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Do UFOs fascinate you? Are you a history buff who wants to learn more about the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam or the A-12 Oxcart? Have stories about spies always fascinated you? You can find information about all of these topics and more in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room.

What is the Electronic Reading Room?

The FOIA Electronic Reading Room is provided as a public service by the CIA and its Office of Information Management. Here you can view previously released documents, released through the FOIA and other disclosure statutes. If you would like to view our previously released documents and collections, visit our Frequently Requested Records, our Special Collections, and our 25 Year Program Archive. You can search all the documents by using the search bar at the top of the page, or you can browse collections of documents on historically significant topics compiled by our office. Please note that not all documents reside in collections, so you may wish to perform a search as well as browse the collection you are interested in. Because of CIA's need to comply with U.S. national security laws, some documents - or parts of documents - cannot be released to the public. Specifically, the CIA has the responsibility to protect intelligence sources and methods from disclosure.

Additional Information

We also provide basic guidance to assist you in exercising your rights to request and view government records through the following disclosure statutes:

• The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
• The Privacy Act (PA), and
• Executive Order 13526 (EO).

This guidance is not intended to be a comprehensive treatment of the complex issues associated with these laws, but rather an overview of how they are carried out at CIA.
Learn more if you are interested in submitting a FOIA request or Privacy Act request.

What's New at FOIA?

Site last updated: July 28, 2011

Bay of Pigs Release

This CIA history of the Bay of Pigs operation in 1961, originally classified as top secret, is based on dozens of interviews with key operatives and officials and hundreds of CIA documents. The four volumes include information never before released and comprise ( Air Operations, March 196-1961; (II) Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy; (III) Evolution of CIA’s Anti-Castro Policies, 1951-January 1961; and (IV) The Taylor Committee Investigation of the Bay of Pigs.

Volume I - Air Operations, March 1960-April 1961

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

Volume II - Participation in the Conduct of Foreign Policy 92

• Part 1
• Part 2

Volume III - Evolution of CIA's Anti-Castro Policies, 1951-January 1961

Volume IV - The Taylor Committee Investigation of the Bay of Pigs

Top Searches!

(June 20, 2011)
The Frequently Requested Records section now shows January - March 2011 Top 25 Search Phrases and March 2011 Top 25 Documents viewed.

CIA Declassifies Oldest Documents in U.S. Government Collection

(April 19, 2011)

The Central Intelligence Agency today declassified the United States Government's six oldest classified documents, dating from 1917 and 1918. These documents, which describe secret writing techniques and are housed at the National Archives, are believed to be the only remaining classified documents from the World War I era. Documents describing secret writing fall under the CIA's purview to declassify.

"These documents remained classified for nearly a century until recent advancements in technology made it possible to release them," CIA Director Leon E. Panetta said. "When historical information is no longer sensitive, we take seriously our responsibility to share it with the American people."

One document outlines the chemicals and techniques necessary for developing certain types of secret writing ink and a method for opening sealed letters without detection. Another memorandum dated June 14, 1918 - written in French - reveals the formula used for German secret ink.

"The CIA recognizes the importance of opening these historical documents to the public," said Joseph Lambert, the Agency's Director of Information Management Services. "In fiscal year 2010 alone, the Agency declassified and released over 1.1 million pages of documents."

The documents will be available on CIA.gov and in the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST) at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. CREST currently houses over 10 million pages of declassified Agency documents. Since 1995, the Agency has released over 30 million pages as a result of Executive Orders, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Privacy Act, and mandatory declassification reviews.

Wartime Statutes - Instruments of Soviet Control

(March 23, 2011)

The collection, consisting of 22 documents, provides insight into how the Soviet Union codified its control over the armed forces of its Eastern European allies. The release of this collection coincides with a panel discussion at the Wilson Center.

The event will take place Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 1:00p.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Please visit the Wilson Center website to RSVP. The event is free.

FY 2010 CIA FOIA Annual Reports

(Updated March 10, 2011)
The final version of the Chief FOIA Officer Report has been uploaded in PDF format.

In February, the CIA FOIA Annual Report was also made available in PDF and in machine-readable XML formats.

The Office of Inspector General's (OIG) 2008 Report on the Peru Airbridge Denial Program

Baptism By Fire: CIA Analysis of the Korean War

(June 17, 2010)
This collection includes more than 1,300 documents consisting of national estimates, intelligence memo, daily updates, and summaries of foreign media concerning developments on the Korean Peninsula during 1947 - 1954. The release of this collection, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of the start of the war, makes available to the public the largest collection of Agency documents released on this issue. The release of these documents is in conjunction with the conference, "New Documents and New Histories: Twenty-First Century Perspectives on the Korean War," co-hosted by the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and the CIA in Independence, Missouri.

Strategic Warning and the Role of Intelligence: Lessons Learned From The 1968 Soviet Invasion of Czechoslovakia

(April 13, 2010)
The Czechoslovak crisis began in January 1968. The Czech communist leadership embarked on a program of dramatic liberalization of the political, economic, and social orders. These reforms triggered increasing Soviet concerns culminating in the invasion of 21 August 1968. This collection of documents pertains to these issues, the responses and analysis of this event in history.