
Reason for Research: Follow up on debate involving hate crimes and Islamophobia sparked by the Orlando terrorist attack. Obviously, even a single hate crime against anybody is one too many, but the numbers and trends…
An FBI interview report links a Clinton campaign letter to a $50,000 APAC-Vote donation. This review separates the account from proven fact.
Kissinger had to beg (and butter up) then-Sec. of State Clinton to get help in getting the government to review and release some of 560,000 decades-old documents from his time in government, including…
As Jihadists began to fill the gap left by the US-supported overthrow of dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi and his regime, a four-person team of State Department intelligence analysts was assigned to analyze a pet project of…
In the tangle of ethnic and religious bloodletting across Iraq and Syria, one group stands out for its fighting spirit and friendliness to America: the Kurds. Many in Congress have urged the Obama Administration to do…
FBI files describe Ronald Reagan confronting antisemitic remarks in 1943 and document his Screen Actors Guild role in Hollywood labor battles.
A recovered FOIA story examines the FBI's proof-of-death rules, its treatment of Wikipedia, and how to request records on a deceased person.
Along with a host of bureaucratic shortcomings, cybersecurity flaws and leadership screw-ups, the US Army investigation of 2010's massive WikiLeaks compromise of classified information identifies a major threat…
The folks at the Wilson Center have once again come up with a fascinating document from previously Top Secret Soviet files. This one highlights how Washington-Moscow tensions in Eastern Europe have been going on for…
The German submarine glided through the icy water past New York City, its captain noting the glowing skyscrapers of Manhattan and then Coney Island’s brilliantly-lit Ferris wheel. Soon his lookouts spotted a large oil…
An apologetic official from Veterans Affairs has been reaching out to citizens who sought records from the agency under the federal Freedom of Information Act, which requires the government to share many types of…
We like a spy story about a glamorous Nazi test pilot as much as the next guy, so we were excited when we saw what was inside a recent delivery of documents we'd asked the Air Force to declassify. But what jumped out…
"Mr. Yanukovych, in a news conference Friday in Rostov-on-Don,...added, 'People of Crimea don’t want to submit and they will not submit to Bandera thugs,' referring to the World War II era nationalist leader who was…
As protesters in Ukraine battle for the future of their country, they invoke the battle cry of a previous fight to free their country from Moscow's influence. "From the stage on the square, a speaker yelled 'Glory to…
"There are some reports that Russian authorities have ordered a media ban on reports of terrorist incidents during the Games:" claims a report from the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) made public today. [Even if…
The desk standard
Lead with evidence. Identify the file, agency, report, form, or archival record behind the story.
Mark the boundary. Separate what the record establishes from inference, allegation, and unresolved questions.
Keep the trail open. Link related reporting so one document becomes part of an understandable subject record.
