Wikileaks has received widespread attention for releasing classified U.S. government documents. But if you want to examine notes from White House meetings with foreign leaders, read email from a Cabinet secretary, or look at photos taken by U.S. surveillance satellites… you can, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, which grants access to declassified government records. Millions of those documents are available at the National Security Archive, a private research group in Washington.
维基揭秘由于公布美国政府机密文件而受到广泛关注。不过，如果你想查阅白宫官员与外国领导人的会议纪要，阅读内阁部长的电子邮件或者观看美国监视卫星拍摄的照片，你完全可以。这要归功于美国的信息自由法。这部法律允许公众查阅美国政府解密的文件档案。位于华盛顿的一个私营研究团体国家安全档案馆专门提供了数百万份这类档案。
Boxes filled with documents are stacked six shelves high in a storage room at the National Security Archive. These copies of government papers are only a small part of its collection, which also includes materials which can be viewed on the group’s website. The archive was started more than 25 years ago by a group of journalists and historians who used the Freedom of Information Act to get documents they needed for research. The act was passed by Congress in 1966 to make U.S. government agencies more accountable to the American public. However, some information is protected, including classified national defense or foreign policy materials, trade secrets and other confidential business information.
在国家安全档案馆的一个储藏室里，一箱箱装满文件的箱子被码放在六层架子上。这些政府文件的复印本只是档案馆馆藏的很小一部分。档案馆收藏的很多文件还可从网上查询。档案馆25年前由一群记者和历史学家创办。他们利用信息自由法来获取资料以供他们研究。信息自由法1966年由国会通过，目的是让美国政府机构能够更加对公众负责。但是，一些重要信息仍然不能对外公布，这包括机密国防和外交资料、商业机密和其它机密商业信息。
Today, the archive collects materials on a variety of topics, analyzes the information and publishes books about what they've found.
目前，国家安全档案馆收集各个种类的资料，对这些资料进行分析，然后出书介绍他们的发现。
Director Tom Blanton says a retired spy even wrote part of his memoir using information from the archive.
据档案馆馆长汤姆.布兰顿介绍，甚至一名退役间谍的回忆录中部分内容都是利用档案馆提供的资料写成的。
“So it’s an interesting hybrid of different functions, all meant to make the Freedom of Information Act idea come true in the toughest area, the most closed area of American government and that’s national security," said Blanton.
他说：“档案馆集很多功能于一身，目的是让信息自由法的作用在一些最困难、美国政府最封闭的领域中发挥出来。这就是国家安全。”
Blanton says even when material is declassified, it can be difficult to get intelligence agencies to release sensitive information.
布兰顿说，即使有些文件已经解密，情报机构也不愿意把某些敏感内容公之于众。
“Some of our requests we’ve have to pursue for 10, 15 years before we got the secrets released because the government fought back," he said.
“有的时候我们得奋斗10年、15年，才能让政府把一些机密信息公开，因为政府部门会采取行动不让这些信息公开。”
This includes documents about questionable activities by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
这些信息包括有关美国中央情报局一些有争议行动的文件。
“The CIA back in the 1970’s got exposed for having been involved in assassination plots and mind control experiments using drugs and all kinds of shady dealings that that were really against the law here in the United States," said Blanton.
布兰顿说：“中央情报局1970年代被披露曾经策划一些暗杀行动、使用药物进行精神控制实验，以及各种暗中交易，这些都是违反美国法律的。”
The archive has collected several million pages of government documents, including White House memos, Congressional records and court testimony. Topics include meetings between U.S. presidents and other world leaders, the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany in 1989, and alleged terrorists detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
档案馆收集了几百万页的政府文件，包括白宫备忘录、国会纪要和法庭证词、美国总统与外国领导人会谈记录、1989年德国柏林墙倒塌以及在古巴关塔那摩湾关押的恐怖分子的情况。
Blanton says some documents reveal surprising information.
布兰顿说，一些档案揭露了令人震惊的信息。
“The Iraq war plan was a series of power-point briefings that the president had signed off on where they just assumed that they’d be out of Iraq in a couple of years after the invasion. They just assumed they’d be down to 5,000 troops,"he said. "They had no intention of planning for an occupation or taking responsibility for the security.”
“伊拉克战争计划是一系列由PowerPoint制成的简报，总统在上面签了字。这些简报显示，决策者们以为在攻入伊拉克两年后就可以把军队撤出，只保留5000驻军。他们根本没有打算占领，或者负担起安全工作。”
Blanton says the archive’s collection of photos also tells a story. Especially popular are pictures of rock and roll legend Elvis Presley meeting with President Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970. Other photos from the early 1960’s show the U.S. preparing for a possible attack during the Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union.
布兰顿说，档案馆收集的照片也有自己的故事。最受欢迎的是尼克松总统1970年在白宫会见摇滚巨星“猫王”的一张照片。1960年代初期的一些照片显示美苏冷战期间美国为可能发动袭击做准备。
Blanton, a former journalist, thinks too much government material is classified.
布兰顿曾经是一名记者，他认为政府的机密文件太多了。
“We see our role as pushing back against that because we agree there are real secrets, the design of a nuclear warhead, a weapons system that would let a terrorist build such a weapon or use it against us, that should be a secret," he said. "But that’s a very small fraction of what gets stamped secret today.”
他说：“我们所扮演的角色是扭转这种情况。我们承认，确实有一些机密需要保护，比如核弹头的设计，因为恐怖分子会利用这些信息造出核武器或者用它来对付我们。这是真正的机密。但这种机密只占今天所有被认为是机密文件的很少一部分。”
Blanton says the National Security Archive intends to keep pushing the U.S. government to spill the secrets that don't really need to be kept.
布兰顿说，国家安全档案馆致力于推动美国政府把那些并不真正需要保密的秘密披露出来。 |