CIA's "family jewels" declassified

Last week, CIA Director Michael Hayden announced that the agency would be releasing its "family jewels," a collection of particularly controversial files from the 1970's. Yesterday, the National Security Archive put the documents up on its website, along with some much-needed context, and even a "top-ten most interesting documents" list.

This seems like a smart move on Hayden's part - if we're ever going to win the war on terror, the intelligence agencies are going to have to convince my generation that their top priority is spying on the bad guys - not spying on our phone calls, emails, and MySpace pages. Admitting to the CIA's past mistakes is a step in the right direction (but of course, be careful what you say if you email back and forth with your friends about the documents).

"The CIA's Family Jewels" [National Security Archive]
PDF of Family Jewels report [National Security Archive]
"CIA Releases Files on Past Misdeeds" [Washington Post]