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WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Archives promised to avoid drawing ''unnecessary public attention'' to its efforts to remove declassified CIA documents from public view after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a once-secret agreement with the spy agency.
The agreement was made public Monday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by The Associated Press. It provided new details on the efforts of the nation's chief historical repository to hide the fact that U.S. intelligence was secretly trying to reclassify approximately 55,500 pages of previously public documents.
Documents released last week to AP showed the Archives had agreed to refuse to disclose that the Air Force, the CIA and another intelligence agency had made the original request to remove the documents. The CIA agreement released Monday was not included in the documents made public last week.
''It is in the interests of both the CIA and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to avoid the kind of public notice complaints that may arise from removing from the open shelves for extended periods of time records that had been publicly available.'' In addition, ''NARA will not attribute to CIA any part of the review or the withholding of documents from this exposed collection,'' the agreement said.
The agreement with the CIA was dated October 2001 and set the mold for a second similarly worded secret agreement with the Air Force just months later. The disclosure of the secret dealings between the archives and the spy agencies has prompted a public outcry, including from historians concerned that pieces of history were being secretly reclassified with no accountability.
Archivist Allen Weinstein said he didn't learn until last Thursday that a second classified agreement had been signed by the archives, and he requested its immediate release. ''There can never be a classified aspect to our mission,'' Weinstein said, promising that future agreements won't be kept secret.
Weinstein met Monday with several concerned groups to try to smooth relations. Attendees said the meeting was a good first step toward re-establishing the archives' credibility with the research community.
''The archivist spoke with chagrin, forthright with acknowledgment the secrecy of the activity was inappropriate. He didn't promise that records will not be removed, but if they are, NARA will provide public notice whenever it occurs and will also disclose how many records are affected,'' said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' government secrecy project.
Thomas Blanton, executive director for the private research group the National Security Archive, said Weinstein told the meeting he was surprised the CIA agreement didn't turn up until this week and wasn't released with the earlier documents.
''Archivist Weinstein was flabbergasted at the discovery of the second secret agreement. Weinstein had the right reaction, his direct response was to place a moratorium on the program and institute an audit,'' Blanton said.
Weinstein announced a moratorium on the reclassification last month and an audit report is expected next week from his information security oversight office.
Blanton said the CIA agreement gave fodder to both sides in the debate over whether public historical documents should be removed. The Archives might view an agreement as a way to bring order to document withdrawals requested by the CIA starting as early as 1999, while others might see the National Archives ''aiding and abetting a covert operation to white out history and mislead researchers.''
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