AFP reports; The CIA said Thursday it has decided to declassify most of a voluminous 1973 file known as "the family jewels," which details some of the agency's most notorious operations.
Assassination plots, human experimentation, illegal wiretaps and surveillance of journalists in the 1950s through the early 1970s are among the activities documented in the 693-page file, according to previously released documents about "the family jewels."
"Much of it has been in the press before, and most of it is unflattering, but it is CIAs history," CIA director Michael Hayden, who announced the decision in a speech to the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations.
"The documents provide a glimpse of a very different time and a very different Agency," he said.
Former CIA director James Schlesinger ordered the unearthing of the agency's skeletons in 1973.
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Its contents eventually were shared with congressional committees and a presidential commission following revelations in the New York Times of CIA breakins, illegal wiretaps and surreptitious inspections of mail beginning in the 1950s.
But except for a few heavily censored pages from the collection, the CIA has kept "the family jewels" classified despite numerous Freedom of Information Act request seeking their release.
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