Five Websites that Publish Declassified Documents

WikiLeaks took the media world by storm when it published high-profile, illegally leaked information about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and then followed it up with a massive database of secret and confidential cables from American embassies around the world.

However, WikiLeaks is really nothing new -- other sites have been performing a similar public information task for years. Some of them even insist on doing it legally, for a change: publishing only information that has gone through the proper channels and been declassified, so that no one is put at risk. Here are some sites that regularly publish declassified American government information of current and historical importance.

5. Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News -- Steven Aftergood's long-lived Secrecy News site tracks freedom of information and especially intelligence agencies around the world, but with a special focus on the United States. Aftergood publishes legally acquired documents and is an advocate of reasonable freedom of information.

4. The Black Vault -- Despite the name, a legal site that publishes information obtained from the American government through Freedom of Information Act requests. This site specializes in military and intelligence history. It is one of the only sites where one can find the formerly highly classified Perry Report on the history of American spy satellites.

3. The Sixth Estate -- The Sixth Estate publishes longer commentary on the most important declassified documents. It covers some leaked documents from elsewhere but does not publish leaked documents. It is a Canadian site but covers both Canadian and American political secrecy, intelligence, and foreign policy.

2. Cryptome -- Long before WikiLeaks, there was Cryptome. John Young, who runs the website, is a little bit like an American version of Julian Assange: he says he will publish anything people send him. In the past, this means that Young has often crossed the line from posting properly declassified material into illegally leaked material and personal information about politicians. Many people feel this makes him an irresponsible source.

1. George Washington University's National Security Archive -- The National Security Archive is one of the oldest and most important archives of legally declassified documents in American foreign policy and intelligence. The "NSA" publishes electronic briefing books containing numerous documents on subjects of current interest. The National Security Archive is particularly accomplished in obtaining American Defense, State, and CIA files related to Latin America, such as those on the civil wars of the 1980s.